Clean Tokens or not?

[upprc04]

I ordered a bunch of random tokens and was wondering if people have some solution to clean them up.  Are there any certain tokens that people like more than others?  I tried to sort them in to groups and was wondering if there is anything I should look for.  I know they aren't going to be collectibles, but was wondering if there is any reason I shouldn't clean them?

If you do clean it, what do you use?  I remember cleaning pennies back in science class with just coke or something like that.

Thanks in advance!

[Nephasth]

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showpost.php?p=1871088&postcount=12

[markronz]

I can't speak to the tokens worth or reasons why not to clean them, per say.  But like you said, I can't imagine they are going to be too collectible like real coins.  So personally I would clean them, but it's up to you.   I recently bought a bunch of tokens for my pachislo machine, and I wanted to clean them before use.  From reading on a few pachislo forums, what a lot of people on there said to use was CLR.  This should be available in a lot of normal stores, and hardware stores.   All I did was soak the tokens in the CLR for a few hours, stirring occasionally.   The tokens came out very clean.   I don't feel dirty touching them any more, and my hands don't smell like old coins when I do!   So anyway, that's what I did.

[yotsuya]

Hey markronz, once you were done soaking and stirring them, how did you rinse and dry them? I won some tokens on eBay and plan to clean them up myself using CLR.

[markronz]

That was the most irritating part of the process for me.    After the soaking, I just ran the faucet and washed off each one, or perhaps a few at a time with water.   Then I used a towel to dry them.   I didn't make sure they were bone dry, just reasonably close to dry.   Then once I was done, I laid all the tokens out on my carpet for the night.  I made sure they weren't piled on top of each other, just laid out separately.   If they were damp at all still, they were dry by morning.    There might be a better way to do this, but that's what I did.  Took me maybe an hour.

[yotsuya]

Thanks. That sounds about right.

[Nephasth]

I won some tokens on eBay...

Hmm... wonder if it was you I was bidding against... I've been picking up a few lots here and there myself lately.

[yotsuya]

I won some tokens on eBay...

Hmm... wonder if it was you I was bidding against... I've been picking up a few lots here and there myself lately.

Heh. It was for a lot of 250 tokens. I paid $7.89 or something like that.

[Nephasth]

I was the first bidder on that auction, for $4.00. Never followed through with it because I got a 400 token lot in the mail last week and just "won" a 10lb lot a day or two before that one ended. Boy is it going to be fun cleaning all those tokens! Congrats on a good ebay win! Just won a lot of 41 token mechs for pretty cheap, didn't expect to get that. I'll be selling what I won't be using. The old lady is not going to be happy when those boxes show up...

[yotsuya]

I was the first bidder on that auction, for $4.00. Never followed through with it because I got a 400 token lot in the mail last week and just "won" a 10lb lot a day or two before that one ended. Boy is it going to be fun cleaning all those tokens! Congrats on a good ebay win! Just won a lot of 41 token mechs for pretty cheap, didn't expect to get that. I'll be selling what I won't be using. The old lady is not going to be happy when those boxes show up...

41 token mechs? 

I have an insider at a place where they regularly hand out tokens but consider them expendables, so I get a nice handful from time to time. I also have a crapload left over from a local funpark that gave out $20 of tokens like Christmas candy.

[Nephasth]

Do NOT use CLR on brass tokens. Just tried it and it will turn them to a copper color, looks like ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---. Seems to be alright on nickel plated tokens though.

[yotsuya]

Thanks for the heads up! I might have to test some out one at a time.

[Nephasth]

I soaked them for just a little over an hour. Some are really shiny, but they were probably up against other tokens. If you try it, don't soak them longer than 10 mins and you might have decent results.

[markronz]

Sorry if CLR didn't do the job for you!  I found my information here:
http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/pachislo-modifications/3681-tokens-clean-not-clean-question.html

It worked well for me, however most of my tokens are silver looking, not brass.   While searching around just now I found a different interesting article.  Looks like they were trying to clean brass tokens in there, and there's a lot of different cleaning solutions discussed:

http://shaunroot.net/arcade/?p=14

Hope that is of some help!

[Nephasth]

I spent 4 hours drying 15lbs of tokens last night. I'm not sure if it was actually CLR that discolored the brass tokens. The copper color will come off with some slight scratching (with a screwdriver) to reveal shiny brass underneath. There was a hand full low quality Jesus tokens in the mix. The edges turned black after the CLR and the tokens are much lighter than brass tokens of the same size. The Jesus tokens appeared to be brass, but they're some sort of composite. Maybe the discoloration of the brass tokens was caused by the breakdown of the Jesus tokens. If I can ever borrow a tumbler, I'm going to run my brass tokens through one. I'm pretty sure the copper color will come off.

[Nephasth]

If I can ever borrow a tumbler, I'm going to run my brass tokens through one. I'm pretty sure the copper color will come off.

Turns out my old man has a tumbler and media stashed away in his hoard somewhere. I'll be giving it a go this weekend.

[Thenasty]

just use a blow dryer