Quarters not shinny

[gmv99_99]

I have a bunch of quarters to clean and I've been using a rock tumbler.
In the past using a mix of water, with drop of liquid soap the coins would come out clean and shinny.
Lately with the last few batches the mix comes out BLACK and the quarters look worse. When I use them the cashiers say they look fake.
All other batched coins; dimes, nickels and pennies come out clean and shinny but not the quarters.
Now I did find a shinny quarter in the batch with the others, but it was an actual silver quarter (1964).

Does anyone have an idea on what is different with these quarters and why they won't polish up and shine? Also, any idea on what will polish/shine up my batch of quarters?

 

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[thrillathahunt]

Put in a little fine sand in with the soap and water, that should do the trick. Oh, and I separate the clad from pennies.

 

[gmv99_99]

Thrill - I've always used sand, just forgot to mention that.. On another note my batches are either all pennies, nickels, dimes or quarters. No mixing is easier to deal with.
FYI - I've tried less soap and more water, no soap and little water and results just give me a darker coin. I just don't understand why the quarters are coming out so gray looking.
I think I'll try no water and just DRY SAND!
I'll post results, but it will be a few days as my belt on tumbler broke and I just ordered new.

 

[jlasserton]

I would use more sand and not water. If you clean your coins to much it can lose value. Just be careful you don't over clean with to many chemicals or other cleaning techniques.

 

[diggerdun]

Use ammonia in with the soap, water for the quarters, dimes, nickels. Come out shinning like new. I use more ammonia than water.

Use vinegar in with the pennies. Again more vinegar than water.

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Use ammonia in with the soap, water for the quarters, dimes, nickels. Come out shinning like new. I use more ammonia than water.

Use vinegar in with the pennies. Again more vinegar than water.

Good thread

 

[gmv99_99]

FYI -- Well it's much later now and I eventually determined that the liquid soap I was using was breaking down the black rubber barrel used in the rock tumbler.

I've tried a few things and have determined that if I oiled down the inside of the barrel it cut down the black transferring to the coins. Which worked to some degree. My final solution was to put an inner liner (plastic coffee can) in the barrel.. That worked the best, however trying to find a correctly sized can that would still provide the tumble was a challenge and then keeping it sealed inside the barrel was an issue also. I am thinking of screwing some boards into the inside of the coffee can to provide a better tumbling of the coins. We'll see how that works...

I forgot to say it in the past but, Thanks for the feed back! As you might of noticed I don't come here often.

Thanks again,
OBX Seeker

 

[gmv99_99]

Well here I am again trying to get grayed coins brighter looking.
I make a white hard plastic liner for tumbler and have orange vinyl piece for top and bottom. Again tumble with water and a few drops of WISK coins 1st run gets the grime off and they are grayish. 2nd try darker and water/mix comes out BLACK. Went to trying just SAND without water with same results all BLACK. It does not seem to be the black rubber of the tumbler causing the issue but the coins. Any idea why? FYI, I tumble the coins for 1-3 days on these tries at cleaning. I guess it is possible that the black rubber barrel could be the cause even with the liner.

Thanks for any replies,
OBX Seeker

 

[Dozer D]

Try soaking with the DAWN liquid soap (green works best), a few heavy drops in a plastic Rx bottle, mix & shake with very hot water, soak for a few days, shake once or twice a day, rinse with hot water & tap dry with clean paper towel. It will take off the oily residue that coins have and look very clean but not a polished effect. Try it on some "not so wanted coins" first. I usually do this with my junk SILVER coins that I stack, cleans them up but not polished.

 

[dejapooh]

Why are you polishing your coins?