What do you do with your clad coins?

Göttinger

There are many reasons to start with the hobby of metal detecting. For many it's their interest in (local) history, historic coins, or just the fun of exploring the outdoors.
But we all have in common, that we often find spendable coins. If you are living near a popular park, fair ground or beach this might even be your main motivation to detect.

But what do you do with this money? Do you collect and hold on to it as modern finds, spent it for your daily groceries or save it for a specific purchase like new detecting equipment or a nice coin that you might never find with your detector or could not afford otherwise?

I actually save all the change I find and also try to maximize the sum by hunting local parks and playgrounds every now and then. The goal is to find enough money to buy some coins wich otherwise would be too expensive for me. In the past 3 years I bought a

• British George V 1913 gold Sovereign
• Prussia (German) Wilhelm II 1905 gold 10 Mark
• Vatican Urbanus VIII 1643 silver Piastra
• Danish Christian X 1915 gold 20 Kroner
  just from the lost change plus the small amount money from scrapping broken silver jewellery and the reward some people voluntarily gave me for recovering their lost items.
  This year's goal is a French Louis XVIII gold 20 Francs coin. It's going to be a long way though, this year I only found 21€ so far.

I'm looking forward to hear your stories, experinces and opinions about this topic.

Best regards,
Göttinger

Bayard1908

I don't pay much attention to the modern coins that I dig. Once or twice a year I clean them with a large Lortone tumbler that is half full of aquarium gravel. If they don't get cleaned like this, I have found that they will jam a coin counting machine even if the coins have been rinsed.

I leave the coins in the tumbler for 2 or 3 hours, then I take the tumbler barrel outside. I dump contents of the tumbler barrel onto a three foot square piece of wire mesh, the same thing as window screens are made of. I blast this with a hose for a couple of minutes until all the dirty water is rinsed off the coins. I then take the screen full of gravel and coins into the house and let it dry on an old newspaper. A few days later, when everything is dry, I use a cheap plastic beach scoop to separate the coins from the gravel.

I don't keep track of dollar amounts nor do I use the modern coins for buying anything special. What I don't spend in parking meters gets rolled up and taken to the bank. When the bank branch next to my office was closing down recently, they gave me a lifetime supply of coin rollers.

CharlotteDude

I usually rinse/clean everything the evening following every hunt, letting it dry overnight. For the clad/copper, I keep it in in individual bags, per denomination, and every couple of months, I run the clad through a rock tumbler with water, aquarium gravel and dishwasher gel for 3-4 hours (much like @Bayard1908 abv). Once finished, I then take it outside and dump it out into a plastic colander and further rinse with water. Let dry, and then bag it and take it to my bank’s coin counter to cash it all in. I average anywhere from $60-$80 every two months in clad alone.
For silver or other significant finds, everything is in an individual holder or pouch, with the date and location recovered noted on it.

CRHer700

I keep track of the dollar amount, then use the coins as fillers in rolls of coins.

Post No. 518

Dockwalliper

Clean coin, recent drops, get set aside, rolled and deposited in my savings account. Dug, dirty coins get tumbled and taken to the CoinStar and cashed in for gift certificates. Usually Lowe’s or Home Depot.

JohnThePainter

I bought all the Whitman blue books and have been filling them with found coins. The rest of them go into a five gallon bucket that I’ll deal with someday.