dirty coins?

mrguby

i noticed you guys clean up those coins pretty good whats the secret?

millennium

First off...let me tell you....DO NOT CLEAN ANY COIN THAT MIGHT POSSIBLY BE VALUABLE!!!!! Collectors would rather have it dirty...

Now, with that being said, on common everyday stuff...

I wash with warm water to start.

On nickels..I soak them in lemon juice or vinegar, and then wash them in baking soda....After that I either leave them alone if they are in horrible shape, or put a clear coat of olive oil on them and wipe clean.

On cents, I usually tumble in a rock tumbler loaded with pecan shells...it oftentimes returns the brown color and removes the dirt and crust...

On OLD silver (before 1900) I usually leave alone now.....In the past, I would clean it.....Don't do it!
On later common silver, I wash it with baking soda.

Do yourself a favor though...do not harshly clean old silver, old copper or old nickels....they are better left with just a water wash...

mrguby

thnx i saw a pic of someones dig befors and after.

crispy

I use olive oil on the coppers assuming they aren't too valuable, but nice enough to have looking better. Silver I usually leave alone unless it is horrid. Then I do that foil and hot water thingy with baking powder. I tumble all the current crud with pea gravel and dishsoap before depositing at the bank's coinstar.

pocketpiececommems

If it is just regular clad I sort the pennies from the nickels, dimes and quarters. I use a rock tumbler with sand and soap and water. I usually tumble for 3 or 4 hours. After tumbling I pour the misture through a strainer and then dry them on a rack that I made. I tumble the pennies seperate because they sometimes tend to discolor the the clad. If the pennies are really bad then I tumble them for another hour or so.

pizzaman55792

i tumble my modern clad similar to pocketpiece, leave the silver alone and use peroxide on copper.
I heat regular drug store hydrogen peroxide in the microwave in a plastic dish until it boils. after about a minute or so i place the coin in and let it sit until it stops fizzing. take a q tip and gentely remove the loose crust and repeat until desired result. do not put the penny in the microwave.

BentFork

What you're seeing displayed is probably the garden variety finds like silver coinage or older copper. If they're really valuable, most of us don't attempt to clean them. I wouldn't dare attempt to clean a 21-D or 38-D Walker if I were to find one. Nor for that matter a 16-D Merc that was tarnished or rust stained. Your garden variety silvers and coppers can be cleaned in many different ways. For example, soap and water, olive oil soak, silver tarnish remover without scrubbing. Riccar uses clear water soaks for his silvers. I use silver tarnish remover, don't scrub, and rinse in RO water. LM likes to use a little petroleum jelly and a brass brush on copper and bronze.

Clad coinage as well as post-1958 Lincolns I clean with dishwashing powder and an old spaghetti sauce jar. One half ounce or so of dishwashing powder with a mostly full jar of coins and enough HOT water up to the neck. Screw on the lid, shake it for a couple of minutes, and then forget about it for a day. It doesn't foam, but does get the grime off good. Drain, rinse, and throw in the sand scoop to dry. Dump in the Coinstar and get my Amazon credit. Thank you very much. No fee charged for Amazon credit - the Coinstar is stupid and could care less if it isn't pretty. No electricity wasted, no haz mat, no salt, no vinegar, no pink coins, and no playing with high joltage - I mean voltage. No rolling, no bank, no problems.

G-daddy