Cleaning spendable coins

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Love the thinking Ramjet. What a good idea. If you were to add an alkaline chemical to your water/ sand mix, you would sort the coin problem out extremely well. Could I suggest adding half a shovel of Portland cement and then mix for 2 minutes. Tip everything into a bucket and leave it for a week. After that, you would not have to worry about the coins.
 
I have used plastic change bags in the past . Coins from the beach are worn and under weight . So... they will not accept them unless you make up the weight .

The old coin counting machines worked on the weight only . I think the new machines are scanning the coins looking for say , 5 points before accepting them . Dirty and under weight coins will be dumped, replaced in the system . JMO .
 
Love the thinking Ramjet. What a good idea. If you were to add an alkaline chemical to your water/ sand mix, you would sort the coin problem out extremely well. Could I suggest adding half a shovel of Portland cement and then mix for 2 minutes. Tip everything into a bucket and leave it for a week. After that, you would not have to worry about the coins.
Haha. Funny stuff. That was just sand. Too harsh. I have other media now.
 
@Lesgold that's a NASty $1 coin to be sure... I like the idea of a bank self-serve coin counter machine, but that looks to have enough build up to be rejected at best, jam the machine at worst

I'm new at this (3 weeks now) so finding deep red and dark brown 5-20 cent coins is a novelty I'm enjoying, but nothing yet as crusty as that one (excluding the 2cent I mentioned earlier)

On another note, strictly for just a bunch of coins at a time, some high-tech cigarette machines talk to you and "thank you for your purchase" when done... you insert a bunch of coins, then say to yourself hang on, I don't actually smoke - then hit the eject button and nice clean coins come out... maybe they are called vape machines now, who knows

Edit: Typo
 
On another note, strictly for just a bunch of coins at a time, some high-tech cigarette machines talk to you and "thank you for your purchase" when done... you insert a bunch of coins, then say to yourself hang on, I don't actually smoke - then hit the eject button and nice clean coins come out... maybe they are called vape machines now, who knows
I've heard of money laundering, but I don't know if that's what the term usually means. 😆
 
G’day Les, I’d be interested to hear what people suggest as well.
I’ve got about 6 or 7 kilos of 5, 10, 20 and 50 cent pieces just sitting in a bucket of water waiting for some action.
20’s and 50’s clean up quite well on my bench top wire buff wheel, but man that’s too demanding.
I saw your homemade tumbler, so next time the printer karks it, I’ll have a go at making one.👍
Hey mate, next time you are over I'll show you my tumbler. It works great on coins. Simple design as well.
 
Hey guys,

Here is a pic of a coin I picked up today in the sand. What do I do with it?
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If you find them like that in wet sand, the best thing you can do is grab some wet sand from the bottom of the hole and rub the coin with it. You'll be surprised how easily a lot of the crap comes off while the coin is still fresh. Once they dry it's a lot harder to clean.
 
Hey mate, next time you are over I'll show you my tumbler. It works great on coins. Simple design as well.
Ozzie ya bet watch him mate, that might be like the old come back to my place and I'll show you my etchings line ? ;)🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
 
Hi Folks,

Was talking to a mate who has been working the beaches for years. He told me that he drops his saltwater coins into hydrochloric acid for a minute or two and this cleans his spendable quite well. The big green shed had a clearance on hydrochloric a couple of weeks ago. 500ml for $1. Thought I’d try some and see how it clean silvers and Goldie’s. Made a quick dipping tray and had rinse water handy. Gloves and specs are also the go when handling acids.

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Goldie's were clean in about 10 seconds but some of the crusty silvers needed a few dips and a rub with a stainless wool. Wanted them clean enough for the tumbler to give them a bit of a shine. They came up pretty well with minimal effort.

8C754EA0-C5C7-4F67-B4C1-A2402F9204F7.jpeg
cheers

Les
 

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If you find them like that in wet sand, the best thing you can do is grab some wet sand from the bottom of the hole and rub the coin with it. You'll be surprised how easily a lot of the crap comes off while the coin is still fresh. Once they dry it's a lot harder to clean.
Found an entirely green coin on the weekend which I've never seen before (I'm new at this)... had delusions it might be a penny, and my 1st PD! - but it felt like 20 cents. Upon inspection (without glasses) I thought I could make out "20" in just the right spot, then remembering PhaseTech's post I went to some clear water and rubbed it with sand, and would you believe, after a few rubs most the green came off, and yes it was 20 cents. Dated 2020, hard to believe it can deteriorate that bad so quick. Re-reading the post just now he says use sand from the bottom of the hole (where it is so much finer)... I used sand on top, and oh dear I've rubbed most of Her Majesty's face off... live and learn, or maybe read the whole post next time? ;)
 
PhaseTech’s method does work well. The only drawback is when you have a good day out, you end up rubbing your thumb print away and sore fingers as as a result. It’s a bit embarrassing when you then go in to buy a coffee and use your phone to pay. Thumb print recognition doesn’t work and you have to fluff around and enter a pass code. That’s the sort of sacrifice that has to be made…….
 

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