flinthunter
Well-known member
I'm recommending this for new tarnished pennies and clad only, not for the older collector coins. The extra ingredient I use in the tumbler mix is CITRATE. Its a liquid laxative that can be purchased at most drug stores for $2.00 to $3.00 for a 10 ounce bottle. In the tunbler I use a handful of gravel that ranges in size from sand to about pea sized. Throw in a handful of pennies or clad (don't mix clad and pennies when tumbling), add water to just cover the contents, a couple drops of dish soap, and about a teaspoon full of citrate. Tumble for about 8 hours. Most folks don't need their coins to come out that bright and shiny so less tumbling time should work for them. I haven't tried it yet but adding an extra teaspoon of citrate and tumbling for only about 4 hours should be good enough to get the coins fairly clean. Occasionally I find copper coins with a thick green crust (I'm not talking about the nice green patina on older copper). Soaking in a diluted solution of water and citrate will dissolve the crust. The coin needs to be looked at every few hours to check its progress because the solution can damage the coin. The citrate is something I'm experimenting with but it seems to help speed up the cleaning. Thought some of you might want to try it. [attachment 256801 DSC00195mdcoin.jpg][attachment 256802 DSC00197mdcoin.jpg][attachment 256803 DSC00199mdcoin.jpg]