Cleaning -Copper

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How to Clean Copper Coins in Seconds.

Many coins are dirty and hard to read when they are found. It's sometimes necessary to clean your copper coins to reveal their natural luster. If done right, this cleaning can make them look like new. Follow the steps bellow to make your copper coins sparkle.


Step 1
Place 1 tsp. salt in a small container. You'll want to use more if you plan on cleaning a lot of copper coins.
Step 22
Mix vinegar into the salt. Add enough to soak all of the salt.
Step 33
Apply this mixture as a paste to scrub the copper coins. You can clean them with your fingers or a tooth or nail brush.
Step 44
Soak badly stained copper coins overnight in the salt and vinegar solution. Check the coins every couple of hours to determine if they are ready.
Step 55
Use a brass brush on copper coins you don't want to soak or scrub. Rub it gently in a circular motion.
Step 66
Wet your copper coins and rub baking soda into them with a toothbrush. This is a good method to use when you're afraid of scratching the coins with a regular brush.

At the end it will say

Tips and Warnings


It is strongly recommended by most coin collectors that you never clean a coin that may be worth money. Coin dealers prefer to purchase coins in their natural state, and cleaning may actually decrease the value of your copper coins.


The salt and vinegar mix is actually a mild acid, and may damage delicate coins.



Small warning signs for the Tips sorry it not know know to put them in.

 

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It's preposterous.

The warning at the end should be in all caps, and should be at both the beginning and end of the article.

Brass brush, indeed.

 

Wouldn't a dremel wire brush work just as easy. Especially on Stella's. LOL

Someone seriously made that up in jest. I don't think even a novice coin collector would fall for that.

Although, I get coins sent in for grading that are horribly cleaned. One woman sent me 20 Proof D mint quarters that were highly buffed to shine just like a proof coin. When I returned them she sent me a not so nice email telling me I was a joke and knew absolutely nothing about coins. :-(( I guess....if they have a mirror shine they are a proof. ?????

 

I believe in conservation by that is hideous coin advice. Maybe for badly encrusted ancients only if you really know what you doing. Cleaning by these methods would deem the coins virtually worthless. Vinegar is a strong acid. A brass brush? I don't think any comment is needed. The insanity speaks for itself. Only conservation methods I curretly believe in is brief soaks in pure acetone or distilled water (10-30 seconds) or soak in mineral oil or Blue Ribbon, dab dry and place in proper storage method- airtight or intercept shield or something similar and store is a very low humidity environment. Most people believe do nothing and store properly or at the most do distilled water or acetone if needed and store properly and don't touch the face of the coins your hands.:thumb:

 

I don't clean by coins
Here is the link for more reading on coin collecting.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2240323_cle...ce=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

 

Sandblasting works well also.

Come on folks you don't clean copper. Everybody knows (don't they) that you do not clean copper coins. Especially to revive red color or luster unless it on a coin your going to give to the pizza delivery man.

There are however ways to improve SOME copper coins.
This is what I have found works.

1. For a brown copper coin with crud in the devises you can soak in olive oil and use a GREEN rose thorn or very, very soft toothbrush and improve the aesthetics dramatically. I have had great success with this process (the reason for the GREEN thorn is it will bend and not easily cut through the brown patina).
2. A product called coin care does the same thing but does not have the acidity of olive oil. Best is olive oil followed by coin care to remove any excess olive oil.
3. Some folks use mineral oil but I do not. (no reason just have the others and they work fine).
4. The thing to avoid is never while remove dirt or oil from the coin use a harsh wiping or rubbing method - that will cut through the patina of the coins brown skin at times and show bright copper.
5. I never use soap or water, coin cleaning products, acid, abrasives or stiff brushes on my copper unless I want to ruin the coin or to see (on a invaluable wheat cent) at what point you can go and before it's to late.
6. On proofs, SMS, red BU coins with spots or cankers already on the copper coin it is of know use to try anything that I have ever found that will restore the surface to mint.
7. And yes, beautiful red copper coins can be ruined by an unclean finger, (oils) as well as a tiny droplet of spit years later if you are not very careful handling them when out of containers.

I hope this is some use to you'all - if anyone knows any other tricks please share them.

Ben Peters
"the older I get the smarter my father becomes"

Please only use this method on many common brown cents before you ever do on a semi-key or key!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The problem with posts like this is the new or young collectors that may read this and try it. There really should be a starter to posts like this that never attempt to clean any coins you are not aware of it's true value.
Never attemept to clean coins with solutions that you are not familiar with.
Do not clean coins with things recommended by people you don't know. Remember that if something bad happens, loss of eye site, fires in a home, burned furniture, excessively damaged coins, etc. that the people that said that are on the internet and they sometimes, usually, don't care what you do. Any problems that occur to your they could just say OOpps. To bad. Or nothing at all.
Also, note that those that say they have had success with this or that may well be just a dream. I could say use Radiation to make your coins radiant and it works great for me. Yeah, right.
Really watch out for those recommending the usage of flamable materials. Again, you don't know them and they don't care what happens to you since they don't know you either.
A really good policy is to JUST DON'T CLEAN COINS.

