I need tips on tumbling coins

[togamac]

I'd appreciate it if any of you who have experience with cleaning coins by tumbling would share your experiences with me. What do you put in the tumbler, how long do you tumble, etc.
Thanks and happy hunting, mac

 

[bandido]

Did some last night and doing some more today...I put about 2/3 the drum full of fish gravel, table spoon of liquid clothing wash, tablespoon of vinegar, filled the drum about 7/8 full of water, and tumbled for 24 hours.

Seperate the pennies from the clad and nickles. The penny drum can go less than 24 hours (12-16), but the clad usually needs at least 24 hours. Hope this helps!!

 

[togamac]

Thank you Bandido; just the info I was looking for, I'll give it a try.

 

[MNCoinhunter]

For clad coins I take a simpler route. I just fill the drum half full of coins, add water until it just covers them, add a drop of dish soap and let them tumble into each other overnight. Make sure that you tumble pennies separately. They come out plenty clean for the bank. Good luck !

 

[TC-NM]

I use a double drum tumbler, one for pennies and the other for nickels and all the clad. Add hot water to about 3/4 full, 6 to 8 oz. of fish tank gravel and a couple of squirts of dish soap. I leave on for 3 to 4 hour then check on it. If the water is dirty, drain and add more hot water and dish soap.

It's solely up to you in how long and how clean you want your cash. I drain and rinse and let every thing dry on newspapers.

I sometimes cash it in or save it for purchasing detector equipment.

Good Luck,

TC-NM

 

[MarkCZ]

I thought the magic clean was,
Vinegar and salt and about 20 minutes or so of tumbling? (and aquarium gravel)

Mark

 

[skookum]

High,
I would not add salt to vinegar.
Vinegar is acidic - salt is the exact opposite (basic)
So if you add salt to vinegar-you are decreasing the acidity of the vinegar.
Add enough salt and you will end up with a neutral solution - about the same as using water.
Kind of counter-productive.
Just my 2 bits worth.
HH
skookum

 

[5900_XL-1]

That's about the same way I do it except that I do mix in a good "handfull" of driveway gravel, or kiddie park gravel, whatever you have at the time. I have elected to not load the barrell down so I keep mine at the half filled level and water barely over the mixture. The main thing I learned was that I really didn't need brilliant, perfect coins, so running overnight was over kill for me. 3-4 hours runtime for me and I am done with that batch. There's no seeing if the water is real dirty and re-running. I keep it simple, and the bank and stores never bark at me. Jm2c. martin

For clad coins I take a simpler route. I just fill the drum half full of coins, add water until it just covers them, add a drop of dish soap and let them tumble into each other overnight. Make sure that you tumble pennies separately. They come out plenty clean for the bank. Good luck !

 

[slingshot]

High,
I would not add salt to vinegar.
Vinegar is acidic - salt is the exact opposite (basic)
So if you add salt to vinegar-you are decreasing the acidity of the vinegar.
Add enough salt and you will end up with a neutral solution - about the same as using water.
Kind of counter-productive.
Just my 2 bits worth.
HH
skookum

Ha! It will eat the coating off the coins if you leave it too long. I use this mixture in a sports bottle-shake it for about 15 minutes and I'm done. I keep shaking so the coins won't have time to discolor each other and shake it thru about 3 clear water rinses.

 

[Ism]

High,
I would not add salt to vinegar.
Vinegar is acidic - salt is the exact opposite (basic)
So if you add salt to vinegar-you are decreasing the acidity of the vinegar.
Add enough salt and you will end up with a neutral solution - about the same as using water.
Kind of counter-productive.
Just my 2 bits worth.
HH
skookum

Actually, salt is the result of adding a base to an acid. Adding clothing soap (if its still a mild alkaline) and vinegar will cancel each other out.

 

[zeekeys]

Here is a post that I made a few months back.
I now only use a mixture of 1/2 concentrated lemon juice and 1/2 water. No rocks. You have to watch you tumbler for a few minutes to see if the drum will expand. If the drum expands stop tumbler and take the top off of the drum and put the top back on to let the air out. Start the tumbler and run for 30 minutes or so. Very fast and easy way to clean coins.
According to Grumpy concentrated lemon juice should be room temperature and it will not build pressure up in the drum. Haven't tried (room temperture) warm lemon juice yet. The times I have tumbled the coins the lemon juice I used was out of the refrigerator...Z
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?85,1761219