Cleaning nickels

[montanagold]

I got this idea from my friend Gary for cleaning nickels, He had found a buffalo that he had soaked in vinegar for several weeks changing out the solution once a week and flipping the coin. Well I had 4 V nickels that I had thrown in the tumbler and it got some of the crud off but as you can see by the first picture they were still pink and caked with some sort of hard crust. So I tried it with one a 1912 and after a couple of weeks it worked great as seen in the second picture, The only problem was that it didn't have that old coin shine so I broke out the dremal with the polishing wheel and compound and gave it a buff, as you can see by the last pictures front and back it worked great. I wouldn't suggest it with a valuable coin but like I have said before I like to see my coins. Hope this helps some of you, I know nickels can be a pain to clean.

 

[nw1886]

Someone had great luck with Lime A Way.

 

[dave5710]

You did a great job on that 1912.

I'm guessing you used white vinegar, not red?

Thanks for the info.

Dave

 

[montanagold]

Yes white.

 

[marcomo]

Yeah, I really like what the white vinegar did with that Liberty Head. Thanks for sharing the photos.

Many won't agree, but I like it best right after the vinegar, before the whizzing.

 

[dmckee17]

I tried bead blasting a couple of nasty dateless buffalo nickels, it did comparable to the cleaned, prewhizzed coin of yours. A definite improvement in my opinion as it brings out the detail.