The steeps I use are listed under Tips & Techniques on our www.ahrps.org website for Coin Cleaning. Just like last night I will end up with a few 'stubborn' coins that don't clean up as well as I would like. I usually hold off until the end of the year when I can easily sort them from the mass and give them one more special run.
Naturally, any one's coin cleaning success will be based upon the mixture they use, but also upon the conditions of the coins to begin with. If most of my coins were very dark and ugly due to being in the soil for years-to-decades, they will require more attention. If a good share come from quick work of more plentiful coin producing areas, such as wood-chip, shredded tire, or sand-filled playgrounds.
I was busy with seminars on Saturday and Sunday, then some appointments on Monday and Tuesday, so I didn't get to clean up this year's meager coin tally until last night. I had already sorted the coins into their class:
Pennies and Sacajawea & Presidential Dollars.
Nickels
Clad Dimes & Quarters and the only Half so far.
Just after the local news started at 10:00 PM I started washing the first batch and then got them 'treated' and into the tumbler. I progressed from the Nickels to the Dimes and Quarters, then finally the Pennies. I cleaned the 100 Nickels in a tumbler. I mixed the 210 Dimes and 172 Quarters and 1 Half to clean all clad, then split the mix up into two tumblers. While they were running I mixed the 815 Pennies and 8 Sacajawea & Presidential Dollars and got them washed and 'treated', then when the clad coins were all rinsed and spread out to dry on the towel, I started the Pennies and Dollars, splitting that mix into two tumbler barrels.
When they were finished I rinsed them well, then laid them out on the towel to dry after I put the cleaned coins in their storage bottles. Once the pennies were all tumbled, rinsed and out to dry, I rinsed all the used aquarium gravel, strained it, and had the cleaning gear finished. It was about 1:10 AM when I had all the mess in the kitchen cleaned up. Only 1306 coins so far, but we've had some miserable weather with a lot of cold early on, and we're way above average on rainfall for the year.
I don't bother sorting and rolling my coins in paper tubes. I don't sort them into plastic tubes, either. Instead, I sort and count them as I find them at the end of a day's outing. Once cleaned, I use plastic peanut butter jars to keep them at-the-ready. A big jar for the plentiful Pennies, and a jar for Nickels, a jar for Quarters, I put the few large Halves in the jar with the Dimes, and the few Dollar coins I keep in a small container. I usually do my first cleaning session about the end of April, then I make a cleaning run at the end of each month, if I have found enough (I usually do during the better late spring and summer months) and then I do one when hunting season sort of ends. That's about mid-December at which time I carry the jars of coins in a plastic soap bucket to the bank and get my Christmas Shopping Money cashed in.
So, last night I rang a total of 5 barrels to get things cleaned up. Start to clean-up took just about 3 hours. I use a Lortone 2-barrel tumbler that cost me about $74
