About cleaning coins?

[zamora]

Just bought a tumbler at harbor freight out the door under $24- anyway what do i clean coins with, how much sand or fish tank rocks, water , coins, dish soap, how long do i tumble, thanks for the info Bob

 

[FrankG]

There are lots of opinions on cleaning if you do a search on coin cleaning or cleaning finds either in this forum or from Google.

I have the 2 barrel harbor freight tumbler myself (junk, but it gets the job done and the price was right).

Don't mix your pennies with the other coins or the nickles, dimes, quarters will turn pink. I uses one of the typical recipes mentioned elsewhere. My goal is simply to get clad clean enough to turn in at the bank.

I fill about 1/3 of the drum full of coins.

I fill about 1/3 of the drum with aquarium gravel. I get it at wal-mart and it comes in several size stones. I get the small size and i think it was a 5 pound bag for about $3. It's more than enough because you reuse it.

I use a CAP full of simple green or other household dish washing solution.

A couple squirts of concentrated lemon juice. The juice is not necessary but it seems to get rid of stains a little better.

I tear a Brillo pad in half (mentioned elsewhere in this forum) and toss it in the drum

I fill the drum with water just enough to cover the stones, seal it up and let it rip.

How long to tumble? Depends on how dirty they are. Sometimes 2,4,8,12, 24 hours. Lately I've just been letting them go for 24 hours. It doesn't appear to do them any harm and even the horrible ones come out decent.

The photos show some typical before & after results.

BEFORE
[attachment 27651 BeforeTumble.jpg]

CU-Pennies - AFTER
[attachment 27652 Cu-PenniesAfterTumble.jpg]

Nickels, Dimes, Quarters - AFTER
[attachment 27654 CladAfterTumble.jpg]

 

[zamora]

n/t

 

[OzarksMike]

I have a tumbler from Harbor Freight and I like it. I'm a locksmith and read a post on a forum where the writer said that he cleans his tarnished key blanks with crushed corncobs. I tried it on a batch of coins I was taking to the bank. It worked surprisingly well, and without the mess of using liquids. I separated the coins, pennies from clad, but I think I'll try throwing them all in the tumbler together the next time. I'll let you know how they turn out.

 

[Uncle Willy]

That should work.


Bill

 

[coal digger]

does this work on wheat pennies also

 

[clockdryve]

n/t

 

[Waterdog]

I would not clean any older coins like this!