How can I get them clean?

[BGB]

I found over 400 coins at a old property in a ghost town here in colorado but they are covered in some sort of black muck . How can I get them clean?

 

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[DrGrip]

Well what exactly is black muck? Is it hard, sticky, crusty, or what?

You can tumble the coins, or electrolysis, or soaking, or........

Lots of ways to go and not all methods work on all coin types. Can you give a few specifics and post a pic or 2 of the coins in question?

Grip

 

[BGB]

I dont know exactly what the black muck is. Its some kind of hard rubbery type material. I will post pics when I get the coins clean. Thats why I asked how I can clean them.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Grip has a good question, about - what kind of muck, what kind of coins, etc... The way to clean coins depends on the type (silver, copper, gold, clad, etc....) and the type of crud on them.

For clad, just tumble them in a gravel tumlber thingy, where you can do 100+ at a time For silver, I like a product called "Ezest". For copper, try amonia, etc... It all depends on how careful/timid or aggressive you wanna be.

What kind of coins did you find, and their age ranges? And just out of curiousity, were all 400 found in one place (like ... a cache or something), or just randomly around this town? Do tell the story

 

[Shortstack]

You say the material is hard and rubbery. Could that be some asphalt compound? A quick test would be to soak a few coins in some acetone. You can buy a small can of acetone at most any hardware store, in the paint section. It's a type of paint remover. If the material covering the coins is asphalt based, the acetone will dissolve it without damaging the coins. Do not clean copper and silver items in the same bath and / or tumbler at the same time. You'll end up with coppery colored silver coins. Use the acetone outdoors as it is very flamable.
If you don't want to invest in a can of acetone to do this test, borrow some nailpolish remover from your wife / daughter / girlfriend / sister , etc. Fingernail polish remover is almost pure acetone.