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need help laundering money

quarky

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Oct 15, 2007
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For the last 10 years or so, I've been collecting the coins from my pocket and tossing them into a gallon jar. Its our nest egg. When it became full, I took it to my bank, which provides the service of a coin-counter.

Unfortunately, my stash of clunky currency was rejected, due to some corrosion on some of the pennies.
This may be conspiracy, but I'm thinking that the newer coin currency is of lower quality than the good old stuff.

After this humiliating rejection, i brought the coins back home and proceeded to launder them. I used to know some chemistry, but I screwed up.

Assuming that the greenish funk was an oxide of copper, and that the other funk was mostly the gumminess of time, I first gave the money an acetone wash. Seemed to work well, though, not effecting the corrosion funk.

I then flushed the coins with household vinegar, which seemed to be doing some good. I then let the heap of 'dough' sit in the vinegar over night.

This was probably a mistake.
The next morning, all of the coins, including the quarters, had a copper patina. For real, the quarters look like a big penny.

There's like $150 in this jar. And my bank isn't going to like it.
Should I try further chemistry? I have some strong acid (30% HCl) and some strong base (NaOH).

I've never had to launder money before. And the bank tellers weren't happy about my questions, as per proper money laundering techniques.

This really is a science question. For chemists. No economists please.
 
Step one is to sort the coins. Mixing disimilar metals and acid is generally not a good idea if you don't want them ruined.
 
This makes me want to try it. Is it that copper got lifted from the pennies and plated onto the quarters, or that the quarters' cupronickel coating corroded leaving behind copper?
 
Try cola. The Mythbusters cleaned some pennies by letting them soak overnight in Coke.

Steve S
 
IANA chemist, just a housewife. Go down to the hardware store or Wal-mart and get some Brasso. It's just basic metal polish; use as directed. (I'm assuming these coins aren't collectible, or else you wouldn't be trying to cash them in; Brasso will ruin a coin collection for collectors' purposes because the patina is part of what makes them collectible).

ETA: Try it on one coin of each denomination first, then if they don't come up "normal", I guess you'll need a chemist after all. :D
 
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phunk said:
Step one is to sort the coins. Mixing disimilar metals and acid is generally not a good idea if you don't want them ruined.
Click to expand...

+1. You put copper and iron together, the iron will protect the copper from rusting by rusting itself. You could try putting in an iron object with the copper coins in some acid like coke. The iron will take the oxide from the copper.

The British in the days of the sail put copper underneath the ships. Made them a lot faster, however it also rusted their iron nails.
 
If there's a Coinstar machine somewhere nearby you could probably run them through that. The machine takes a 10% cut, but you could use that up pretty quick just screwing around with the coins so that the bank will take them.
 
carefully mix a little toilet bowl cleaner (ammonium hydroxide) into water, in a glass jar in a well ventilated space (outside) the copper oxide should desolve
 
You also might try to find a CoinStar machine (usually hanging around in grocery stores). Assuming the gunk is off the coins they might be acceptable to the machine and then become Somebody Else's Problem (tm).

If the machine doesn't like them, it'll just spit them out.

Of course, CoinStar skims some percentage off the top so that might not be acceptable, either.

A
 
We used to use catsup on pennies and mayonaise on dimes but I think it takes some of the metal off.

Another trick is ajax or comet cleanser (brand unimportant) and crushed ice. The ice acts as the scrubber. Put it all in a container you can then shake.

And why rely on someone else to roll your change? You can get a cheap coin sorter at any thrift store and ask the bank for the rolls, though you may have to buy the rolls at an office supply store.
 
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Cleaning pennies is easy- salt and vinegar will do nicely, but DON'T let them soak very long, and wash the mixture off WELL. If you leave it on and exposed to air, you'll get pretty crystals forming on your coins.

If you've managed to rust the quarters, try putting them in vinegar on a few layers of aluminum foil. If they're coated with copper....good luck.
 
quadraginta said:
If there's a Coinstar machine somewhere nearby you could probably run them through that. The machine takes a 10% cut, but you could use that up pretty quick just screwing around with the coins so that the bank will take them.
Click to expand...

It takes no percentage if you get Amazon credits instead of cash. I shop at Amazon all the time, so this works well for me.
 
Buckaroo said:
It takes no percentage if you get Amazon credits instead of cash. I shop at Amazon all the time, so this works well for me.
Click to expand...

The time and resources he's already spent on this project, that percentage is long gone.

He'd have come out ahead if he'd gone to Coinstar (or one of its competitors) straight from the bank. At this point, he's just throwing good money after bad.
 
quadraginta said:
If there's a Coinstar machine somewhere nearby you could probably run them through that. The machine takes a 10% cut,
Click to expand...

My local bank (USBank) has a similar machine but it doesn't take a cut, assuming you're a customer of the bank.

Steve S
 
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