Cleaning Old Coins

[smileysauce]

I have read about cleaning old coins on various other posts (olive oil, peroxide, etc.). Is there any effective way to clean off old coins without damaging them? Specifically the green encrustation on old pennies and nickels. Should I even bother to try to clean them up if there very encrusted? Thanks!

SS

 

[Digger]

I don't clean off my old coins. Well, except for rinsing them in fresh water. The silver and gold rinse off, looking like the day they were minted. I leave the old coppers with their green patina and the old nickels.... well, lets just say that they are still old nickels. Around here the soil turns them an reddish -orange. If the "encrustation" is stuck to the coin so badly that rinsing won't take it off, I leave it on. Chances are that any process you use to remove the crud will leave pits in the coin and degrade the numistic value. If the coin is super-valuable, I suppose you could have an expert take a look at it and determine whether or not the value would be enhanced by cleaning it. I doubt a coin expert would recommend cleaning any coin. As I said, I don't clean mine. I simply enjoy them as they come from the ground. JMHO HH Randy

 

[Erik]

Ketchup is a good mild way to clean old nickels - leave em in a dallop of Heinz for a few days...change it when it gets brown. You'll probably see pits easier after it's been cleaned, but unless it's a key date most of these old nickels and coppers that are so cruddy are probably worth little to nothing anyway....I'd rather display mine clean than dirty. I just clean the dirt off copper with a brass brush and rub on some olive oil. Have not tried the peroxide yet, but do have an ultrasonic cleaner - it hasn't performed as well as I thought it would and it's a top of the line unit.

 

[James N.D.]

It is always fun to clean the Pennies and Nickels no matter what. You just never know when you have a key date in amunst those other common dates. Just try and not to leave the coins in the Peroxide too long or it could pit the coins badly. You could also use the Olive Oil treatment and let them soak for a few days and then rinse them off. Then get yourself a really fine bristled Brass Brush and gently brush the coins and it should take the crud off of them without doing any harm to the coins. Good Luck and HH.