coin cleaning

[tonyweston]

Hi everyone and happy new year ,
I want to ask fellow hunters how do they clean their coins ?, i own 2 Excalibur's ( 1 blue , 1 yellow head phoned ) and an SE for the dry sand , I detect mostly in Spain so many of the coins that I find are very green or black !! even more so when i hit a hot spot where the sand has stripped away overnight.
I have tried cola, vinegar ,brown sauce, domestic acid cleaners ( like cylit bang, but that turns them RED or PINK ) but nothing seems to clean the really dirty coins ??
I have tried the local Spanish shops and banks but they refuse my coins if they are dirty , so I have resorted to bringing them home to England after each trip.
By using a bench grinder with a wire wheel fixed on 1 side , I use needle nosed vice grip pliers to hold the coins whilst I buff up them on the machine !!
This is time consuming and beware HOT coins !! I must admit I give up on some of the coins when they are to far gone due to erosion !!
So come on guys there must be an easier way than this EDUCATE ME PLEASE !!
Black-sander is a bad lad !! he feeds his to the vending machines... !!!!!! ALLEGEDLY !!!!!! I must confess though that the Telephonica company has got a contract out on ME !!!!
I'm like Johnny Cash " I DID IT 10 CENTS AT A TIME " just to " PHONE HOME " as E.T. said !!

happy new year hunters
cheers Tony Weston

 

[thinkin2]

tony, check out this link. I've been using a tumbler for years and it's the easiest way to clean a lot of coins. Just make sure you don't do any of this to what you suspect to be a potentially valuable coin. Best of luck.
Jerry

http://gometaldetecting.com/cleaning-finds.html

 

[Martin(Qc)]

I use an old rock tumbler. If you dont have aa tumbler, you can pick up a large plastic jar with a good waterthinght cover. You 2/5 coins in there, 1/5 sand or gravel and 1/5 or water...leaving 1/5 of air. Add a little clr and slowly shake the barel while watching TV. Dont mix bronze or copper coins with white coins because copper coins thend to color the other coins. Shake your barrel for an hour or two and see the results !
Of course, with a tumbler, the machine makes all the job... Usually coins comes up pretty nice ! You got to experiment a little and ajuste recepy ! Good luck and Happy New year !

 

[nugget]

Hi there, I used to clean all my coins by hand, but after the first thousand the novelty soon wore off! I now use a cheap and simple way. First sort your coins into their different denominations, use a plastic container for each. Then cover them with white vinegar and add a teaspoon of salt to the mix. It does'nt take long for some to clean up, others take a little longer. Keep an eye on them and remove the clean ones asap. Wash them thoroughly in warm water and detergent, dry them on a tea towel or similar. Don't put any coins in that may be valuable! Make sure you only put the same denomination in each mixture, I have been using this method for 3yrs now and it's the cheapest method I know of, 95% of the coins won't need any additional cleaning, however you may get some stubborn ones that might need a scrub with a scourer or similar. Just try a couple of coins from each denomination first so you can be confident of not damaging your coins. Hope this helps, HH regards Nugget.

 

[deerman]

I'm with martin on this one and if you throw in a little dish soap with the gravel in the tumbler thay look like new

 

[Skully]

Don't do this on old coins and silver!!!!

Try Lime Away and water 50 - 50 ..shake often ...Soak for a couple of days...

Rinse and then soak in vinegar....removes the green residue

Don't mix the coins

Never seen any one use this method..

Works great for me