Tumbling cents

[CaptainRobin]

Morning, Y'all...

I have about 30 pounds of copper and wheat cents found in MO back before '82, all copper. Missouri soil is hard on coppers. All I know for sure is there are no key dates. Surface encrustation is too bad to really look at them. I ain't going to try to individually clean each coin, so decided to order a rock tumbler from Harbor Freight. I have no experience in tumbling coins, just know enough that different metals should not be tumbled together. I also have a lot of discolored Jefferson and Indian head nickels, and some discolored 'junk silver' I'd like to clean up. I'm asking for suggestions for a tumbling medium/cleanser. I'm gonna do this. Thanks in advance for suggestions. I'll let Y'all know results.

 

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[DeepseekerADS]

I've experimented myself. I used aquarium rocks, water and just a tiny squirt of dish soap - ended up tumbling them again to get all the soap off them.

Another time I used distilled vinegar and salt - they came out seriously discolored - and had to tumble them again with just the aquarium rocks and straight water.

Until I have another bright idea or a better method is posted here, I'll stick with the rocks & water. It does work. About a half hour gets them clean enough to identify. Zincolns with rot really get rotten!

 

[CaptainRobin]

Thanks for the suggestion. Still awaiting tumbler to be delivered.

 

[sprailroad]

Good morning Captain Ron. What I've learned and or do. For clad dimes and Quarters, lemon juice and salt, this I learned from a fellow T-Net member, use just enough lemon juice to cover the coins, add two teaspoons of salt, and the gravel, I tumble for about an hour or so, and I tell ya, the discolored dimes and quarters come out looking almost pretty much new. Same with nickels, but tumble them by themselves. Penny's. I use something called "Magic Tumble Clean" I buy from Kellyco, and it works great on copper, not so with clad coins, they still come out discolored, again lemon juice/salt for them. Now, what I have learned what NOT to do, I tried the lemon juice/salt thing with penny's, and not only do they come out discolored as Deepseeker said, but worst, the ZINC penny's, of which many are alittle or a lot corroded, well, it may very well be a chemical reaction between the lemon juice, salt, copper and ZINC, but that tumbler took on the shape of a balloon ready to explode, no joke, it was like a cartoon, I took it outside and when I loosened the top, it more than "popped", don't do that. I can only tumble 100 penny's at a time, and with 30 pounds?

 

[TwistedT]

i use aquarium rocks (small but jaggedy) and a squirt of Dawn dish soap.
make sure lid is on tight - a mess if it isnt.
fill tumbler half full or so with rocks, add coins till 3/4 full, add water till it covers coins, then add a squirt of dish soap.
seal and tumble for at least 2 hrs - this will clean them good enough for use or just for looking at. you're not trying to get them
in mint condition

TIP - do the pennies by themselves - no other coins mixed in.
TIP - all other coins (nickels,dimes quarters) can be mixed for cleaning

 

[digger460]

Good morning Captain Ron. What I've learned and or do. For clad dimes and Quarters, lemon juice and salt, this I learned from a fellow T-Net member, use just enough lemon juice to cover the coins, add two teaspoons of salt, and the gravel, I tumble for about an hour or so, and I tell ya, the discolored dimes and quarters come out looking almost pretty much new. Same with nickels, but tumble them by themselves. Penny's. I use something called "Magic Tumble Clean" I buy from Kellyco, and it works great on copper, not so with clad coins, they still come out discolored, again lemon juice/salt for them. Now, what I have learned what NOT to do, I tried the lemon juice/salt thing with penny's, and not only do they come out discolored as Deepseeker said, but worst, the ZINC penny's, of which many are alittle or a lot corroded, well, it may very well be a chemical reaction between the lemon juice, salt, copper and ZINC, but that tumbler took on the shape of a balloon ready to explode, no joke, it was like a cartoon, I took it outside and when I loosened the top, it more than "popped", don't do that. I can only tumble 100 penny's at a time, and with 30 pounds?

"I took it outside and when I loosened the top, it more than "popped", don't do that. I can only tumble 100 penny's at a time, and with 30 pounds?"

