Cleaning coins with baking soda and white vinegar is effective and easy to do. Your reward is clean, shiny coins that are perfect for crafting, pressed-penny souvenirs or just the pleasure of having nice-looking pennies in your piggy bank.
Place coins in a bowl and pour 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 cup of lemon juice to cover the coins. Let the coins soak for at least 5 minutes but not more than 15 minutes. Remove the coins and gently scrub the residue with the toothbrush. Rinse the dirt off with water and dry with a cloth.
However coins will often have on them built up dirt and grease. This may get into the nooks and crannies of the coin. To remove this type of build up you can use a weak detergent solution with a soft cloth (Clux Wipe or similar will do the trick) to take this material off.
In a plastic container like those for storing your leftover foods or a small child sized bucket, add 1 cup of white vinegar and soak 4-5 coins in it. The longer you leave them to soak, the better the effect of the vinegar will be. For coins that are more than 50% corroded, it's advisable to soak them overnight.
Those tart little lemons work to remove copper oxide because they contain citric acid. Since lemon juice has the highest concentration of citric acid of any fruit, it works the best. Other juices that rank highly include lime, grapefruit, and orange juice.
Cleaning an old coin would remove the patina or toning that helps make it even more unique and visually appealing. Removing this effect can significantly reduce the value of the item. The other main reason you shouldn't clean old coins is that you can easily damage them.
Ultrasonic Cleaners
These coins are cleaned by using distilled water with a small amount of detergent in a special vibrating container. Acid based cleaners will eat away at a coin's surface diminishing its value.
Coke and off-brand colas will quickly remove the tarnish. Just don't drink the coke afterward. Coke contains phosphoric acid that cleans the oxides. Try a variety of citrus juices to see which works best or simply let your pennies soak in lemon juice.
Soap and Water - This is generally the only way to clean silvered and silver-plated coins, without damaging the silver. Ammonium - Windex works fine. This will clean the coin without damaging the silver.
This method involves the use of high-frequency sound waves to remove dirt, grime, and other contaminants from the surface of coins without damaging them. Ultrasonic cleaning is widely used by coin collectors, numismatists, and museums to restore the luster and shine of old and valuable coins.
Just like how hand sanitizer gets rid of germs on your hands, an alcohol scrub can eliminate germs on your coins. However, it's important to be careful with old or collectible coins. Add a cup of alcohol and a few tablespoons of salt to a container. Dump in your coins and let them soak for an hour or two.
Due to its mild abrasiveness, it removes stuck-on particles and will polish most hard substances, including coins. You can clean most coins using baking soda and water alone; however, you should note that cleaning old coins may decrease their value.
The vinegar and salt cleaned the coin very well as did the the Coca Cola. The coin in the vinegar was third best. Next was the orange juice and then the salt and water. The coin in the water didn't really clean it at all.
Pennies are made out of a metal called copper. The copper mixes with oxygen, the same gas that we breathe. This cause something called oxidation and makes the penny look dirty. Lemon juice has acid in it that removes the dirty color or oxidation and makes the penny nice and shiny again!
Some of the most effective household cleaners aren't meant to be mixed. You probably already know never to combine harsh chemicals like bleach and ammonia (or really, bleach and anything). But common pantry essentials that are often used for cleaning — like baking soda and vinegar — shouldn't be mixed either.
When you put your dirty pennies in the vinegar and salt, the copper oxide and some of the copper dissolve in the water. That means some copper atoms leave the penny and start floating around in the liquid. But when these copper atoms leave the penny, they leave some of their electrons behind.
Vinegar is a safe, all-natural household cleaner with the amazing ability to combat hard water stains. Pour some in a spray bottle and squirt any surface where you find hard water stains. Let it sit for five to 15 minutes to give the vinegar time to break down the minerals in the chalky, white stain.