 

Like all of us lovely human beings... we are what we are and age takes its toll on each of us. If we get plastic surgery to try to save our looks... everyone that knows us knows!! I believe it is a good idea to try to keep things as they are and reduce the ageing process as best we can and there are ways to do so. My body has its own patina and that is what makes me me!! The coins I have have their own patina and not all of them look as well kept as me... but they are what they are. I want to keep them as they are and will do all I can to protect them but I will not clean them as a matter of course. I have mentioned before that I have been handling antiques for many years... clean them???? NO! Keep them 'original' and I feel the same way about coins.... DO NOT CLEAN THEM!!!! Best wishes, Mike.

 

It's not in jest. I've seen similar methods before and of course a novice might fall for it. I think your "proofs" would be proof of that.

We recently had a guy bring a small lot of coins into the shop for sale. All cleaned so I asked him. He said they were all dirty so he bought some "stuff" and cleaned them up.
We bought the silver for the junk bucket. He had a handful of wretched looking wheats. I told him to spend them after checking for any better dates.

It's scary what people will do to coins to "increase" the value.

 

Wow, I can't believe I read all of these. I'm covinced I will never waste time or money cleaning coins. The $ I save will buy me a better coin.

 

That is why I posted this. New collector could read that and hurt the coins they have inherited or bought. So with all the experts here on the forum, I hope all the new or young collectors read and ask questions. Please post photos of the coin in question. Thanks ya'll for your comments on this. Cheryl

 

Why are you'all so serious???

Come on people - why so serious??
My method is absolutely safe and beneficial for copper coins like the ones I described. Wow you folks need to be at least a little realistic - why so serious?
Every dealer I know I deal with probably has used methods to clean or conserve coins at one time or another if not all the time - you'all don't really think those millions of Morgan silver dollars just stayed the way they appear today do you? Get in the real world!
Yes, the common advice for the newcomer is don't clean coins but he is going to wonder after awhile seeing the little nods and winks that dealers and collectors give each other and through reading he's going think you are selling him a pig in a poke. Good gracious tell folks the truth!!!
Coin can be cleaned safely and enhance there preservation and grade and certainly their desirability. The new people on this board are not dummies that need protection from the so called "purists" of the coin world. Tell the truth - tell them the whole story - not just your coveted safe (let me not go out on a limb) advice. I was talking about say a 1958-P in VF brown condition to start with - folks it would not hurt a thing my advice is sound tried and true and I stand by it 100%. Is it is the complete story the new person to our hobby wants and needs to know not a glossed over we'll see later when you gain a brain type of knowledge - with your type of lets play it safe and not give the new people the truth type of speak is absolutely what I will not do - I have an opinion based in practice tried and true - I am not afraid to give advice. This is exactly the kind of thing I would have wanted someone to tell me when I got started - I have done the type of conditioning that I spoke of to tens of thousands of Lincoln cents and never had a complaint from a customer. I readily tell them if it has been conditioned and sometimes even charge much more for those coins because they are worth more.
The "don't clean coins ever is" is an absolute - there is no absolutes especially in a subject this non-serious - people it ain't life or death here - good God it's only money!!!
Ben Peters

 

Wonderful summary!! I use all of the above methods, but did not know I should use a GREEN rose thorn. I have been practicing on common wheat cents at removing crud and have gotten good at it. I am saving up for this digital portable microscope (Big-C) as advertised in Coin Values magazine. Goes up to 200 zoom and can plug into computer and take photos with. Cost about $400. It is hard to hold the coin use a loope and work on the coin at the same time unless your an Octopus. I am going to get a #4 Jewelers brush as recommended to me by Condor101 like the EAC guys use to remove the oils (Ikeep mineral oilor Blue Ribbon on my coppers as a protectant in airitites, though I recognize not everyone likes this). I find when I dab the oil off it leaves little hairs from the cloth that I can't get off easily.

 

First use paper towel then cloth, then canned air.

If you first use a worn paper towel, (ball it up and run it in your hands until soft) then cotton material later it seems with just a tiny bit of pulling down or up gently the fibers will be attracted to the cotton - then use a canned dust off product but always shake the can and hold upright and squeeze a little air out into the room before blowing on the coins surface (at about 8 to 10 inches away) - that should get rid of 99 % of the fibers.

Folks I use this all of the above mentioned methods everyday and it works great!!!!!!! I would not do it after 26 years if it did not work would I???????????????????????????????????????????????????

Ben Peters

 

Good advice Carl. My posts was only for people with a lot of knowledge and experience. It's very painful to damage a nice coin that you like, especially if it has any value.

 

I guess I really don't care what people do to their own coins. It just seems immoral to sell a cleaned coin without disclosing it. The local coin shop I deal with discloses this, even when it is hard to tell without magnification. That's why he's been in business for over twenty years.

 

This is good, we have opinion here in cleaning coin. Bottom line, you keep, do what you want but if you sell let the buyer know if it has been cleaned. I hope the outsiders looking in read this and come in (think home) .

 

I agree, however there are many sellers that will clean coins, take a pic (and enhance it) and sell them as uncleaned with absolutely no remorse.

I will never buy a problem coin or one that may have been cleaned. Period. Been there done that, learned my lesson.

Buy from a reputable dealer that backs their product and will give a refund with no questions asked. (AJ is one of these)

If I buy on e-bay or are not familiar with the seller I go for a slabbed coin.

The best way to avoid the temptation to clean a coin is TO NOT BUY ONE THAT HAS PROBLEMS.

 

Thanks Harry !

I wish I had saved this auction. A year or so ago, I ran across an Ebay seller with a Dansco full of key dates.

He stated in the auction, " They were all dirty, so I shined them with a pencil eraser, now they look like brand new"