I have found lots of coins in washers but my bank wont take them unless there clean. What is the best way to clean them
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I have found lots of coins in washers but my bank wont take them unless there clean. What is the best way to clean them
I use a vibrating cleaner filled with crushed walnut shells. Makes the coins look brand new!
If you have a few special ones you want to clean, just get an old toothbrush and some toothpaste and scrub away the grime.
If they're just old and tarnished I always drop em in some Tabasco Sauce about 10 min. Take em out, rub em off and they look brand new.
If they're worth anything over face value, like what a coin collector would buy, DON'T clean them.
Ditchdigger is correct on anything older. Unless it is just a newish coin to turn them in to a bank, never clean a coin. There are many coins in which a $100 value can be dropped to $10 just from cleaning.
On a side note, if anybody needs any advice on old coins, I am a ANA and CONECA member and have connections with many of the top experts in the US.
Many metal detectorists have the same issues as a lot of the coins that come out of the ground are pretty nasty. Some will use rock polisher tumblers. I've heard of some people putting the coins in a mesh bag and running them through a dish or clothes washer. I think people have had success putting them through coinstar type machines.
Thanks for the help. I put them in a rock tumbler for a while and it worked great. I clean them so my bank can take them
I just shove them in my pocket and spend them throughout the day. I had a bag of over $100 face that I had dug from metal detecting. I ended up mixing them in with my rolled coin that I take to the bank on occassion. I have a jug I toss change in and roll it up when I need some extra cash. I woud mic 5 or 6 bucks in with the 50 or 60 that I had to roll.
In Florida there are no coin rolling machines at banks. When I lived in Illinois, every bank had one.
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Originally Posted by freonjoe
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Originally Posted by Mechanic688
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Originally Posted by skylinejackjr
Definitely never heard of ANY of these methods...all sound kind of interesting. Will have to try them out sometime.Quote:
Originally Posted by parrothead
Right now, I just have a bunch of pennies, but to me, definitely is not worth it. I just spend them, or throw them away. I just save and collect all the silver change.
Waiting to get one of those big water jugs that you see in office buildings. Mixed change, it can hold about $2,000 but a friend of mine, uses it just for quarters, and he said it is full, so I imagine he has like $4 to $5,000+
I used that on some old walking liberty's I sold on ebay, man they ate them up.Quote:
If you have a few special ones you want to clean, just get an old toothbrush and some toothpaste and scrub away the grime.
Just to give you an idea of the clarity;
http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/...8/MVC-001F.jpg
http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/...88/MVC-016.jpg
I'm guessing, you meant that the toothpaste ate away all the grime.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic688
BTW, What kind of toothpaste is the best to use?
Didn't really notice a difference with a whitening toothpaste, lol seemed like any old kind would work. Works really well for tarnished coins. I've heard before about the Tabasco and some other kind of sauce. That seems to work well also,,,
What I mean is the customers really started bidding like crazy every time I'd throw a coin on there to sell,sometimes the bidding would just go nuts.Quote:
I used that on some old walking liberty's I sold on ebay, man they ate them up.
As was stated earlier, the absolute worst thing you can do to an old coin with numismatic (coin collecting) worth over face value is to take a cleaner such as toothpaste to it. To an educated buyer this removes as much as 80 or 90% of the value from the coin-- often all the way down to just the precious metal content. Most educated coin collectors want to have little or nothing to do with cleaned coins and to those who buy the coin thinking it wasn't cleaned when it fact it was it is bad for the hobby and deceitful to the buyer who thinks they are purchasing something more valuable than it actually is.
Even though it looks like it has more 'clarity' you are actually removing a layer of metal to make it more shiny and this is effectively defacing the coin and making it much less valuable. The tarnishing or toning of a coin can actually make it much MORE desireable to collectors in many cases.
I found a 1978 silver dollar on a ditch bank a few years ago. Almost missed it because it was so tarnished it looked like a rock. I kept walking. Made it a few steps before going..nah, that rock was way too round. Dug it out and was quite surprised by the year.
It's my birth year.
Left it as is.
Now I'm bummed because I don't have a clue where I put it.
