A general coin cleaning question

I recently purchased a bag of 5000 wheats just for fun and to look through to see if I could fill holes in an album. Upon opening it, I found a large portion of the coins were spotted with what looked like cola. Is it going to be extremely detrimental to these quite circulated coins if I just let them soak in soap and water for a brief period of time?

Thanks for your help

 

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Please do not do it

 

Just soak a few common dates in distilled water... see if that works. It definitely won't hurt them or their value. And if you bought a bag of 5000, you can bet they've already been searched.

 

I just wanna clarify that I wont be using abraisives of any kind on the coins. I just want to dissolve the sticky stuff. Thats all

 

alrighty. will do

 

never let another man clean

 

I have heard that coins can absorb chemicals and cause them to deteriate. How true is that?

 

Since everything outside of a pure vacuum is composed of chemicals, I am not certain what to make of the question. If you are asking if coins act as a sponge then I would ask you if all other metals in your life act as a sponge.

 

For that large a quantity, I would do the soak in tap water, changing it if it gets icky, and then do a final rinse (or two) with distilled (or deionized) water.

 

I would use distilled water too since it is water, can't be too harmful. I sometimes first soak Wheats in alcohol that doesn't have anything strange it in like mint or something and then soak them in distilled water. I then pat them with a cloth then let them air dry. I sold a roll of wheats at a coin show and the dealer along with a neighboring dealer said this was OK to do after I disclosed what I do to them.

 

That works. Because these wheats are already well circulated, I'm not too worried about killing luster or anything like that. I'm worried about abrasion, but I wont be scrubbing them. To test my theory, I just ran one of the really gummy ones under the tap for a very brief second and it came off like it was nothing. Problem solved lol

 

Look, although the rule of thumb is NOT to clean coins, I have a good friend who has an extensive collection of over 1400 different errors and varieties to complement his complete US cent collection. In other words, he's not a novice. He cleans all the bulk cents he acquires prior to searching them. The method he taught me is effective and doesn;t really harm the coins.

Now, I will state, these are circulated coins that are being searched for varieties and errors. The value in them is from that. They are not high grade specimens.

I will send you a PM.

 

Honestly, that's the best method.