how to clean copper pennies without damaging them

Soak your quarters in lemon juice. So my suggestion would be to take a random corroded penny that you dont care about, and try this cleaning method. They were initially made of bronze, a 95 percent copper alloy. How to Clean Copper Coins Found in the Ground: Best Do's and Don'ts Using a soft cloth, apply your chosen cleaner to the coin and allow it to soak in for five minutes. CoinsForSale.com charges a 5 percent selling fee and no listing fee. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Just remember to rinse the pennies thoroughly after all cleaning methods. It only requires rubbing the penny with a pencil eraser. Continue to slowly add water to the baking soda until it takes on the consistency of paste. Vinegar and salt. Mix 1/4 cup salt, 1/4 cup flour and enough vinegar to make a thick paste. How to Clean Pennies with Vinegar: 11 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow Dish soap is another good cleaning method and is very gentle. The best thing about using rubbing alcohol is that it will remove the tarnish from your copper coin without damaging its surface. Required fields are marked *. That means a lot more options for getting them clean enough to use again. Garret ACE 250 Review You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. From there, use your brush to gently get the grime off of the coins before putting them back into the water again. These cookies do not store any personal information. If you have questions, always seek the help of a professional coin cleaner and coin grading service. Coins Metal Detectors Garret ACE 300 Review A common ingredient in DIY eco-friendly cleaners, the acetic acid in white vinegar can help wear away the contamination on your coins. They include: Fresh lemon juice Salt White vinegar A toothbrush Baking soda A small container A paper towel. Keep in mind that this is more of an abrasive than even the sand method and can do serious damage without the proper care. You can clean as many pennies you want with a single pencil eraser. Soak the coins in more salt and vinegar if they still look dirty. How do you clean old copper coins without damaging them? Keep reading below for the best methods for safely cleaning your wheat pennies at home. If you want to use tartaric acid on your pennies, all you have to do is dissolve some crystals of it in warm water. Hydrogen peroxide can prove effective in removing various materials, including organic material. Drop your coins into the mixture and let them sit for about 5 minutes. Listerine and other antiseptic mouthwashes can clean dirt, oil, and debris from old coins. Place your pennies at the bottom of the cup or glass so that they are not stacked on top of each other. Okay, so you have found some corroded pennies you want to clean and you have also gathered all the materials we listed above now its time for action. Ultrasonic cleaners work by microcavitation. If necessary, a little bit of gentle soap can be used, with Ivory soap being the preferred brand. Your email address will not be published. This way, you should not have to worry about cleaning them on a regular basis. Rubbing or scrubbing a coin (even with non-abrasive liquids) will leave microabrasions on your coin and cause a severe reduction of value or elimination of any collectible value. 2 Pour a few ounces of vinegar into a shallow dish. If possible, stick to water or dish soap for cleaning wheat pennies. Dont make the mistake of using something meant for regular coins on something older and more condition sensitive. If you are planning to keep the coins for your own collection, you may certainly clean them as you see fit. Something like a penny for example. Copper is a soft metal, so copper coins are prone to degrading over time. Step 6: Rinse Silver Coin With Cold Water. One of the main reasons for pennies becoming dirty is their continual circulation among people. Dry them off with paper towels. Start with a mixture of warm, soapy water when cleaning silver coins. Drop the pennies into the mixture for about 5 minutes. Apmex is a well-known auction site for coins. If your penny is really important to you. Baking Soda And Vinegar Great For Science Fair Volcanoes But Not For Enhancing Your Coins Value. In addition to the vinegar and lemon juice, ketchup can also be used to clean copper pennies. Every cleaner is thoroughly vetted and every cleaning is backed by a 100% money-back guarantee. If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Both can damage coins easily. Cleaning Copper With Ketchup: Ketchup can be used to clean a variety of copper products. But do notenothing is 100% safe or 100% fool proof. Rubbing the surface of a coin can damage it, even if you cannot see it. For a stronger treatment, let the coins soak in oil for about a day, then scrub them with a soft toothbrush. Paper Towels This process can get a bit messy. You may want to try using some non-abrasive cleaners (like vinegar) if youre worried about removing any patina on your coinand always keep in mind that these cleaners are only meant as a starting point! You can always put them on other websites like Facebook market, but you may not reach the intended audience with that forum. Salt and vinegar combinations have been used to clean coins for many yearsthis method is actually on display in one of the earlier videos I shared above. Dip one penny halfway into the liquid. With wheat pennies, you will want to fill a small dish with fresh water and some dish soap. A great way to clean coins without doing damage to them is using a bath of salt and isopropyl alcohol. AspenClean develops and manufactures its own line of 100% Natural, EcoCert certified, and EWG verified cleaning products. If youre using lemon juice, be sure that the penny is very well-cleaned beforehand and that its completely dry before applying the lemon juice. Fill up two plastic containers with distilled water and a tablespoon of mild hand soap. Vinegar solutions are effective for removing dark spots on coins, but they also tend to make coins look a little dull. One of the most important aspects of cleaning old coins is to know the value first. Other coins are molded from different metals, so the solution may not work as well on them. Mouthwash not only helps with dental health but can help you clean up dirty coins. You can clean a dug copper coin by removing layers of dirt, gently, with a toothpick, piece of wood, or your fingernail until getting down to the patina. