HOW TO:

Painter65 · Jan 27, 2009

What is the best/recommended method of cleaning the sand off all the coins I retrieve from the beach? Some of this stuff is really caked on their pretty good. Without taking a grinder to the coin I would like to hear your methods for cleaning them up a bit?

cheers :coffee2:

marcusaurelium · Jan 27, 2009

Hi, if your coins are just common clad and cents, a simple way to remove the gunk is by good old salt and vinegar! Take a flat plate and pour vinegar and sprinkle some salt heavily into the vinegar . Lay the coins on top of the salt and vinegar mix. Add more salt on top of the coins, soak for a couple of hours, rub with baking soda to neutralize. The clad will come out very clean but dull. To shine run them through a coin tumbler after that with some simple green and some very fine or coarse sand and they should clean up real fine. You might find tumbling the coins in simple green(cleaner sold in hardwares) in a roto tumbler with no sand or grit just the coins themselves working against themselves shines them up nicely. Heavily corroded silver coins may be carefully Electro-cleaned , a very effective method. But that takes time, so if theyre just common silver they may not be worth all the effort. Again rubbing with baking soda after cleaning will bring some life back to a lot of coins. Now heres one you never want to do unless you know the coins worthless. Coin collectors don't read this as youll all want to say what a bad , bad idea this is. Take some 600 grit fine emery cloth and some wd 40. Lightly sand the coinlubricating heavily with wd 40 or light oil.This will to remove the heavy corrosion.Goeasy a little at a time and wipe your coin with a cloth as you sand it down to metal. Believe it or not I have done this on some heavily corroded spanish silver and have come out with impressive results! I have made very saleable specimens from beach coins you would toss out as junk! Experiment on some junk silver coins before doing anything at all with your nice beach silver. Once you get the knack you will be enjoying a nice looking display of silver. Another method is a rock tumbler with ammonia and coarse sand works well. Good Luck!

rgecy · Jan 27, 2009

A Hammer comes to mind! :violent1:

LOL!

The vinegar always seems to work well, just dont let it sit too long and forget they are in there! :tongue3:

marcusaurelium · Jan 27, 2009

Is that to knock off the encrustations off the 100's of years on the coins and relics !

? Hey, now, don't knock it till you try it...or at least try it before taking a hammer to it, that could ruin a good coin ya know!

Maui Mike · Jan 28, 2009

Re: HOW TO:Clean Clad Fast.!

In a hurry? No old coins in pile right? you checked? O.K. just clad.. well this is a quick fix for just clad coin fast clean up.

Use a gator aid plastic jar, or big water jar. 1/2 gallon biggest. Put coins into jar.. add ammonia , 1/2 cup to full cup. Toss mixture back and :thumbsup:

forth for about 20- mins to half an hour.
Is noisy, butt most coins come clean. Rinse very well.Be careful , lose no coins in sink...lol.. Hope this helps. M :thumbsup:

rgecy · Jan 28, 2009

Re: HOW TO:Clean Clad Fast.!

Maui Mike said:
.......Toss mixture back and forth for about 20- mins to half an hour.
Is noisy, butt most coins come clean. Rinse very well.Be careful , lose no coins in sink...lol.. Hope this helps. M

Sh!t, I think I would be tired after the first 5 minutes! :notworthy:

FloridaBill · Jan 28, 2009

very simple tumbler from harbor freight sit and have your coffee and three hours later clean coins.

Painter65 · Jan 28, 2009

I think Im gonna go with FloridaBills Recommendation! I kinda like that Idea, and no, no old coins all newer ones. :thumbsup:

47thelement · Jan 29, 2009

I beginning to become a frequent shopper at harbor freight. tumbler, pinpointer, drop cloth, diggers, screw drivers, knee pads, tool belts. I thought this was Metal detecting forum :icon_scratch:

JP · Jan 29, 2009

Definitely the easiest way is how Floridabill recommended. I bought the double tumbler with a coupon for harbor freights for around $15 while they were on sale.

I put some dish soap and gravel in with the coins. Someone before warned about separating the nickels out. After a couple hours everything looks almost new.

Good luck.