Ultra Sonic coin cleaning

[DE-Digger]

I have read in the forums several formulas for coin cleaning, from soaking in any number of solutions from motor oil, WD40, olive oil to any number of other lite oil based products. Have also read about sending coins to some dealers for a "professional" cleaning to also not cleaning them at all.
I did several searches in the forums to see if anyone was using an Ultra Sonic cleaner to de-crud their coins and didn't find any reference to one anywhere in the forums. Any feedback on the use of an Ultra Sonic cleaner to clean coins. Pro's and Con's??????

Thanks

 

[GKMan]

for a while they were a hot item to use to clean coins. Nowadays people are tumbling their clad and using hydrogen peroxide baths or olive oil. I have also had some really good luck using electrolysis for some coins that are terribly terribly crudded up.

as always go with the least destructive method first if you think you have a coin worth something.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Sonic cleaning will work but you need a commercial high powered one to do much good. The jewelry cleaners sold in the department stores just don't cut it. Coin cleaning can vary from none to tumbling and even wire brushes depending on the value of the coin and what you want.

 

[GKMan]

I forgot about mentioning the wire brush Larry. I always chicken out before brushing the coin. I just see most of the coins that I find turning into nothing if I scrape them with that I am talking copper coins like large cents that is

 

[chuckciao]

I have not used a wire brush but I did use a very fine grade of steel wool on a V Nickel. Prior to using the steel wool, I soaked the nickel in pure lemon juice for two days. Afterwards, I rubbed the coin with the steel wool and after two or three rubbings, the nickel gleamed like new. I probably would not try this on a Key date coin. Have since done this on Buffalos and a shield nickel. Not sure if it works on coins other than nickels.
HH
Chuck

 

[Altamaha]

I have been using an ultra sonic cleaner to clean coins for years. I've found that they work great for lifting dirt & grim from silver coins, but I would not use them on old dug copper coins (clad ok). As often times old copper coins are fragile/corroded & often they will have patina on them. It has been my experience that ultra sonic cleaning will ruin the detail/patina on these kinds of coins. I use a commercial grade Branson cleaner and I also use their Branson ultra sonic cleaning concentrate. You can also use warm water with a couple drops of dish washing liquid for silver coins. When using either solution with silver don't allow them to stay in the cleaner too long, about thirty seconds should be good for lifting embedded dirt/grim. If you allow the coins to stay in the cleaner too long you risk what is known as ultra sonic burn so watch them carefully and put them in the cleaner in 15 second increments if they are not cleaned satisfactorily after the first 30 seconds. I would also try cleaning some coins that are not considered collectible/valuable to get a feel for cleaning before actually cleaning any potentially valuable coin. HH

 

[Nes (south Coast-CA)]

Funny, but I just started separating the copper coins from the silver clad stuff the other day, and didn't want to buy the usual powder from the well known wholesaler for tumblers. I have some left over, but not enough.Wanted to get an idea of what you people use for cleaning beach coins. Luckily I have a number of tumblers, one that is about a gallon size and enough gravel, but what powdered chemicals do you guys use.Would appreciate some suggettions... nes

 

[Larry (IL)]

I don't use powdered chemicals. Sand and or gravel and a couple drops of dish detergent gets the job done for me. When cleaning the copper and zincs, I add white vinegar instead of water and the cents are done in 30 minutes or less. Silver colored coins takes about 12 hours in my little tumbler. I might try some vinegar in the nickels, dimes and quarter batchs this year to see if that cuts the time down.

[attachment 279505 clad.jpg]

 

[Rick(ND)]

The new coins like the clads and memorial pennies I separate the clad from the copper, then put the copper in my rotary tumbler with some aquarium gravel, water and a shot of real lemon juice and tumble for a hour or so, then rinse and let dry and they look great. Now the clad I do the same, but have to run longer, maybe 4-5 hours and check them and take out the real nice ones and add fresh water and lemon juice and tumble again for 4 or 5 hours. Now there is always a few that are so bad I tumble for a half hour with water,gravel and a little muratic acid, not too much then rinse and back in the lemon juice for a half hour just to get the acid off. Some of the clad will look better than new when done and some with have a slight pink tone to them.
Now for the Wheaties I use a vibrating tumbler with the gravel and shot of a all purpose cleaner and turn it on and add water a little at a time until I notice a nice rotating action and run for a good day, rinse and dry then I put them back in with crushed walnuts shells and run dry this time for a day. Then I will take them out and put just water in the tumbler and run for a half hour to wash off the dust from the walnuts shells. If they were not real bad before most will come out with the natural look to them.

Rick

 

[INSAYN]

I sort my coins into like groups (nickels, pennies, clad dimes/quarters) and do a batch at a time.
Never mixing the three groups with each other in the cleaning process, as things can turn pink on ya.

First they go into a cheap dollar tree container that has a screw on cap half full of dollar tree toilet bowl cleaner.
Just swish and shake for about 15-20 minutes. Then drain off the liquid and save it for the next batch. Can be used indefinetely and with all three groups of coins.

Then, rinse the batch really really well under warm water.
After that, into each barrel of the two roller tumbler I picked up from Harbor Freight.
Add maybe 1 cup of coins, and 1/2 cup of Walmart white aquarium gravel, and a squirt of straight Simple Green or dish soap.

Roll them babies for 30 mins to 1 hour.

Take them off the roller and rinse them off into a screen basket from the dollar tree , catching the gravel below in another container from the dollar tree.

I sort through the batch and pull out the ones that may need another round, and send the others to the drying towel.
The ones I pulled that looked like they needed another round, get mixed back in with the next batch.

The dimes/quarters are nice and clean and look like any other clad change you would get as change from a store.
The nickles are REALLY REALLY clean, but have a slight dull look to them. I may run them back through the tumbler with some fine grit polishing dust and walnut shells, or eraser chunks.
The pennies come out pretty clean just from the toilet bowl cleaner, but the tumble even makes the highly pitted Zincs look like amazing copper Swiss cheese.

The whole process for a batch is about 1.5 hours tops.

I got this recipe from Monte, known well from the Whites crowd.

 

[Larry (IL)]

What really helps the dull look is a misting of WD-40 on all of the coins when they get dried and still on the towel. I noticed there were far fewer coin jams as well when I take them to the bank to be run through the counter.

 

[Roland58]

For your pennies in the tumbler with the aquarium gravel, add a couple of drops of dish detergent and a couple of squirts of Brasso.....even the zincolns will look like new! For the silver colored coins, I do about the same thing but substitute silver polish for the Brasso.......works good.


If you have some really funky pennies, add about a teaspoon of ammonia to the mix. (Brasso has ammonia in it already, this just gives it a little kick)

 

[INSAYN]

I think the corroded swiss cheesed Zincolns look interesting all shined up and full of holes, and erroded edges.