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Follow these steps to make your pennies completely clean: Step 1 Pour a small quantity of vinegar into a bowl. According to renowned numismatists, Ivory soap, and water is the safest way used in cleaning steel pennies. For coins that are not terribly valuable, you can clean them yourself with little to no worry. They may damage the surface of the wheat penny and devalue them. Create a mixture using -cup vinegar of lemon juice and a teaspoon of table salt together into a bowl. They will, in fact, devalue. Press ESC to cancel. Passchal.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.comSitemap | Contact | Privacy Policy. Stir together until the soap is sudsy, then add your coins to the bowl. The more contact the coins have with one another the more damage they take on. There are countless things that it can be used for, cleaning old coins and even jewelry among them. Many people think that a shiny coin will be worth more than a tarnished, old looking coin. An alternative is to use vinyl erasers, but they do not contain abrasive, which is typically found in pencil erasers. Its best to wear rubber gloves when handling the ketchup and penny because they can both leave your hands stained red if you arent careful! You can also seek the services of the Numismatic Conservation Services. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Apply the paste with a microfiber cloth and rinse it off with water. For preservation purposes, most collectors recommend against treating collectible coins. You can also opt for durable plastic holders, which can be square or round. To clean a copper penny, squeeze out a small amount of tomato ketchup onto the face and back of the coin. If the water is not enough, continue down the list and use dish soap. Rinse off any excess liquid with water and set aside to dry. Rinse with freshwater and let air dry. Under Water Metal Detectors The level of water in the container should determine when you stop adding pennies into it because they must all get totally submerged into the solution for this process to work. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Wash each coin gently with a soft toothbrush before rinsing and drying it. Rinse with warm water and dry thoroughly. Hello internet and today i will be showing you how to clean your old coins without damaging them and I'll be cleaning my rare 1886 type 2 Indian head cent ju. So at the very least you need distilled water as a working medium. It does this by using the low levels of acids that are contained naturally in vinegar and lemon juice to remove the patina (brown oxidation) on the penny. Be gentle: A penny is a delicate coin and you dont want to scratch it up in the process of cleaning it. Let the coins sit in the mixture for about 10 or 15 minutes so that the soap can break down the grime. You will want to use a soft-bristled brush, one that has been well worn in as well as a soft cloth. First, do not every use any type of jewelry cleaner or metal polish on coins. Cheap Metal Detectors There are many options for selling wheat pennies. In 1909, a new design featuring President Abraham Lincon was introduced. This step is basically you leaving the pennies to soak inside the salt and lemon juice solution for 15 minutes. This method is the best way to clean your pennies, and it will produce a very bright orangey-copper color on your pennies. Use household cleaners: Basic household cleaners like baking soda, vinegar and salt will work wonders for your copper pennies! Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Add distilled water and a small amount of dish soap to your shallow bowl. Cleaning these will absolutely devalue them if they are not cleaned properlyso just be mindful of this. [1] 2 Add enough acetic acid (vinegar, white vinegar is most recommended) to moisten the salt into a paste. To clean your copper coins, start by adding some vinegar or orange juice to a small bowl, and stirring in 1 teaspoon of salt. How To Clean A Copper or Zinc Penny - Coin Collecting! Let them soak for about two hours or so, though if they are extremely dirty, you may want to let them sit for up to a week. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. In this video, I'm showing you the 2 safest methods to clean coins without devaluing them. Gold Nuggets Metal Detectors This is usually only a concern for industrial levels of exposure. If you have recently gone metal detecting and found several wheat pennies, what do you do with them now? There is even a high chance that you have all of them in your kitchen right now. If you feel that it needs longer, you can soak it for up to 15 minutes. The key is to first know what kind of coin you have. Coins made of nickel and silver will be easily cleaned; however, coins made out of copper will be harder to clean as copper reacts to more materials than other metals. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/e\/e9\/Clean-Copper-Coins-Step-1-Version-2.jpg\/v4-460px-Clean-Copper-Coins-Step-1-Version-2.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/e\/e9\/Clean-Copper-Coins-Step-1-Version-2.jpg\/aid5915095-v4-728px-Clean-Copper-Coins-Step-1-Version-2.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":259,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":410,"licensing":"