Too much peroxide??

[TooManyHobbies]

Can you overdo it on cleaning a penny with peroxide? Or will it just clean until clean. I found a LC that I've put in peroxide a few times, but don't want to overdo it. If I can't overdo it, I'll keep soaking it until it's either smooth or a date appears. The New England soil seems to kill the coins. It looks rusty/rough, but must be just pitted/corroded.

 

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[Yarrum]

Tag Post.

 

[romeo-1]

That's as good as it is going to get...peroxide removes all of the soil and organic material and leaves the metal...mission accomplished.

 

[TooManyHobbies]

Thanks Romeo.

 

[michigan michael]

I used peroxide on a wheat cent before and it took the date clean off. It was a hard to read date but after soaking it was completely gone. Just my experience.

 

[DrJoePrime]

Same experience with peroxide.

I had a 1909 Lincoln but could not make out if it had a VDB ... so I soaked it and soaked it overnight and the next morning couldn't even see the 1909. Was sick for three weeks.

HH Joe

 

[Don in SJ]

Any copper coin that loses detail after soaking in peroxide, was not destroyed by the peroxide, it was destroyed by the corrosion that was holding the "details" you saw before cleaning. Peroxide removes dirt and grime, not solid metal, but when those who say they lost the date or details, well, that is becuase ther metal was severely corroded underneath (exfoliated corrosion) or just plain corroded. Dirt gets under it and air and when you soak it loosens the corroded, flaky metal and off it goes, especially if you rub the weak areas.

No cleaning will repair corrosion damage, not olive oil, mineral oil, peroxide, soda wash and aluminum foil and myrid of other ways to "clean" coppers. I have gotten many coppers over the years and continue to use peroxide on all, but will vary the time and amount of cleaning I will do, based on how bad the corrosion is. Sometimes I stop very early, satisfied that any further soaking will just make the coin "appear" to be worst. One reason I stress, always take a "before" photo of a copper before cleaning, so you can possibly get enough from that photo to ID, if after cleaning some details wash away.

Basically the coin is what the coin is when you find it, if not heavily corroded they should clean up beautifully, if not, blame the soil, not the cleaner.