Started tumbling my finds in a rock tumbler...

mr helton

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I never did this before.

I'd like to start off saying that I know it completely destroys any value that my finds might have, but I don't plan to sell them anyway, and I feel it makes everything really pretty to look at.

That said, I'll describe it a bit. I got the dual tumbler from harbor freight. I turned a bunch of pennies (including ugly as hell wheats I dug up) for 2 hours (with pea gravel, water, and a drop of dish soap). They turned out MUCH cleaner than they were, and all of them are now very easily readable and the details pop out. Well worth it in my opinion. I wouldn't do this with anything valuable but it's great for stuff that isn't that I plan to keep.

I also cleaned some of the metal things I dug up that aren't coins, all of which came out spotless. Even a rusty old keychain full of keys is shiny looking after 2 hours. I tumbled my "silver" change along with the actual silver quarter that I dug up and they look great, especially the 1943 quarter, it looks shiny and new!

There was a dirty and rusty looking skeleton ring I dug up and after 1.5 hours in the tumbler it looks wearable.

Last night I decided to put it to the test, so I took the absolute worst pennies that I found in 6 $25 boxes of rolls and ran it from 9:30 last night to 5 am this morning. 2.webp1.webp

As you can see they all came out looking great compared to what they were. The ones that look silver are clad pennies that were corroded so badly that all the copper was gone. The clad pennies that weren't badly corroded came out looking fine.

I'm thrilled with it!
 

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I've been tumbling my clad the last few years with a $15 tumbler from Harbor Frieght , throw a handful of desert sand in with the coins an a little water an a drop or 2 of dish soap an let go , they come out great I check em the good stuff I keep the rest goes into a jug an when the jugs full I hit the cion star .
 

i use a vibratory tumbler from harbor freight works great i use stone and stainless steel mediums for the really bad coins .
 

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