How to Clean Metal Detected Coins
After each metal detecting session, clean your coins with detergent and water., Tip the coins onto a tray and inspect them with a magnifying glass or jewelers loupe., Dry and accumulate the coins to rock tumble in a container with a lid., Use...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: After each metal detecting session
Whisk the coins in the detergent and water for a minute or two and drain the water.
Rinse the coins with water. -
Step 2: clean your coins with detergent and water.
Set aside coins that: do not require further cleaning or because they are valuable.
The main examples of valuable coins are silver dimes and quarters, copper pennies, old coins, and unique coins and tokens. , When you have a sizeable quantity of coins, rock tumble them with small gravel, sand, water, vinegar and salt. , Dilute the vinegar with water to a ratio of 1:3 and add a dash of salt. Rock tumble pennies separately from nickels, dimes and quarters, because the pennies will put a pink stain on them.
Do not rock tumble nickels, dimes and quarters with tokens and foreign coins, even if the tokens and foreign coins have similar outward appearances. , When the drum expands too much, stop the tumbling, open the drum cover to let out the gases, put the cover back on and resume rock tumbling.
Clean the seal, with a water soaked brush, of tiny bits of sand and gravel to prevent leakage.
Do not clean the brush with water that goes into a drain, clean in a container of water (discard this container of water later outside).
Do not put sand and gravel in the drain––they will eventually cause a plumbing clog.
Settle on a mixture of vinegar and water that suits your monitoring of it.
For example, with a ration of 1:3, you must stop the rock tumbling, let out the gases and clean the seal about three times.
With a stronger vinegar and water mixture, you will have to clean the seal twice as much; cleaning the seal is time consuming. , For example, the first session might be for just 30 to 45 minutes; after this, inspect your coins.
Some of the coins might have required just a short cleaning because either they were not that dirty or more importantly, you might find a straggler silver or valuable coins that you missed in the initial cleaning.
In general, silver and copper coins require very little cleaning, however this is not always the case. After the first rock tumbling session, the coins design and dates should be visible. , For the a second time, clean for an hour. Expect most of the coins to be clean and ready to be used after the second session. For the few coins that require a third rock tumbling session, set them aside for future cleaning when you have accumulated more coins to make it worthwhile to swing in your coil. , Store your corroded coins in a container with a tight-fitting lid to prevent future corrosion.
Clean your mutilated coins enough so that they can be identified.
After cleaning, treat your mutilated coins, in addition to storing them in a container with a tight-fitting lid, because they will be very susceptible to corrosion. -
Step 3: Tip the coins onto a tray and inspect them with a magnifying glass or jewelers loupe.
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Step 4: Dry and accumulate the coins to rock tumble in a container with a lid.
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Step 5: Use vinegar and salt for a quick and effective cleaning of your coins in the rock tumbler.
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Step 6: Constantly monitor the condition of the rock tumbler drum because cleaning with vinegar creates a gas that could burst the rubber drum.
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Step 7: Do your cleaning in three parts instead of one long session.
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Step 8: Rock tumble the coins that require further cleaning.
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Step 9: Redeem your severely corroded or damaged coins with the US mint (or other relevant national mint) when you have a large quantity of them.
Detailed Guide
Whisk the coins in the detergent and water for a minute or two and drain the water.
Rinse the coins with water.
Set aside coins that: do not require further cleaning or because they are valuable.
The main examples of valuable coins are silver dimes and quarters, copper pennies, old coins, and unique coins and tokens. , When you have a sizeable quantity of coins, rock tumble them with small gravel, sand, water, vinegar and salt. , Dilute the vinegar with water to a ratio of 1:3 and add a dash of salt. Rock tumble pennies separately from nickels, dimes and quarters, because the pennies will put a pink stain on them.
Do not rock tumble nickels, dimes and quarters with tokens and foreign coins, even if the tokens and foreign coins have similar outward appearances. , When the drum expands too much, stop the tumbling, open the drum cover to let out the gases, put the cover back on and resume rock tumbling.
Clean the seal, with a water soaked brush, of tiny bits of sand and gravel to prevent leakage.
Do not clean the brush with water that goes into a drain, clean in a container of water (discard this container of water later outside).
Do not put sand and gravel in the drain––they will eventually cause a plumbing clog.
Settle on a mixture of vinegar and water that suits your monitoring of it.
For example, with a ration of 1:3, you must stop the rock tumbling, let out the gases and clean the seal about three times.
With a stronger vinegar and water mixture, you will have to clean the seal twice as much; cleaning the seal is time consuming. , For example, the first session might be for just 30 to 45 minutes; after this, inspect your coins.
Some of the coins might have required just a short cleaning because either they were not that dirty or more importantly, you might find a straggler silver or valuable coins that you missed in the initial cleaning.
In general, silver and copper coins require very little cleaning, however this is not always the case. After the first rock tumbling session, the coins design and dates should be visible. , For the a second time, clean for an hour. Expect most of the coins to be clean and ready to be used after the second session. For the few coins that require a third rock tumbling session, set them aside for future cleaning when you have accumulated more coins to make it worthwhile to swing in your coil. , Store your corroded coins in a container with a tight-fitting lid to prevent future corrosion.
Clean your mutilated coins enough so that they can be identified.
After cleaning, treat your mutilated coins, in addition to storing them in a container with a tight-fitting lid, because they will be very susceptible to corrosion.
About the Author
Marie Torres
Professional writer focused on creating easy-to-follow creative arts tutorials.
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