Cleaned up James clad

[Rick(ND)]

JamesND brought me his clad for the year to clean up as I like to try different ways trying to clean up the clad. The first picture is the bucket full he brought me that weighed over 25 pounds.
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Now I have a 15 pound tumbler I put half the coins at a time in with some water and soap just to clean them a little so it would be easier to sort the pennies from the clad as they have to be tumbled separate when cleaning. This is what they looked like at this step.
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Now the pennies I tumbled in 2 batches with aquarium gravel, water and some real lemon juice and tumbled for a hour and a half each batch, rinsed and let air dried. I picked out the real bad one that were eaten up and the bent ones so they wouldn't jam up the coin counter at the bank.
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Now the clad I tumbled in the lemon juice like the pennies, but for 2 hours and picked out the ones that looked good and took the bad ones and used my smaller tumbler and instead of lemon juice I used the muratic acid and found that about a 30-45 minute was as long as it took as anything longer it seem to get them a dull gray looking. Now I rinsed them off and put the right back in the lemon juice to get all the acid off with most coming out real good as you see. The picture don't look as good as the actual coins did as the lighting was poor and reflecting off the coins. I put them all in a bag and took them to the bank ater i took a magnet and run though them to get out any Canadian coins as the bank counter will kick them out. I did have only 4 pennies that were rejected by the counter as they were bend and I missed them when picking out the good ones.
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Working with the acid you have to be very careful and dont need very much either, so those that don't want to use it can run the clads in the lemon juice and water with the aquarium gravel the second time and sometimes the third time, but when doing the last time I will run for 15 or so minutes and shut off and let them soak overnight and then run the next day for another hour or so and they will look good.

James total to the bank was $211.39 for all that clad, dont have the paper here with the total count, but can post it later.

 

[mitto]

I am not trying to sound like a smart alleck, so please don't think that is what I am trying to do.

What is the reason for cleaning up your clad. Are there banks out there who won't take clean money.

I live in WI and my bank has never balked at cashing in my clad. I don't take them with dirt on them, but I don't clean them either.

Please let me know why this is done.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Some places will not take the clad or pennies if they are all black and crusted as they will jamb up the counting machine at the bank. I was once told they will take the damaged paper money if over 3/4 of it is there, but coins have to be sent to the mint itself at your expense if damaged in anyway so we try to make them as nice as possible (I call it the best recycling there is). Some will take them to those coin star machines at many stores, but they charge 10% for this and if it jambs up their machines you may have some time explaining what happened.
I have a bucket where I put all the damaged coins in like those new zinc pennies that are half gone and straighten the quarters and dimes if possible.

 

[XLT-user]

n/t

 

[Eddie in Poulsbo]

WOW!!!!! What a ncie guy you are Rick. I think James owes you a least one beer. I got me a double rock tumbler that I use and when I get a plastic bag full I clean them right away and they don't pile up so bad. HH.

Eddie

 

[James N.D.]

Nice pics of the Clad Rick. Sure was a lot of pocket change that I got this year...that is the stuff I stopped and picked up during my hunts. If I had stopped and picked up every Coin I came across, I know it would have been 50lbs of Clad this year. Thanks again Rick. I'll see you at the x-mas party on Sunday. Good Luck and HH in 2009 buddy!

 

[James N.D.]

n/t

 

[Eddie in Poulsbo]

I bet you know what kind of beer Rick drinks huh? If you have a camera handy at your xmas party how about sending me some pics and I will take some at our party Sat and send them to you. HH.

Eddie

 

[Eddie in Poulsbo]

What's the name of your bank? Maybe we should all take our clad there if we don't have to take the extra effort to clean them. My bank use to have one of those coin counting machines, but I quit taking my coins there because I did cause their machine to clog up one day and I had some explaining to do.

Eddie

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

I never finished cleaning wheats and clad for last year, so I have a big pile to get through. This year I'm going to try some new techniques. As alway tumbling is a numismatic no-no; but I am not planning on selling any coins but some just plain look like crap. Not for any key dates.

I expiremented with tumbling wheats using only Hydrogen Peroxide and dry rice a couple of years ago.

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I like the results; it doesn't take the patina of the coins. The rice seems to help absorb the dirt. I suspect there may be better ways. Two problems: One is that the H2O2 produces gas and you have to keep burping the tumbler or it will blow out the lid. Basically a baby sitting job. Second is that the rims do lose some of the patina due to tumbling. But for the most part it gets the dirt off without making the coins looked cleaned.

For this years wheats I am trying tumbling with more traditional media; which is basically the mix you always mention. I didn't put in any lemon juice and added some sand from a mortar project along with the aquarium gravel. Plus a drop of dish soap. I should check them soon.

Nickels and fat IH's often look real bad. I've tumbled these in previous years. Some look beautiful, some pitted and never really get nice. This year I'm trying a Catsup soak and then a tumble with fine media- sand. The chemical in Catsup seems to clean up the coin in the pitted areas, otherwise you need to tumble until the cows come home, but does leave an less-than-desirable patina; hoping a short tumble will help.

I will post results.

As for Clad. Last couple of years I've just swirled the Lincolns in soapy water and fed them through a coin star machine. I don't mind losing 6-10% commision. I've been throwing away the bulk of the zincs I find, but there are still a few. Sometimes have to feed the coins from the reject shoot through a couple of times. Often will take them. I'll clean the higher value clad a bit better and take them to the bank. They've never complained but I don't want to bring them in completely dirty and mess up the machine.

Chris

 

[Edgewood]

Awesome cleaner that muriatic acid. I saw a article in I think Popular science and if you take a clad penny and grind or file the edge off down to the zinc then soak it in Muriatic acid for about 45 minutes it will eat the zinc away and leave you with just the copper foil unharmed. I would never try this myself as I would not want to deface a penny that cost triple to make than what it is worth, But I watched my work buddy do it and it does work.