What do you do with your old pennies/nickles (non silver)

[Jayman931]

I'm assuming its our soil that treats old copper and nickles so badly. I found some old wheat pennies this weekend. Found a 1918S which is a fairly low mintage. Unfortunately its black and am not sure how to conserve it. I'm guessing it will never be worth much. I soaked it in acetone for quite some time and some of the gunk came off. I guess I'm just going to keep soaking it and see what happens.

Does all soil treat coins the same way? I know we have some mineralized soil in MS. Is this the problem?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[New Orleans Relic]

Wow, nickels come up fine here in La.
Now pennies take a beating in our ground.
Got a zincoln last year with about 25% flaked away!
Silver coins I've dug all look like they were placed the day before.
Ray

 

[Jayman931]

Well the nickels fare better than the cents but they get a weird red color. I will post a pic of a few if I get a chance. And Zincolns do get abused!

 

[redbronco]

It's the PH in the ground around here that does the damage to the pennies. Got a small jar of the ones that won't go thru the coinstar machine.
Guess I will wind up wrapping these. I keep all the wheats and silver.