Need help with cleaning of Clad Coins, Tokens, Etc.

[rocketman]

I just bought a coin tumbler and successfully cleaned pennies, nickles and dimes. I have a dual tumbler and did the pennies seperate and the nickels/dimes/quarters together. I've heard horror stories of mixing silver with copper, etc. Is there a reference for what metals can be cleaned together?? Some coins have copper/manganese or copper nickel, etc. I understand you don't tumble silver with copper. What do you do with tokens Foreign coins?? I guess a Foreign Coin book would indicate coin metal makeup. It might be easier knowing what NOT to mix? Any help, ideas, reference would be appreciated. Thanks, Rich

 

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[Alabaster]

I use a rock tumbler myself. I've had decent results using small aquarium rocks along with the clad coins. I'm still experimenting with different mixtures, but right now I typically just add warm water and a dash of window cleaner (e.g. Windex). I'll let it run for 12-24 hours before checking on the coins. I've been getting mixed results and sometimes find it almost impossible to remove the brown/orange film from the surface of the dimes and quarters. Haven't tried the tumbler to clean tokens or other non-valuables.

Would love to hear what others suggest...

(Edit) - Just noticed a post by "cosmic" who had good results using dryer lint. Might give this a try... Link: http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,369452.0.html

(Edit #2) - Tried adding what little dryer lint I had into the tumbler, but didn't notice any noteworthy difference.