Why not a good reference on how to destroy your coins? http://pennycollector.com/tips_clean.html Feel free to add to this list and I'll email any additions to "the penny collector" so that he can be the ONLY source one ever need go to for ideas on how to ruin a coin.
Well since they are literally going to destroy the coin anyway - these are elongated coin collectors that get their coins smashed in a machine - I kinda doubt that ruining them by cleaning is high on their list of priorities. They are cleaning them after all so they have the natural copper color when they the coin gets squished.
Normally the entire design on the coin is wiped out when it is squished and new design is stamped on the squished coin. So any cleaning would hardly matter as all traces of it would be destroyed when the coin is squished and re-minted. But it's not collectors of exonumia, we are just talking about collectors of elongated coins here. There are many forms of exonumia besides elongated coins. But consider this, it you took a chocolate toned cent and squished it, new copper is going to be exposed. Thus what you would end up with is an elongated coin with swirling colors of bright copper and that chocolate toned copper. That's why they clean them first, so the end product is at least all the same color - bright copper. Then it can tone naturally afterwards. But if nothing else, your post sure illustrates all, or most, of the things that coin collector should not do.
the problem with this site is that some new collector could find this and think it is a real way to take care of their coins because they do not specify that this is for smashing coins.
Exactly. If someone Googles "cleaning pennies" it pops up as #3 on the list! They should also use actual elongated pieces for their test results.
Not on that page they don't, but if you start on their Home page - http://www.pennycollector.com/index.html - it leaves little room for doubt.
but you know as well as I do Doug that people read and take in what ever is easiest to attain and take it as the truth. No one digs deap into a web page to see if it is specific to any particular type of collecting. They just assum that it is a general statement on how to clean coins.
This has been around for a while now. It has been mentioned in many places before and as already noted, just one of the many methods around on how to ruin, destroy, mangle, etc any coin. If you think about it those cleaning tips are just someone's dumb way to advertise stupidity but it is read by many that will try what they see there. Now as to how to ruin coins. Kids every day place coins on RR tracks, throw in wishing wells, throw in Rivers, Lakes, etc. Adults too place under new concrete for luck, smash in machines to make those silly bent looking things. Then too the people that melt them in chem labs, smelters for the Copper or Silver, made into jewlery, shot at with a gun and on and on and on. I suppose if there was a post on how many ways can you ruin coins, there would be a lot more than how not to.
What you say is true, but your comment only helps prove my point. For the page that shows the cleaning techniques is the one that is buried, the one that a web surfer would have to dig deep for just to see it. Most folks who visit that site are going to see the Home page first. And if they have an interest in elngated coins, then they might dig into the site. Otherwise, they'll never even see the cleaning page.
I understand what you are saying, but that very page does come up in google search results. People can navigate to it without ever having to see another page on the website. Can't remember exactly what I was looking for when I found it, but that is the page Google directed me to.
Every year I go to FUN, I always make it a point to stop by the table with the elongated machine to pick up one or two with dates/mintmarks that I don't have. I could probably be a hog and take a bunch (they're free!), but I doubt that the dealer would like it. Next January, I think I'll take a couple dozen pennies with me and swap for them. Chris
And for those that find it that way - "This first technique uses a standard pencil eraser. Just start rubbing. The gunk will slowly be removed revealing a shiny new finish. For better results and less carpal tunnel pain, attach a short pencil to a standard variable-speed drill. Electric erasors are also available at any drafting supply store. They use long strips of erasor so you won't waste a bunch of pencils. The final result will be a well-earned, gleaming penny just waiting to be smashed. " Now if that isn't a clue as to what's going on - then I surrender.
Pre-cleaning a darkened (chocolate or toned) coin does aid in the readability of newly pressed design and the flattened side. Depending on the level of detail. Obviously, cleaning a coin without anything wrong with the surface would make no difference squashed or not squashed. Season collectors know to use only coins pre-1981 (1982 has some zinc coated that the commoner might not be able to identify by sight). I have a coffee can full of 1941's that use and I never clean them before squashing. I want to keep the vintage chocolate brown color after they are squashed. Seasoned collectors also know that if you put the coin in with Lincoln's head on the right, you will have the design pressed on the reverse and the obverse will be flattened; thus leaving a readable date on the flat back surface of your squashed penny.
At the clinic, there's a display of things that people had either eaten or stuck in their ears or noses. Mixed in with the marbles, buttons, and razor blades (yes, razor blades!!!), was a shiny 1957 Wheatie. Is digestive juices an acceptable way to clean coins?
