Cleaning Pennies?

Question

I have very old pennies from the 1920's. I want to sell them on e-bay, but they are very dull looking. I tried vinegar but it didn't seem to work. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

In all honesty-If you clean old coins it detracts from there value.It is best to leave them the way they are

Answer 2

Sprinkle with salt and vinegar, and rub them,you will see the difference. There is also a steak sauce called HP sauce that makes your pennies like new, Its a product of England but is sold in many of our supermarkets, I find it in King Kullen.
UPDATE!!!!!!! I just finished reading my book on vinegar here is how it is done. 1/4 cup of vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
clear shallow bowl (not metal)
20 very dirty pennies
2 rusty nails
Add vinegar and salt to bowl, and stir until salt dissolves Uning your fingers dip 1 one penny half way into mixture, and hold it there for 10 seconds . What happened?> The penny shold become shiny. The vinegar removes copper oxide, which is what causes pennies to become dirty.

Answer 3

Just leave the pennies alone, even if they look dull or have green substances on them called verdigris. The US 1920s pennies may not be worth much in well circulated grades(except 1922 without D, 1924-D), but if you clean them you'll slash their values even more. Serious coin collectors who bid on ebay won't even give cleaned coins a second look, let alone cleaned common pennies.

Answer 4

Put them in a glass of coke a cola, I had a chemistry teacher in high school do that experiment, it cleans pennies great and doesn't damage them. Also, that is how my grandfather, who is a coin collector, cleans his old pennies.

Answer 5

Coke coke coke coke coke leave it there for 24 hours dump it out over the sink run some water over it and if there is any coke stained on it then dab some alcohol on a cotton ball and rub it on the penny. goodluck.

Answer 6

Leave them alone, do not clean them, this destroys the value of the coins. Age old coins have to under go a cleaning process in order to tell what coin it is, yours are not age old.

Answer 7

I would use CLR and then if that didn't work I would try coke. Leave the pennies in some coke for twenty four hours.

Answer 8

There's a jewelry cleaner and it's called ''Quick Silver'', you can try that. Or you can get regular jewelry cleaner and soak your pennies in it for a few hours.
Scrubbing them with vinegar mixed with baking soda or Ajax will also help. :)

Answer 9

I agree with the answer leave them alone. I would not shine the pennies at all.

Answer 10

Pop them into a glass & fill the glass with coke cola. leave over night , and you will be surprised how clean they will be. Makes you think what it does to our inside´s