Now what do I do with my finds?

[Digging Prayers]

Hello,

I am mostly looking for and finding coins. I like to find clad just so I can clean them up enough to spend them. Recently, I have started finding wheat pennies and my first silver nickel.

So this brings up a question, what do I do with them? I've heard not to clean your older coins because you will devalue them. I don't want to just spend them, so what do I do with them? Other than put them in a storage container and put them away for show and tell with friends and family, is there an easy way to cash in on them?

 

[hoser]

DP this is entirely up to you. What do you want to do with them? Sell them or display them? As far as cleaning, keep in mind these came out of the ground and that in itself is the first clue. Most of the wheats I have found I can't tell what they are till after I tumble them, of put them in boiling hydrogen peroxide to clean the mung off them. After that it boils down to if you want to keep and pass it on or turn it into hard cash.

 

[SirDigsALOT!]

I have one of those books you put coins in. It's fun because sometimes I find wheats to add to the book.

 

[GroundSweeper]

I've been throwing all my cool finds into a spare room I call the Cavern of Gold, and every once in awhile I'll strip down and dive into it and swim around just to feel all that cold gold and silver against my bare skin.

In actuality I have some riker boxes I put most of the good stuff in, the gold usually gets sold at some point and sits in the safe. The misc relic stuff gets put on a shelf that gathers dust that my wife really isn't pleased with, suppose I should dust it off and maybe clean it up a bit some day!

 

[mudwhale]

If you don't want them, I'll take them.

 

[Digging Prayers]

I've been throwing all my cool finds into a spare room I call the Cavern of Gold, and every once in awhile I'll strip down and dive into it and swim around just to feel all that cold gold and silver against my bare skin.

With one silver nickel, it's a short swim. I'm also likely to break my neck diving in.

 

[Digging Prayers]

DP this is entirely up to you. What do you want to do with them? Sell them or display them?

put them in boiling hydrogen peroxide to clean the mung off them.

Sell.... For the most part and keep some.


Boiling hydrogen peroxide?
You Tube and Google here I come.

 

[Jamflicker]

War nickels are always pretty ugly. soak it in lemon juice over night and clean it with baking soda paste. I keep finds in an old carpenters tool chest. It works well because of the drawers.

 

[CalReg]

The older coins you speak of have been in the ground for some time. Not sure what they'd be worth, but outside of gold coins, or some of the rare vintage coins, they might not be worth that much because of their condition. Clean 'em up with soap and water and hold on to them. Who knows? After a while, you might have quite the collection...someone might want to buy the whole lot!

 

[Martin_V3i]

War nickels are always pretty ugly. soak it in lemon juice over night and clean it with baking soda paste. I keep finds in an old carpenters tool chest. It works well because of the drawers.

My 1943 nickel is in good shape.

 

[bmattioli]

I'm a collector and keep all my finds in shadow boxes.. Alot of memories and work to find and just sell.. although this is just me..

 

[hoser]

I'm all for collecting and saving. These are coins that will never be seen by other people if not displayed. What a shame for those who never experience finding these old artifacts and coins.

 

[Jonny B]

Hello,

I am mostly looking for and finding coins. I like to find clad just so I can clean them up enough to spend them. Recently, I have started finding wheat pennies and my first silver nickel.

So this brings up a question, what do I do with them? I've heard not to clean your older coins because you will devalue them. I don't want to just spend them, so what do I do with them? Other than put them in a storage container and put them away for show and tell with friends and family, is there an easy way to cash in on them?

Mate make a nice display box out of old fish tank do summat original will look good don’t cash them in u d*** there ur finds memories etc

 

[Tom_in_CA]

If you don't want them, I'll take them.

Mudwhale is correct. The answer to "what do you do with your finds" is : You split them 50/50. Send half to Tom_in_CA, and the other half to mudwhale. Especially when you get gold coins.


Any other questions ?

 

[vmc1161]

Mudwhale is correct. The answer to "what do you do with your finds" is : You split them 50/50. Send half to Tom_in_CA, and the other half to mudwhale. Especially when you get gold coins.


Any other questions ?

Now I feel bad I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with my finds. Should I send the gold ones overnight?

 

[Digging Prayers]

Im gonna definitely keep the silver, or any gold.

From my understanding, any $1.40
combination of face coin value is equal to 1 oz of silver. Just saw a video, that might now be dated, placing silver at $xx an oz.

Yep, that was a dated video, 2 years old.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Now I feel bad I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with my finds. Should I send the gold ones overnight?

Now if only the rest of the world would fall in line with the "objective moral good" that you have come to realize. That, yes : All your finds should be sent to Tom_in_CA. So to answer your question (and show you what a nice guy I am) : I make it easy on you. No need to ship overnight. Instead : I accept paypal.

Thank you for "doing the right thing" !

 

[Digging Prayers]

DP this is entirely up to you. What do you want to do with them? Sell them or display them? As far as cleaning, keep in mind these came out of the ground and that in itself is the first clue. Most of the wheats I have found I can't tell what they are till after I tumble them, of put them in boiling hydrogen peroxide to clean the mung off them. After that it boils down to if you want to keep and pass it on or turn it into hard cash.

Here is a damaged/bent wheat penny that I experimented on. It was already damaged so why not?

It was bent/almost folded about 33% of the way. I straightend it out the best I could. Dont ask, I won't tell you I used a hammer/anvil, shhhh!

Next it went into a cup of boiling HP. I removing the penny and warmed up the HP a couple time. I kept flipping the coin ever so often. I took it out, cleaned with a HP soaked QTip on each side and repeat.

After I was satisfied with that, I washed with warm handsoap and dried. Final touch, a little petroleum jelly applied, rubbed in and wiped off.

Final result, I now have a completely destroyed penny Pictured bellow.

First row- straightend and uncleaned.

Second row- HP boil cleaned and washed.

Last row- lubed and ready to go.

 

[TheFrood]

Hello,

I am mostly looking for and finding coins. I like to find clad just so I can clean them up enough to spend them. Recently, I have started finding wheat pennies and my first silver nickel.

So this brings up a question, what do I do with them? I've heard not to clean your older coins because you will devalue them. I don't want to just spend them, so what do I do with them? Other than put them in a storage container and put them away for show and tell with friends and family, is there an easy way to cash in on them?

You put them in a jar, then sit in a dark corner petting it and calling it your precious...

 

[Jamflicker]

Here is a damaged/bent wheat penny that I experimented on. It was already damaged so why not?

It was bent/almost folded about 33% of the way. I straightend it out the best I could. Dont ask, I won't tell you I used a hammer/anvil, shhhh!

Next it went into a cup of boiling HP. I removing the penny and warmed up the HP a couple time. I kept flipping the coin ever so often. I took it out, cleaned with a HP soaked QTip on each side and repeat.

After I was satisfied with that, I washed with warm handsoap and dried. Final touch, a little petroleum jelly applied, rubbed in and wiped off.

Final result, I now have a completely destroyed penny Pictured bellow.

First row- straightend and uncleaned.

Second row- HP boil cleaned and washed.

Last row- lubed and ready to go.

When I first started I would try different things to clean wheaties. Some worked well and some didn't work well. Some even made them look like crap. I did learn a lot from cleaning wheaties and took those learnings and now apply them to other things I find. Here's an article I did on cleaning finds that might be useful to you: https://focusspeed.com/tips-cleaning-older-coins-tokens/