Hope it's not a sign of aging :D If it's anywhere around the house I'm sure you'll come across it.Quote:
Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper
I have had luck puting sand 1/3 full in a glass jar and add coins then water till it is almost full,tighten lid and shake. Then pull out coins and save sand and jar for the next run.
I ended up buying some coins from a person a few weeks ago. She ended up cleaning a valuable coin. It ended up costing her $300.
With old silver there are 2 types of sellers (collectors, investors). By cleaning a coin you lose the collectors and just have the silver people. In the last year silver people have outbid the collector's but now with silver dropping the collector's are gaining ground again.
Using the 2 pics above here is what I come up with...
1942 Walking Liberty Half Dollar - Cleaned= Silver Value = $11.45 | uncleaned = $15
1923 Peace Dollar - Cleaned = Silver Value = $24.50 | uncleaned = $35
I know many of you probably don't care but being a coin person I have to say PLEASE never clean an old coin.
Dont loose any sleep over it. Its not really worth more then a dollar. No silver content in that year to make it worth more.Quote:
Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper
One brought about 30 dollars and the other was 33 bucks plus shipping and ins.Quote:
Using the 2 pics above here is what I come up with...
I know. Was more of sentimental purposes being the year of my birth. Figured what would be the odds of finding something like that?Quote:
Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper
Cant put a value on sentimental. Well you will find it im sure it will be in the last place you look :)Quote:
Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper
Five gallon water jug. I have had one since I was about 13.. Has traveled everywhere with me. Last year I pulled $400 out to buy my 5x8 trailer...Quote:
Originally Posted by GeorgeB
When it looks good onEbay it sells good on EbayQuote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic688
I'm a bit amazed you still use dollar bills. We got rid of the pound note years ago. I couldn't imagine carrying a wallet full of singles!
Wayne, been there done that, would rather have a wallet full of $1 bills than a pocket full of pound coins, 2 and 5 pound coins even 5 pound notes, when i was there were not very popular, so when you buy something that costs 50P with a tenner you get 9.50 in coins, what a pain, love my dollar bills.
I dream of the day I can carry a wallet full of singles!!!!! MikeQuote:
Originally Posted by wayne
I keep bunch of singles and coins in the truck console for buying batteries and scrap. Never can tell what I'll run across while I'm out or how many but two things I can count on - The guy wont have change and there wont be anywhere close to get change.
2 pound coins aren't especially popular over here, and 5 pound coins are for decoration only really, although you can spend them. 5 pound notes are popular, it's just that they are not really loaded into ATM's, so there aren't enough of them in circulation.Quote:
Originally Posted by brandon
so like i said you are stuck with a pocket full of 1 pound coins, which feel like a pound a piece when you have a pocket full of them.
lol
i lived outside of cambridge for about 3 years, havent been there in about 10 years but sounds like everything is still the same
Yep, not much changes :)
SO do you guys in the UK come across the old silver coins like we do in the states? i was just curious is all.
Rock tumbler with borax soap and copepr bb's. Works wonders.
in the UK as in many other countries once a coin or note type is replaced, it is no longer legal tender, i believe the last time the uk changed was in the 70s so any money made before the change is no longer legal tender and you will not see it in circulation. you will find silver and even gold (souverns) in the coin shops, or in collector sets.
We don't have silver coins in general circulation, so you never get them in change or from a bank. When coins are changed for different sized versions you have a time frame to get the old coins paid into the bank otherwise they become worthless, but with notes they retain their value for ever. You can normally pay old versions of notes into your bank, but if you have any trouble (and I never have) you can physically take all the loot you found under grannies mattress to the public counter at the Bank of England in London and they will swap them then and there for new style notes.
Very true CMHN....All the years I have been using my metal detector the hardest part was always getting plain old clad coins clean enough for the bank to accept them was a pain. That was until the day that a veteran detectorist told me to get a rock tumbler. He said to use plain dish soap and let it go for a couple of days...I wanted to speed up the process so I added some kitchen cleanser, the really abrasive kind and in a few hours I had clean clad coins. So now during detecting season there is always a rock tumbler set up in my workshop ready to accept my day's finds (sans the good stuff)Quote:
Originally Posted by CMHN