Cleaning a Steel Wheatie

AirmetTango

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I found a 1943 D steel Wheat Cent in the Coin Star return at my local grocery store this week, and as seen in the first three pics below, it was in pretty rough shape. It even had an odd coating on most of the reverse - the circular shape of the coating made me think it might have been glued to something at one point. I’ve never had the opportunity to clean a Steelie before, and since I figured I couldn’t hurt this one more than it already was, I decided to use it as my cleaning Guinea pig.

After perusing the interwebs for cleaning techniques, I decided to go with a hybrid of chemical and mechanical cleaning. I first dipped it in a 2:1 mixture of pure lemon juice:water with a dash of salt and timed it for 5 minutes. Removing it from the mixture, I neutralized the acids by rinsing in water and thoroughly rubbing in a baking soda paste. The 4th and 5th pictures below show the coin after the lemon juice and baking soda but before mechanical cleaning. The pics don’t do justice to the amazing difference - the light grey areas had a silvery shine. From there, I dried the coin and spent about an hour cleaning the front, back, and edges using a combination of my fingernail, Andre’s pencils, and 0000 steel wool to remove the remaining gunk and rust as best as I could. The lemon juice bath did a nice job of loosening whatever the coating on the reverse was...it was relatively easy to remove with my fingernail once the bath was done. When I was satisfied with how much rust was removed, I polished the coin surface again with a baking soda paste and rinsed with water. I finished with a dip in acetone to drive out any remaining water, dried, and immediately polished and coated it again with Renaissance wax.

The last four pictures are the final results, with the last two showing the Steelie side-by-side with a brand new, shiny penny to help visualize the after cleaning shine. There’s still some staining and the inevitable pitting from the corrosion, but I think it looks worlds better than before. Sure, it has no monetary value beyond face now that I’ve cleaned it, but it didn’t before I cleaned it, either. Increasing the value is never my goal when choosing to clean a found coin - just improving appearance.
 

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I agree, it looks great. Some users tell others that cleaning ruins numistic value, however I would bet that most coins out there have been cleaned in some way and this is not universally true unless you damage it.

This is a fine case of that. The steel whetie you started with I would never pay for. The finished whetie is something that may net near full market price.

Nicely done, looks great, congrats on the rare find.
 
I clean my coins as follows.

1. I have a small electrolysis system setup with a carbon anode.
2. I use washing soda, not baking soda or salt for safety.
3. I will run the coin in 2-4 minute batches, removing and rubbing by hand with washing soda after each run
4. When the coin looks clean enough, I stop and place into a protective sleeve.

Warning: DO NOT DO THIS WITH CLAD! The multi-metal makeup of clad coins will coat them in a copperish finish. It can only be done with coins that are mostly of a single metal type.
 
I almost forgot. I also will tumble lesser valued coins, and all coins I find preparing them for turn in at the bank. Going through a freshly tumbled batch of coins looking for a rare date or coin is my favorite part of the cleaning process.

I try to identify all coins that I tumble to avoid having valuable coins in there. My last tumble batch turned out a wheatie from a penny so crusty it could have been any year of a penny.
 
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