how do you clean beach coins?

Nov 20, 2009
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There has to be a better way. I am using a vibrating tumbler with salt and vinegar. They come out gray or pink. Is there a way to ever get them shiny?
What do the rest of you do?
What do you do with all the silver jewelry? I am looking at hundreds of dull crusty silver rings and wondering what the smarter people do with them??? I am going to buy some stainless steel ball bearings to tumble them with, but Im wondering if there is another step I need to take before I dump them all in the tumbler???
Someone has to know?? Help me.
Julie in Newport Beach Ca
 

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stitchlips

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Apr 12, 2008
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J.GOLDHUNTER in OC CA said:
There has to be a better way. I am using a vibrating tumbler with salt and vinegar. They come out gray or pink. Is there a way to ever get them shiny?
What do the rest of you do?
What do you do with all the silver jewelry? I am looking at hundreds of dull crusty silver rings and wondering what the smarter people do with them??? I am going to buy some stainless steel ball bearings to tumble them with, but Im wondering if there is another step I need to take before I dump them all in the tumbler???
Someone has to know?? Help me.
Julie in Newport Beach Ca

I have had great results with electrolysis for silver and toothpaste works wonders.
 

Treasure_Hunter

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J.GOLDHUNTER in OC CA said:
There has to be a better way. I am using a vibrating tumbler with salt and vinegar. They come out gray or pink. Is there a way to ever get them shiny?
What do the rest of you do?
What do you do with all the silver jewelry? I am looking at hundreds of dull crusty silver rings and wondering what the smarter people do with them??? I am going to buy some stainless steel ball bearings to tumble them with, but Im wondering if there is another step I need to take before I dump them all in the tumbler???
Someone has to know?? Help me.
Julie in Newport Beach Ca

Tumbler with coarse sand or fine aquarium gravel works wonders on clad coins and silver...Just be sure if it is silver coins, that they are not special dates or worth a lot..
 

tri trackers

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I use a Harbor Freight tumbler with aquarium gravel, little bit of dish soap and water. Don't tumble everything together. Only tumble pennies with pennies! I only tumble nickels with nickels and so on. You may be able to tumble dimes and quarters together. Remember not to overload your tumbler. Some of the zinc pennies may not ever look like a penny again depending on how long they have been out there.
Just my 2 cents.
Cindy
 

S.S.Tupperware

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Tri is right... pennies by them selves, and all other clad can go in together. I have a batch tumbling as I type, 4 hours is usually enough to see what ya got. I don't bother trying to SHINE, too much money in Kw
 

Treasure_Hunter

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S.S.Tupperware said:
Tri is right... pennies by them selves, and all other clad can go in together. I have a batch tumbling as I type, 4 hours is usually enough to see what ya got. I don't bother trying to SHINE, too much money in Kw

I do the same as S.S., I have a dual barrol tumbler, one barrol is for pennies, the other is for all other coins. If you tumble pennies with the other coins it turns then a dirty pink or orange....
 

FLauthor

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For clad money, I use a wire wheel on my grinder and a pair of pliers. Clad coins found in saltwater are usually in some form of decay and are only worth face value. Naturally silver coins are handled differently as are the copper cents. The clad money is used for buying replacement alkaline batteries, tolls or making change. :wink:
 

Tank69

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Treasure_Hunter said:
S.S.Tupperware said:
Tri is right... pennies by them selves, and all other clad can go in together. I have a batch tumbling as I type, 4 hours is usually enough to see what ya got. I don't bother trying to SHINE, too much money in Kw

I do the same as S.S., I have a dual barrol tumbler, one barrol is for pennies, the other is for all other coins. If you tumble pennies with the other coins it turns then a dirty pink or orange....

I 4th it , its how I do it ....gets em clean enough that coin star eats em or shows you the trash bucket fillers . :icon_thumleft:
 

Sandman

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tri trackers said:
I use a Harbor Freight tumbler with aquarium gravel, little bit of dish soap and water. Don't tumble everything together. Only tumble pennies with pennies! I only tumble nickels with nickels and so on. You may be able to tumble dimes and quarters together. Remember not to overload your tumbler. Some of the zinc pennies may not ever look like a penny again depending on how long they have been out there.
Just my 2 cents.
Cindy
Cindy is right. I only tumble the really dirty incrused ones. The silver I check dates and shine with toothpaste. All the others go to a Coinstar machine at the super mart where I get a certificate for Cabela's or Amazon. :thumbsup:
 

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