I’ve picked up a bunch of grungy coins scattered about a dirty floor. Is there a quick and dirty way of cleaning them up as to not offend the cashier? I don’t want to scrub them. Is there a cheap household fluid that can be used for this purpose?
Vinegar?
Denture cleaner?
By “scrubbing” do you mean individually scrubbing each one? You can get them to scrub themselves by running a handful of them in your hands under running water, with a couple drops of hand / hand dishwashing soap, and the action of the coins on themselves will scrub a lot of the dirt off. (Be careful of course to not let coins fall down the drain).
(I originally wrote “under water”, and thinking on it some more I wonder if dipping the handful in the middle of a partly filled bathtub wouldn’t also do the trick, if one is worried about throwing money down the drain (heh)).
Put them in a mesh bag and into the washing machine with your laundry.
Let the soak in warm soapy water for a few minutes. Then swish them around for a minute then rinse them off. They will be clean enough to spend without upsetting the people that have to handle them.
I refuse to participate in a money laundering scheme.
But, yeah, vinegar works.
I think Calgon works, also. I know it’s used for cleaning old, encrusted coins from the Roman Empire and the like.
I usually just put a bunch in my front pocket of my blue jeans for a day or two. Works fairly well. It knocks most of the grunge off. It will not get them shiney. But it will get them clean enough for the sorting machine at the bank.
I do look at them to see if any of them are on my list of “collectible” coins.
My Brother uses the seine in the cloths washing machine trick. Our sister uses the seine in the dish washer trick. Both seem to work. A seine is a mesh or net material that they make bags out of. I am too lazy for all that.
I have heard of folks putting them in a bowl full of Coka-Cola, letting them soak for 30 minutes or so and stirring them, repeat, repeat, and rinse with lots of water. Then set on towel to dry.
IHTH, 48.
Vinegar + table salt works better than plain vinegar. It makes hydrochloric acid that is great for cleaning coins. Just mix it and dump the coins in for an hour or so. I have never seen one so grungy that it didn’t come out clean.
Thanks. I wonder if the salt and vinegar works on non-copper coins. I think I’ll try that technique and the coins in bag in washing machine thing.
Go to Taco Bell, grab a few packs of the hot sauce, soak said coins overnight. Rinse. Et voila - clean coins!
It does. I used it a couple of weeks ago on a quarter my daughter found. It was so black and crusty, you could barely tell it was a quarter at all but a little soaking in salt and vinegar cleaned it right up again.
Coca-Cola.
I once ran a “roach coach” with a fountain. No drain, just a catch pan. Big seller: Coke.
At end of day, if I found a coin in it, that was the cleanest coin outside the Mint.
Makes me wonder what that stuff does when one drinks it. I wonder if it keeps peoples’ pipes clean.
Are you sure? It might be good for cleaning coins, but I’m pretty sure it’s not HCl.
I am certainly not a chemistry expert but various cites say that it does create at least some HCL. It can’t be a lot because the mixture won’t burn your hands or feel like anything in the short-term but it will clean coins quickly and well. I will let the chemistry experts explain the specific reaction in more detail but it does work.
Being a kidney patient, I am supposed to avoid phosphorous - which is why I heard that:
Dark sodas contain phosphoric acid and clear ones use citric acid.
They give the drinks their “tangy” flavor.
Hansen’s Root Beer is different in that it uses citric acid. It also is not all that close to what a traditional root beer tastes like.
Did you guys realize that “cleaning coins” is a trigger phrase for samclem?
Post #15 on that page says “NaCl and Vinegar will NOT react and make HCl! Ever!”
Edit: I’m curious now so I’ll take this to a new thread.