Cleaning wheat pennies

[tkessler77]

What is the best way to clean wheat pennies? Last night I found a wheat penny that looked like AU but it had a stain. It had lots of details on lincoln and the wheat.

 

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[usandthem]

Step away from the penny! Don't clean coins.

 

[chrisplay2004]

Best not to clean, but show us a pic of the stain if you can.

 

[madwest]

There are ways to clean them properly. Sometimes though a properly cleaned coin ends up aesthetically less appealing than the uncleaned one. Like others have said, proceed with caution.

 

[Generic_Lad]

I agree with the above posters. If you were talking about junk copper it would be one thing, but an AU coin will most likely be ruined by cleaning it. About the only coins that improve from cleaning are dug coins and coins that are -completely- black like a silver dime I found but couldn't even get a date or mintmark off of it, ended up being a 1957 Roosie.

 

[sagittarius98]

Some AU wheat pennies (later dates) have little value anyway, but I wouldn't clean it because you might just get into a habit of "It's dirty, I must clean it" which is never good.

 

[CoinFetcher]

I dug my first wheatie, and it's complelty green. ... I want.... to clean it.... *slaps self in face

I can see its a 1940 - that's about it. Any thoughts.

Also, I ran a morgan I bought under some water, and rubbed my thumb, and got most of the black off - was that bad? <--- serious question

 

[Merc Crazy]

Also, I ran a morgan I bought under some water, and rubbed my thumb, and got most of the black off - was that bad? <--- serious question

Yep. That would not grade.

 

[CoinFetcher]

really?? water, and a thumb? good gravy, won't try that one again. For some reason, I thought water was Okay. The only abrasive would have been the grit already on the coin getting rubbed around. - well, I only did that to 4 dollars. got some better morgans in the bunch that I didn't- a few of them show little wear on the high points. Just getting into coins, so I am very amateur. Can see some of the coins I have go for about 35 bucks on ebay in the completed listings. only paid a slight premium over melt for the morgans ( +1 dollar)

 

[jnb1994]

How would you reccomend cleaning a penny which isn't worth anything? I have a wheat that is completely covered in this blue-green rust like material. The front is completely covered, to the point that its difficult to even tell that lincoln is on the front, nevermind get a date. The only way I could tell it was a wheat is that enough of the back is readable that I could make out the location of 'one' in one cent and knew just from that, that it was a wheat

 

[Merc Crazy]

If it has green crap (Verdigris) all over it, don't even bother... cleaning it will get rid of the verdigris, but the verdigris has already eaten away the details of the coin... In other words, cleaning it will leave you with a pile of unrecognizable crap.

 

[BuffaloBoy]

i would personally not clean any coin... cleaning the coin may make it look nicer but all value is lost after cleaning a coin.

 

[sagittarius98]

How would you reccomend cleaning a penny which isn't worth anything? I have a wheat that is completely covered in this blue-green rust like material. The front is completely covered, to the point that its difficult to even tell that lincoln is on the front, nevermind get a date. The only way I could tell it was a wheat is that enough of the back is readable that I could make out the location of 'one' in one cent and knew just from that, that it was a wheat

You can do what ever you want to, the verdigris ruined the value anyway.

http://reviews.ebay.com/How-to-Remove-Verdigris-From-Coins?ugid=10000000017991989

 

[sagittarius98]

really?? water, and a thumb?

Water is okay, but not your thumb. Use cotton gloves or a soft cloth with mild soap.

 

[Merc Crazy]

Water is okay, but not your thumb. Use cotton gloves or a soft cloth with mild soap.

That's not okay either. If you don't know specifics on different cleaning techniques and what it does to coins, dont mess around with them.

 

[baddbluff]

I would never clean any coin - even common wheats that sell for a profit in bulk on eBay become worthless junk that can only get you a negative feedback when you try to dump them off on someone.

 

[sagittarius98]

That's not okay either. If you don't know specifics on different cleaning techniques and what it does to coins, dont mess around with them.

I was talking for low value coins. I would never clean high value coins by myself (would only send it off to NGC conservation).

 

[hotrod]

I heard form local coin shop to use olive oil because its all natural. They said they do that to there coins that are valuable . They also said ot doesn't hurt the value.

 

[Merc Crazy]

I heard form local coin shop to use olive oil because its all natural. They said they do that to there coins that are valuable . They also said ot doesn't hurt the value.

Wrong again. That is acceptable on ancients and not much else.

 

[madwest]

I heard form local coin shop to use olive oil because its all natural. They said they do that to there coins that are valuable . They also said ot doesn't hurt the value.

Olive oil is acidic - not as acidic as say lemon juice (which is also all natural and not a good idea for valuable coins). Anything acidic poses the risk of removing patina. If that happens, you lose pretty much all numismatic value of the coin.

If you have a circulated coin that has some value but needs cleaning, carry it in your pocket for 18mo. That will effectively "clean" it to some degree.