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Cashing In Clad


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I'm interested in this also.  I've tried the rotary tumbler technique with aquarium gravel and dish soap...never could get mine clean enough that the automatic coin machines wouldn't kick them right back out.  I brought a whole quart jar full to my bank and they wouldn't take it and the machine rejected 3/4 of the coins.  I've got to where I just throw all my dug clad coins away since they are apparently worthless.

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I am able to tumble beach coins with sand and soft scrub with bleach and use 90% of my quarters, nickels and dimes.  Our quarters go into a laundry machine and the nickels and dimes go into Coin Star.  We opt for the Amazon certificate and that makes 100% available for purchase.

Pennies ... we have pounds of pennies.  They get separated into shields vs copper.  Shields are being saved for taking to a Federal Reserve Bank that will exchange them for spendable money.  I haven't found one but that will be the next step.  The law says it is still money.  No one will count them so it will be a pound exchange and an estimate of value.

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Back in the glory days (early to mid 1970's) when draft beer was 35 cents per glass at the local small town watering holes where I grew up.No problemo it never had a chance to pile up.Nowadays I suppose that one could try to run it through a Constar machine at a percentage of course.Not to be pretentious but I only hunt relic sites anymore so I rarely find much of it.

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I use a large Lortone tumbler with aquarium gravel.  The drum is about the size of a gallon paint can.  My clad gets completely clean but remains discolored,  After tumbling, I pour the clad and gravel mix onto a screen and hose it down.  Once everything is dry, I sort it out with a beach scoop.

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It has been a while since I've found much clad but back 15 or 20 years ago, I used to tumble or just wash it in a strainer in the sink, then take it to the nearest Coinstar. I discovered that if you keep putting the rejected coins back through the machine, it eventually takes all but the severely damaged ones. The Amazon certificate is the way to go.

I rarely find clad these days even at the beach. Nobody carries coins anymore.

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Despite living in a very rural place, my bank has a coin counter because of the coin shortage. It has a hopper that they can dump a whole jug of coins in, and they will automatically deposit the funds in your account. All I do is tumble them, they will take the most corroded Zincolns and give you credit for them.

Look around for a bank with one! Make sure you go when they're not too busy. There is no charge for this if it is your bank.

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52 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

...(My bank) will take the most corroded Zincolns and give you credit for them.

Now that's full service bank, not just lip service as such!

10 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Shields are being saved for taking to a Federal Reserve Bank that will exchange them for spendable money.  I haven't found one but that will be the next step.

I'm not aware that you can even go to a Federal Reserve Bank; I thought they only deal with other banks.  Could be wrong, though; I am a lot.  There may be a way to ship/mail in damaged coins and currency and get sent a refund check or direct deposit, but shipping might eat a large chunk of the value?  Best would be for a bank or credit union to be the 'middle man' as F350's does, but cooperative organizations like that are a dying breed.

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I saw a video from gigmeister on youtube and followed his results using stainless steel shot (amazon $15) and dawn dish soap in a tumbler from harbor freight. All coins except the very badly corroded zink cents came out looking great. I just roll them and take them to the bank a deposit them into my kids college accounts.

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1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

Despite living in a very rural place, my bank has a coin counter because of the coin shortage. It has a hopper that they can dump a whole jug of coins in, and they will automatically deposit the funds in your account. All I do is tumble them, they will take the most corroded Zincolns and give you credit for them.

Look around for a bank with one! Make sure you go when they're not too busy. There is no charge for this if it is your bank.

That's how my bank is, but the machine rejects most everything that isn't just shiny pocket change.  I actually tried it at the beginning of this month with some tumbled dug coins. Their machine must be extra picky. Haha.  I dump all my loose coins into a jar when I get home.  We had approx a gallon of non dug coins that we also took.  It accepted all but three of those...and they ended up being oddball foreign coins and it came out to a little over $110.  I had roughly the same amount of dug ones that it wouldn't take though that I chunked in the dumpster at the landfill when I went.  

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