That must have quite a sight! Reminds me when I was a kid, playing with the science kit

 

[CaptainRobin]

Thanks everyone... the tumbler arrived this morning. No aquarium rocks on hand, none within 30 miles... I live out of town. Think I'm going to throw some clean builders sand & soap in with a bunch of no date Buffalo's for the trial run. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The Buffs are only worth five cents apiece.

 

[CaptainRobin]

Oops... read the owner's manual, states in bold type DO NOT USE WITH SAND. I reckon I won't try it until the weekend after I get to WallyWorld for some gravel.

 

[xr7ator]

No need to go to wallyworld for aquarium rocks. Get some road gravel from the first pile of it along a roadway or next to the county maintenance yard, etc. The last stuff I got, my neighbor had brought a bunch of it home and I grabbed a coffee can full.
The lemon and salt is the trick on clad including nickels. I do them all at once, no problem. Just DON'T rinse with hot water! The coins will turn rainbow's of colors, red, orange, green, blue.... rinse with cold water and dry on old towel. I find that once I do the lemon salt tumble, that the clad is etched and a white color. Then, I tumble them again with the gravel to polish and they look like they were never dug.

BACK TO THE CENTS. I agree with others. I don't fill my barrels more than 2/3rds full, however, to allow the tumbling action to work. I go about half full or a tad more. About half full with gravel, then add a handful of cents and then fill just up to the level of material with water. A little soap.....comet, dish soap....whatever, and let them tumble for hours and hours. The longer they tumble the cleaner they get. I'll do a load and if there's a few that still really look bad, they go into the next load for more tumble time.

 

[Loco-Digger]

I am a frugal person, I took 1/4" screening and sifted small stones out of my gravel driveway. You only need a bout a coffee cup full.

 

[trdking]

Good morning Captain Ron. What I've learned and or do. For clad dimes and Quarters, lemon juice and salt, this I learned from a fellow T-Net member, use just enough lemon juice to cover the coins, add two teaspoons of salt, and the gravel, I tumble for about an hour or so, and I tell ya, the discolored dimes and quarters come out looking almost pretty much new. Same with nickels, but tumble them by themselves. Penny's. I use something called "Magic Tumble Clean" I buy from Kellyco, and it works great on copper, not so with clad coins, they still come out discolored, again lemon juice/salt for them. Now, what I have learned what NOT to do, I tried the lemon juice/salt thing with penny's, and not only do they come out discolored as Deepseeker said, but worst, the ZINC penny's, of which many are alittle or a lot corroded, well, it may very well be a chemical reaction between the lemon juice, salt, copper and ZINC, but that tumbler took on the shape of a balloon ready to explode, no joke, it was like a cartoon, I took it outside and when I loosened the top, it more than "popped", don't do that. I can only tumble 100 penny's at a time, and with 30 pounds?

Zinc copper and lemon juice You just made a battery! What ever you do, check them often. You don't want to over tumble them. You will erase history

 

[andygold]

Thanks everyone... the tumbler arrived this morning. No aquarium rocks on hand, none within 30 miles... I live out of town. Think I'm going to throw some clean builders sand & soap in with a bunch of no date Buffalo's for the trial run. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The Buffs are only worth five cents apiece.

A little late to reply to this, but maybe some good info in this for others...

Safe-T-Sorb the stuff you throw down on oily stains on your driveway after doing an oil change (if you are messy) should work good for this purpose. It basically is natural colored aquarium gravel!!! I'm not kidding!!! It is a porous clay material with no toxins within. Go to any aquarium site where people have planted aquariums loaded with plants and you will see that's what a lot of them(us) use. It comes in a 40 or 50 pound bag for around US $5.00 (white bag with green writing) I get it from the local Tractor Supply store. For use in a fish tank, you need to rinse it quite well as it's quite dusty. For planted tanks, some people rinse it off, and then soak it in plant fertilizer (the ferts typically used for aquarium plants) which it soaks up like a sponge into the millions of pores in each piece of gravel. Then over time, the fertilizer sloooowly leaches out into the tank and feeds your plants. I've been using it for around a decade in my tanks. And, it sure beats the cost of buying overpriced aquarium gravel from a pet store.