Clad Cleaning questions

I'm still trying to figure out why some of you spend so much time cleaning clad coins? The cost outweighs the gain IMHO.

I put a little vinegar, rock salt, dawn soap, and a little water in a mayonaise jar and shake the flip out of it for 5 minutes...let it sit for five minutes...then shake one last time and rinse well.

Pink money spends the same as shiny money. Just took all my clad in from last year that I dug up to my bank (no cost) plus some other clad change I had and walked away with $150.76.

Only 2 pennies were rejected. :D
 
Yeah it's a hard thing to quantify the excess time and money. I can see "both sides of the coin", LOL. One thing I mentioned already is something to do in the offseason, we definitely have an offseason here in Wisconsin (some would argue there are still places to go in the winter like the woods or frozen lakes, to me this is offseason, detector is PUT away!). So I can take time to mess with the coins or i can veg out in front of the TV, got it? I also have a detector to clean up and let's see, I am going to research having a place nearby me repair my finds bag and actually talk to them about making up a design idea i have of my own for a finds bag. I can also spend time researching for this season (hunting places).
I also have the thought that in cleaning them up before taking them to the bank, it sort of completes the cycle, the coins were in circulation and lost, probably in fairly good condition, now I restore them back to a similar condition and return them to circulation. Might sound hokey to some, but I think about that as well.
 
Yeah it's a hard thing to quantify the excess time and money. I can see "both sides of the coin", LOL. One thing I mentioned already is something to do in the offseason, we definitely have an offseason here in Wisconsin (some would argue there are still places to go in the winter like the woods or frozen lakes, to me this is offseason, detector is PUT away!). So I can take time to mess with the coins or i can veg out in front of the TV, got it? I also have a detector to clean up and let's see, I am going to research having a place nearby me repair my finds bag and actually talk to them about making up a design idea i have of my own for a finds bag. I can also spend time researching for this season (hunting places).
I also have the thought that in cleaning them up before taking them to the bank, it sort of completes the cycle, the coins were in circulation and lost, probably in fairly good condition, now I restore them back to a similar condition and return them to circulation. Might sound hokey to some, but I think about that as well.

No worries! :grin:

Good thing here in Colorado the snow melts off between storms or I'd go crazy. This weekend was in the high 50's. Only been at this hobby for a few months and when it snowed I went to the bank and bought 25 dollar boxes of pennies. Now I'm hooked on that and MDing too. :laughing: Found over 20 wheats. Oldest one was an extremely worn 1912 wheaty.
 
The other thing about "cost vs gain" (you mentioned about cleaning clad) is how many of us really think about cost vs gain when it comes to this hobby?I know we all think about finding something spectacular, an old coin cache or a high dollar ring, but that's like winning the lottery I think, to most of us. Most of us just plunk along and maybe do well at clad, an occasional silver coin or a ring, but if you look at "cost vs gain", well it's a fun hobby anyways, LOL.
 
heres what you need

get yourself a 1 or 2 inch deep container about the size of a plate
go and buy a bottle of "Barkeepers Friend"
its a dry powder........use about 2 tablespoons of the barkeepers friend in about a cup of water but dont stir the mixture up....just let the barkeepers friend paste in the container......(in other words put your water in first and then gently spoon in the barkeepers friend and let it get soaked and sink to the bottom)
place your clads...(or any coin for that matter........cause it really makes silver look brand new) just place the coins right in the paste and let them sit for approx 1 hour.
the barkeepers friends is non abrasive and DOES NOT mess with the metal composition whatsoever...(if anyone tells you that it will break the metal composition down they are stupid)
just let them sit for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on how tarnished and dirty they are
take the coins out after that time and use a very soft washcloth with fine fibers....not course fibers...make sure the fibers are at least thick and dense and really soft and just gently rub the barkeepers friend off the coins and then rinse them in tap water or spring water to neutralize the barkeepers friend because they can get to clean.....and unless the coin is "uncirculated" you dont want it to look like its been polished....just good and clean like carried in your pocket.
trust me....this is by far the best way youll ever clean your coins (of any type of metal)
i accidently ran onto this by chance a couple years ago by trial and error on my own
actually if you do a search of my posts youll see that when i first joined this forums a couple years ago this was one of my first posts...it was in the "cleaning your finds" forum.....
i hope this little advice helps you in some way
and i would like to thank anyone that reads this reply because it shows respect.
thank you for allowing me to reply to your post
sincerely
Terry harding
"Moonraker"
 
The other thing about "cost vs gain" (you mentioned about cleaning clad) is how many of us really think about cost vs gain when it comes to this hobby?I know we all think about finding something spectacular, an old coin cache or a high dollar ring, but that's like winning the lottery I think, to most of us. Most of us just plunk along and maybe do well at clad, an occasional silver coin or a ring, but if you look at "cost vs gain", well it's a fun hobby anyways, LOL.

Well I'm cheap and lazy so I found the fastest, cheapest, and laziest way to clean clad...lmao.

That way I can spend more time diggin' because I'm hooked...HA! :p

I guess that's what I meant to say. :grin:
 
Yeah what I am doing now isn't something I would want to mess with during the digging season, that's why it gets saved up for winter.

On the barkeepers friend process, how many coins can you do at a time? I do want to be somewhat efficient, not going to do 1 or 2 at a time. I could see a process like this if it works good on a special coin.

PS got the Conklin gel today, been pretty busy at work the last few days so will want to hold off til I get a boring spell, right now vegging out in front of the TV sound JUST fine, LOL.
 
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