MasonDixonMding
Elite Member
I have found a few old copper coins and have decided to just clean the dirt off with my fingers and a little tooth piping. What do you guys do to clean your old copper coins? Please send pics as examples.
To clean or not to clean that is the question
- Thread starter MasonDixonMding
- Start date
partyofone
Elite Member
I toothpick them just to see the details. I’ve ruined too many with water.
You can see the difference in these pics.
Attachments
ToySoldier
Forum Supporter
AquaChigger's video on cleaning up old copper coins is excellent. Verify it's not a key date, and then use the dirt to make the details stand out. Water never touches my Indian Head cents or Liberty cents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7cfVkadI_A
MTtrashdigger
Elite Member
I don't have any old large cents where I live so most of the copper coins I clean will be wheats. This may sound a bit off putting but I just take 3 or 4 Q tips and stick em in my mouth. Soak them with saliva and use them to clean the coins that I cannot see the dates through the dirt. Soaked end to scrub, and the other end to dry. Works pretty good on buffs too. Here is an example of a spit cleaned old Canadian penny. This is the closest thing to a large cent I will likely ever find in my area.
Attachments
CallMeGrey
Forum Supporter
That's a great video - thanks for sharing!
markinswpa
Forum Supporter
MDM Lots of good advice so far but will add my 2 cents as well.
1 Never try to clean old copper with water.
2 The longer old copper is in the ground the more brittle the detail becomes
3 Attempting to clean old copper is a !!!! shoot at best (particularly LCs) due
to the chemical composition of the soil, acid rain, fertilizers, weedkiller and so
on. For LCs a tooth picking and finger rub is the best I have found. Trying to clean with any other methods or the one I use on wheats and Ihps tend only to discolor and cause loss of detail. In the one pic you see what happened when I tried to clean it. That was a beautiful LC with all detail showing and I ruined it thinking I could make it look better. Lesson learned.
Next If an Ihp or wheat has a nice clean green patina I just brush the dirt off ( a soft nylon bristle brush ) Then give it a finger rub with some skin oil.
A while back I posted on cleaning crustry Ihps but since have modified my method a little. I am trying to get a nice clean set of wheaties to save, not all , just one of each, 1909 to 1958. I happen to be in tumbling and cleaning mode the last few days when I saw your post. I had a very cruddy penny I thought was an Ihp. The cruddy pic is actually after several toothpick scrapes. One side was as bad as the other. The mistake I made was letting it dry in between the steps. If you let it dry it just makes cleaning that much more difficult. It was obviously and well worn coin when dropped. Normally when I see a coin that worn I stop and move on to another. Likewise if I see green pitting in the surface.
So pic # 1 is what I use. Spray penny down add a little baking soda on top and spray again. I put it in a small plastic coffee can lid. Let sit for at least 2 hrs or longer, just keep surface wet. When ready I use a small wooden dial rod to hold coin down and begin to scrape with a toothpick, back and forth, side to side and circular till I see a slurry begin. This could take several tries. Once I see it braking down I use my gloved index finger to rub it while still holding it down. Then I pick it up and rub firmly between thumb and forefinger. Try holding with other hand and just rub parts of it at a time. Dry with a paper towel and repeat. The residual slurry in combo with the nylon glove starts to polish. If need be, drag through slurry on lid and repeat process. This is not a one and done, it takes time and patience and I hope I'm not wasting mine. It took several hours to clean that Ihp but for a well worn 140 yr old coin it didn't come out bad.
In the pic of the wheats the 1924 apparently was so crudded up it went in with the memorials and I only found it after a tumble. Shame too, it would have cleaned up nice. So don't tumble wheaties, very few come out looking good.
The 1918 wheat was cleaned using the above process, nowhere near as cruddy as the Ihp and took about 30 min. after a soak.
The 1909 unfortunately had pitting. When I see that I usually stop. You would have to grind and ruin any detail on the coin.
The last pic is of some really nice memorials after tumbling, I'll hang on to those. Very few come out looking that nice
Forgive me for the long post, I'm Irish. We're known for the gift of gab. I hope this help a bit. Good luck, Mark
Attachments
MasonDixonMding
Elite Member
Thank you for your help. The tooth pick and fingers is the way was doing it. Thanks to everyone for there time. This is a cool forum I am learning a lot. I haven’t been detecting for a year yet but because of everyone here I am way more nil age able and I’m sure I have found more finds because of it. THANKS!
I put hot sauce on a old penny I could see the date on (barely) before I put the sauce on. Afterwords the date gone. So I don’t recommend hot sauce on copper coins.
Florida Tabdigger
Elite Member
I usually wash them with warm soap and water to get the dirt off them and immediately dry them. I've heard of soaking them in olive oil, but never tried it. I leave them pretty much the way I find them. I found a 1914d wheaty 20 years or so ago and I am scared to do anything to it. I would love to get the green corrosion off it.
Attachments
Unless the coin is a high dollar IHP or wheatie, rinse off the dirt, heat a few ounces of hydrogen peroxide in a bowl in the microwave for maybe 20 seconds. Make sure it is hot. Drop in penny and wait until it quits bubbling. Remove, brush lightly with copper brush and rub lightly with olive oil. You will be surprised at how good they look.
OleSarge
Elite Member
I spit on them, wipe off the spit and real heavy crud with my glove, and toss them in my finds bag. I have hung up my metal detector for a while, but at the end of 2019 I cashed in nearly 20 pounds of pennies (wheaties and zincs) at the credit union coin counter. The IH pennies are in a plastic cup on a shelf in my garage......and the 300 odd pounds of scrap metal is safely tucked away in extra recycle containers outside my workshop.
