Easy Method To Clean Wheaties!

relichunter4206

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I have found many wheaties in the past, and I have cleaned them in a very simple way. I take a cup, drop the penny in, submerge it with toothpaste, add some water, and then let it soak for 1-3 hours depending on how dirty the penny is. When time’s up, take and old tooth brush with toothpaste and scrub the penny for about a minute, and then rinse it off with water. Your penny should look like new. For example, I tried this with a 1952 wheatie which was very dirty, and it came out like a brand new penny.
 
What kind of toothpaste? And the wheat cents I find are toasted most of the time, sadly beyond cleaning :(

I don’t find a ton of wheats and I like to try and clean them to get a date.

Habe you tried this with really green coated copper coins? Any before / after pics?

But I’ve used toothpaste to clean sterling finds, works pretty good.

Thanks the the tip!
 
No problem! I used arm and hammer toothpaste, it seems to work best. The penny that I was talking about had some green, but the toothpaste didn’t get all of it off. It helped me get the date though, and I’m happy with that!

I’m not home right now, but as soon as I get home I will take some pics.
 
I just toss mine in the tumbler, come out fine with minimal effort. I'm sure your method is fine as well if you don't own a tumbler and want to clean them up.
 
I have found many wheaties in the past, and I have cleaned them in a very simple way. I take a cup, drop the penny in, submerge it with toothpaste, add some water, and then let it soak for 1-3 hours depending on how dirty the penny is. When time’s up, take and old tooth brush with toothpaste and scrub the penny for about a minute, and then rinse it off with water. Your penny should look like new. For example, I tried this with a 1952 wheatie which was very dirty, and it came out like a brand new penny.

Thanks for the tip! :D I, too, like collecting wheaties (even though I've only found one MDing :lol:).

Will definitely keep this in mind. In the past, I have scrubbed (non-valuable) coins with borax/baking soda and this method has also worked well. :D
 
Thanks, I'll keep this in mind! I usually only use water on my coins, but of course that will never do the trick when they're in terrible condition. I have used the old soak-in-vinegar method, and that can work wonders, too (probably depending on how bad the coin is). It will be interesting & fun to try out your technique... thank you for sharing it! :thumbsup:
 
I assume you check each one before you clean them, if you come across a valuable one like a 1914d any cleaning will destroy the value and lose you a ton of money if you wanted to sell them.
Kinda common sense so I know you know this.
Otherwise I get it, I would rather look at good condition coins than dirty wrecked up ones in a collection so I have been known to use my tumbler or steel wool on a few coins I own, myself.
It's your property so do with them as you will, just understand the coin guys will go nuts if you even mention cleaning any coins most of the time.
 
I figure the old dug coins that are not the valuable ones wont ever be valuable in my lifetime. so why not clean them. I don't clean v nickels anymore though, they show pitting. wheats-- have a go at it after checking date. I did clean an 1819 large cent that was a green mess. no choice but clean to even see what coin it was. actually stayed real dark and turned out nice.

I will try toothpaste too--thanks for the tip!
 
When you are ready to purchase a tumbler check out a local Harbor Freight.

They're like $30 for a single barrel and there are always coupons in the mail or newspaper and probably online.

I bought mine close to 8 years ago and still works as new to this day.
 
Yeah, I’m looking into buying a tumbler soon, it seems like the best method.


If you are looking for a tumbler I highly recommend going to Harbor Freight. They have a single and dual available. Get the dual so you can do clad and pennies at the same time (separate first). Their 20% coupons makes them even more affordable.
 
If you are looking for a tumbler I highly recommend going to Harbor Freight. They have a single and dual available. Get the dual so you can do clad and pennies at the same time (separate first). Their 20% coupons makes them even more affordable.

Heck, you dont really need to worry about separating them. As long as they're clean of debris and grime they feed into the coin counter the same. The more I detect, the less I care about how "pretty" these coins are. If they arent collectible, they get turned into cash which gets converted to silver.
 
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