That Rock Tumbler Works Well

[Natman]

I took the advice from some of you and let some totally obliterated pennies circulate in a rock tumbler overnight. It did wonders for most of the 550 Lincoln cents I've accumulated that I couldn't roll up because of their "cruddiness". Two of the pennies that were totally unrecognizable ended up being wheats.

The first one came out okay, but the second was very damaged..if you look closely you can see the "ON" of the word "ONE in the upper left.

The rest came out shiny and I won't feel too bad about bringing them to the bank. I ran out of grit so I used a sand/water mixture and did pretty good after all night in the tumbler.

Nat

 

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[LJ]

I have been thinking about getting one but I have had mixed reviews about the tumbler....not sure if I should or not. I had a few people tell me they damage coins but I guess it depends on what you use in the tumbler. What type of grit did you start with before you went to the sand?

 

[Natman]

Lejeuene, I wouldn't EVER use a tumbler for ANYTHING except to clean modern coins for the purpose of putting them back into circulation..tumblers actually wear the coin down after a period of time once the surface dirt is removed. If a coin is alrady corroded or severely damaged, a tumbler can actually worsen its condition.

Now if you're like me you may keep ALL coins you find, including modern Lincoln cents..I had 2 jars of them and they sat in a drawer for a long time. My parents got my son a rock tumbler a couple of years ago for Christmas and he no longer uses it. I was going to get rid of it but kept it, thinking he'll use it later on. When another board member mentioned a tumbler for cleaning coins, I decided to try it on my pennies and it worked great.

Craft stores and other places sell refill kits for rock tumblers, and it includes 3 kinds of grit with different coarseness. I used the coarse one for a few hours with a lot of water (enough to cover the coins in the tumbler bucket). The really bad ones (that you couldn't tell what they were) I left in a bit longer..I left the worst coins in the tumbler overnight, with a combination of used grit (from a previous coin cleaning) and sand. Even the badly damaged ones were easily recognized as pennies.

Hope this helps you!
Nat

 

[Stormtrooper154]

Cleaning you clad is the only thing you should use the tumbler for IMHO. Here is a few of my before and after pictures....

Before

After

 

[Nana40]

I got a tumbler for Christmas. Love it! Last year I had rolled around $100 worth of nasty crusty coins and felt very guilty of turning them into the bank. :P The week after Christmas I got it out of the box and decided to spend the day cleaning coins. WoW! It did a great job cleaning that clad! 8) So...I got brave and cleaned up my wheats. Another great turnout. Most of my older coins are found around old farm houses and they are really, really bad! Very hard to get a date off them and not very pleasing to look at. They hold very little monetary value, just valuable to me cause I found 'em and I have no plans of ever selling them, so I cleaned a few of them too. Glad I did! Now... I will say that I let them clean for 15 minutes at a time and checked on them to make sure they weren't falling apart! They didn't.
I know I am gonna get it for this post! If you don't like 'em cleaned....don't tumble!

Here's a couple of before and after....I probably could have left them in a bit long..but didn't want to push my luck.

1875 Mark
1911 V
1938 Luxembourg

 

[Stormtrooper154]

Your coins You do what you want with them.