Good morning, everyone!
I received an email from a friend who was curious about some coins he found, thinking they might be “fake dimes.” After a brief moment of confusion, I did some investigating. It turns out these coins are completely genuine and even have their own name!
These are coins that accidentally get left in pockets when clothes are washed. They then fall out during the drying cycle, spinning endlessly until their edges become flattened and their diameter reduces. According to CoinCommunity.com:
“In commercial machines, there’s an inner tub for clothes and an outer tub around it. Coins can slip from clothing and into the narrow gap between the tubs, tumbling through many cycles. If a coin’s thickness increases, it can eventually roll on its edge between the tubs rather than continually being thrown around.”
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So essentially, after who knows how many cycles, these coins come out smaller and cleaner—pretty neat, right? Until now, I hadn’t seen these before, but it seems that once you become aware of something, you start spotting it everywhere! I even found some dryer coins in a collection I just liquidated and discovered a few in my own dryer this week! What’s going on?!
[Two dimes and a penny from the collection I liquidated.]
[Found IN MY DRYER! Check out the right penny compared to the left one—it’s tiny! If it weren’t for some remaining color and part of “Liberty” showing, I’d think it was a dime.]
[Close-up of rims after all that spinning.]
Interestingly, the Coin Community member mentioned these are found in commercial dryers and not inside the main tub where clothes go, but they were mistaken on both fronts. I found these coins at the bottom of my regular household dryer, inside the main tub with my clothes! I noticed something shiny wedged in a crevice, and when I removed it with pliers, it turned out to be a coin! I scanned the tub and found two more, which I pulled out with my fingers.
The strange thing is, these coins couldn’t have been there long, as I do the laundry daily and would certainly have noticed them. Could they have initially fallen between the tubs and later squeezed through into the main tub? That doesn’t seem possible, right?
Anyway, these coins are quite fascinating, and as you can see, they affect all types of denominations—not just dimes. One penny in particular became very glossy and changed color entirely! No wonder my friend thought his dimes were fake—they just don’t look or feel “right” when you hold them.
(The thick rim on the left side looks like a “cover” rather than a rim! I even tried using a screwdriver to pop it off but couldn’t.)
After 45 years, I had never come across these, and now I own 6 adorable dryer coins. Maybe you have one in your collection—or dryer—and don’t even know it? Turns out, you can really find coins anywhere! 😂
Happy Collecting!
PS: They don’t have any value beyond their face value, but I bet your collector friends would find them interesting enough to trade for them!
