Not Exactly El Dorado....

[Anonymous]

but, I was well pleased with 3 hours of coin shooting. The weather turned off fair and mild (50's) so off to the beckoning sites I went. Finally found my first nickel, two times. Interesting that 4 of the coins (including the quater) was lying on top of the ground. I am really learning to rely onthe VDI and reference bars to reduce unnecessary digging. I do have a questionthat Ihane not seen posted here "What solutions are best for cleaning the old coins"? As you can see some of these are pretty corroded.

 

[Anonymous]

This method will clean the coins but I would not recomend cleaning anything really old that may be valuble, put some vinegar in a glass, cover the bottom of the glass with salt, let coins soak for about 10 minutes use a tooth brush and brush then clean, if still not clean soak another 5-10 minutes then brush again, after brushing wash in hot soapy water, copper coins will turn green after this but I have found that after cleaning if you rub vegetable oil on them and wipe them dry the won't turn, also on clad coins which you have another method is using a wire brush on a bench grinder, use a pair of pliers to hold the coin the simply turn the grinder on and brush them clean. For older possible valuble coins try to contact a coin shop and ask about having them cleaned .

 

[Anonymous]

For cleaning my clad and the pennies i want to spend again I will use my rock tumbler with some aquarium gavel, water and a good shot of Real Lemon juice and tumble for a hour and the pennies will look new, but on the new zinc ones that are pitted it will make the pitting worst. Clad I have to tumble longer it seems if it is real black and sometime i never get them real good, but good enough to spend.
On silver I just use a little water and on wheaties and IH I will use water and a tooth brush with a little soap. If i want to get them real clesn I will put a little peroxide in a small plastic cup and put it in the Microwave untill it starts to boil and drop the coin in it and leave it sit untill it cool down and they use my very fine brass bristle bush or a tooth brush to clean them. I only do this to the ones that are not valuable that I am keeping for display purpose. If it is a rare one i will not clean it.
Rick

 

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Rick turned me onto this last year.
I purchased the double 3 pound unit sold by Kellyco. This allows me to clean up to 180 coins at one time. I place copper in one tumbler and clad in the other. His recommended process works fine. I picked up a coffee cans worth of gravel at a local playground for my usage.
I save my finds for 2 to 3 outings and then clean them all at one time. Before this I used a pliers on a grinder with a 6 inch fine wire brush. Worked great but not as easy as the Rock Tumbler.
I tumble a little longer than Rick. I put my tumbler on a timer for 2.5 hours.
HH
Johnny B