When I take coins from "mucky" places - the floor of my car when the kids were young, something that got wet and shouldn't have, etc. I put them in the closed section of the utensil area of my dishwasher. Just leave them there when the dishwasher is running, and use them afterward. No dishwasher, just let them soak in a bucket with detergent, then rinse them in a colander (strainer).

If you are planning to use these in a coin collection, I suggest a different approach. For coin collections, use just water and a mild detergent. Acids, bases, and metal cleaners can adversely affect the value of coins for collections.

after cleaning lay them in a layer on a paper towel to dry.

see

http://www.wikihow.com/Clean-Coins

there's a great cleaner i always recomend to everyone. it's called MOTHERS metal cleaner. you can get it at auto zone. it works great on everything. i love it.