Against my better judgement.....

[Digger]

I am a big advocate of not cleaning your old coin finds. Oh, I did try my "D-cell electrolyisis method" on a 3-cent silver this past summer. But for the most part, I've tried to steer clear of cleaning my old coins. Silver usually comes out of my ground looking pretty good. And, depending on the site, pennies are usually presentable. But regardless of where I dig a nickel, they are always reddish brown and just plain ugly. As I was cataloging some of my coins this weekend, I came across several handfuls of old, ugly nickels. [attachment 119699 oldnickels.jpg] Tossing my better judgement aside, I decided to run some of them through my rock tumbler. Again, I don't recommend that anyone do this. But I have to admit, they came out much better than I expected. Good enough that I might have to do another batch. [attachment 119700 tumblednickels.jpg] HH Randy

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[Beale]

They came out looking good! I know most all the nickles I dig have that same reddish look. I will have to try this, Beale.

 

[Cliff KS]

They look pretty good to me. All the nickels I dig here are very reddish brown and they aren't even as old as most of yours.

 

[Goes4ever]

they turned out good, how long did you tumble them, what kind of media did you use? and what did you add to it? any cleaner, soap, etc?
on old nickles I have always cleaned them with vinegar and salt

 

[Digger]

I used my single barrel Thumler tumbler. I bought it from a detector dealer, so it included the ingredients for cleaning coins instead of polishing rocks. Same tumbler with different media. It came with two types of aggregate and two packages of powder cleanser. The instructions say to use the blue "rocks" and associated powder for silver and nickels. And the red "rocks" and powder for copper and brass. I used the blue rocks for the nickels, along with the powder. Recipe...... a handful of coins, half cup of the gravel, half cup of water and 2 t-spoons of the powder. Seal it up and let it roll for about 60 minutes. The water was nasty, so I rinsed them off, added two more spoons of the powder and another half cup of water, and ran them for an additional 45 minutes. If you noticed, the third nickel down on the left hand side was accidently cleaned with some copper. I don't know if it was the red rock or the copper from the coins that put the pink tint on the buffalo??? But it resembles the coloration of nickels I've tried to clean with salt (iodized) solution electrolysis.

For my clad, I use regular aquarium gravel and some Borax powder. (no sense wasting the high priced stuff on coins I'm taking back to the bank). But I still separate the silver colors from the coppers.

Randy

 

[mohayes1046]

People who reload ammunition often use crushed walnut shells as a cleaning/polishing medium. You can pick it up at a sporting goods store that handles reloading equipment.