How do I clean corrosion from green pennies? The bank won't accept the green ones.?

Answer 1

best answer please.....i did a project on this in high school. dip them and leave them in ketchup for like ten minutes. you ll be amazed. ketchup has so much acid in it. imagine what it does to your stomach.

Answer 2

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RE:
How do I clean corrosion from green pennies? The bank won't accept the green ones.?

Answer 3

Most of the procedures the others describe either require cleaning each penny individually or will take "forever" because the material being used for cleaning off the green stuff is too wimpy! Because the value of the pennies is so small, unless you can find a way to do it quickly, it isn't even worth the effort!

Note: If the the pennies are green because they are very old, they might be worth something to collectors, so check the date of a few before proceding with "decontamination"

The first thing I would try is taking them to one of those automatic coin counting machines you see at grocery stores etc. You just dump them into a hopper and they are automatically counted and the machine pays in bills; I don't belive the machine checks for "greenness". (Note: most of these machines skim off a few % as a fee)

Second idea; roll the pennies in the 50c paper tubes; (take them to a different bank)

Third idea; take the pennies, mix in a plastic jar with some gravel, coarse sand and water and shake vigorously; it should knock off most of the green stuff. If you have a huge amount of green pennies you could borrow a cement mixer and do it on a larger scale the same way.

Fourth way] get some 20% muriatic acid (hardware store or builder supply center). This material is commonly used for etching concrete; unless you have a huge amount of pennies, a quart bottle will be more than enough. Carry out this procedure outdoors, safety glasses are strongly reccomended! Put some of the pennies in a plastic or glass container, carefully pour in the acid until well covered. There will be foaming, swirl gently, don't leave them in any longer than necessary to clean! Pour off the acid and rinse the pennies several times with hot water, and dump them out on paper towels to dry. Try it with a small number at first, until you get an idea how long they need to soak. The same acid can be re-used over and over until it is no longer effective. Make certian any acid spilled on you, or anything else, is washed off immediately! because you would need to buy the acid (a few$ at most) you would need to have at least several dollars worth of pennies to make this method pay off after expenses.

Answer 4

The bank is breaking the law by not accepting your pennies. I think you should throw a tantrum in their lobby.

We should have stopped minting pennies 30 years ago. They ain't worth the little bit of copper in them (presently 2.5%). It's so bad they had to make a stupid law against melting down pennies for scrap. If the ground were covered in pennies, you could barely make minimum wage picking them up.

I think it's time to knock a decimal place off our currency system; get rid of pennies, nickels and quarters.

Answer 5

Before you try any corrosive products like bleach, try using regular Ketchup. Cover the penney with ketchup and let set for a few minutes. Rinse with warm water and wipe with a soft cloth. Continue to remove any remaining discoloration.

Answer 6

Any copper cleaner will do. But I never heard of a bank that cared whether the pennies were green or not.

Answer 7

The cheapest way is to drop them in a container of Coke-a Cola. Yuo can buy copper cleaner but you really don't have to. Coke works fine.

Answer 8

Pour some vinegar over table salt and put the pennies in.

Answer 9

just easily fill a shot glass with very strong hot Sauce put the pennies in and let them sit for an hour and they will be sparkling clean

Answer 10

Leave in Coke or Vinegar overnight