INteresting story on cleaning pennies

[jrf30]

I'm not planning on cleaning an of the copper pennies I have separated with my ryedale, but it was an interesting read. YOu can clean pennies with vinegar and salt. Or taco sauce!

http://www.cruftbox.com/cruft/docs/cleaningcopper.html

 

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[vegasmtl]

Very interesting read. I have always been taught not to clean my coins, as it degrades the values. But this method(like the Olive Oil, which takes FOREVER) doesn't appear to affect the coin at all. I am gonna give it a try on a few.
Thanks for the read!

HH
vegasmtl

 

[ivan salis]

well to clean coins you want to keep for your private stash --not for sale --- tomato products and vinager are a acidic (thats why some folks get "heartburn" from tomato food products or vinager---it the acid in them that cleans the penny --salt is corrsive (eats metal ---salt water is rough on metal --- thus salt too helps clean it but left on the copper for too long these items can pit (eat holes in) the coin damaging it -- most coin dealers will not take "cleaned coins" or will deeply discount the price paid for them if they do take them --- Ivan

 

[vegasmtl]

Well, I gave it a go on a couple pre 82 cents, and it does clean it right off, very quickly in fact. But the color of the coin after is kinda orangish. In addition to the drop in what dealers would pay, I just don't care for the color afterwards.
That being said, on coins that I am hoarding, it would be nice if the weren't so dingy, so I will probably just use this on melt value coins to keep my stash a little cleaner. Going to try in on some melt value silver next, just to see.

HH
vegasmtl

 

[jewelerdave]

What in the jewelry industry is referred to as pickling acid is much more effective and less messy.
A mild acid that eats oxides of metal that is used to clean gold, silver, copper and all alloys in between.
I believe its just made from Sodium bi sulfate. Witch is used as a preservative in our foods...YUCK.

Word of Caution if your using any acid to clean metals, particularly if using pickle. One must use copper to dip the coins or copper tongs to get the coins out because if you use steel, any copper that gets dissolved will come out of solution and plate on to anything you put in there. Plating silver with copper or gold with copper or your steel with copper. You dont want to get it contaminated.

Also, any acid or cleaning agent used to pull oxides of coins is going to give you that strange color and "cleaned" look. When O2 bonds with the metal you get an oxide of that metal, if you drive the O2 off the surface of any metal the surface effect is still going to be there.

Likewise if you use a flame of Hydrogen and hit the surface of any oxidized metal the Hydrogen will bond with the oxygen and make a very clean surface under the flame...pull the flame away and the oxides come back with a vengeance.
Fun stuff but its impossible to restore a coins surface to original strike.

 

[vegasmtl]

Well, it did a great job on the melt silver stash, cleaned it right up. Now I won't get so icky when take my stash out and roll around in it!
The pennies I cleaned yesterday look almost as bad as did before I cleaned em, but the silver kept it's shine. I will only use this on melt silver from now on.
HH
vegasmtl

 

[sir]

i remember hearing about the vinegar and salt cleaning meathod. i used it to clean regular pennies and it gets rid of the brown but just gives it a color that is not anywhere near what it was if it was new.

 

[LJ]

I read somewhere in here about sticking pennies inside of a potato. I tried this with some pennies I found while MD'ing and it worked pretty well.

 

[cyberdan]

I have cleaned tarnish off of hundreds of cents with this method.
http://www.qwicksilver.co.uk/how.html

I did some research, I didn't want to spend the $25-30 for the plate. It is just aluminum.

Take a foil pie plate, put in a big tablespoon of arm & hammer WASHING SODA and add very hot tap water. add pennys to cover the bottom, they will clean in seconds. rince well and let dry flat without touching each other.

It will not remove crud or clean very old tarnished pennies, that is what tumblers are for.
Here is a story I wrote a few years ago:
http://www.westcoasters.org/tricks/clean.htm