toning copper pennies coins

my friends and i have project in school,where we are to clean old copper pennnies and them try to make them look old again,i tryed baking mine in the oven but it didnt come out old looking can anyone here help me.thank you:goofer:

 

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How about this as an important read. One thing, you NEVER try to clean coins, regardless of whatever they are, unless you don't mind losing their value or the face value is at face value.

Next thing, cleaning itself strips a thin layer of metal so that it appears that the coin has been "cleaned". Hence it leaves some kind of bright surface but if you show that to most coin collectors, they can tell it's obviously cleaned.

To add to the horror of what you are trying to do, are you trying to join the rest of the scammers of "toning" old coins so that you can sell it as a prenium? I really hope NOT.

Toning is a process that is done over a long period of time and not just some few hrs of works. It is like saying how one is going to make wine out of common grape juice. There is nothing wrong to experiment on colour effects, but to sell such "manufactured" toned coins, you are doing an awful "crime" in the coin communities.

I guess one of the methods to tone coins is to put coins into sulfuric envelopes and put it under very strong sunlight, which helps to accerlate toning process, as most toning process usually require sulfur.

 

it is a school project,we are useing old 40 s pennies,that are worth nothing,i asked if anyone knew how to clean them ,then make them look old again,thats all.i am a kid trying an experiment,to see if we can can fool are teacher.we wanna see if he will be able to tell which ones were cleaned and retoned.were getting graded on it.

 

Hi Kendras welcome to the boards, unfortunatly you have hit a bit of a raw nerve amongst coin collecters the too clean or not to clean argument, unfortunatly I have no idea how to tone a coin other than by letting nature do it's work but I wish you well in your class project.
If when you are done and it works how about showing us some before and after scans :thumb: Again good luck :smile

De Orc :kewl:

 

Coke, ketchup to clean maybe. I know whan we clean copper water blocks for computers we use ketchup to get their shine back

Use cow urine to tone them maybe. I know they use cow urine for copper roofs on churches and such to get them to go that green. No idea if that will tone them though

 

lol,how am i sopposed to get cow urine.

 

Number one...the cents from the 40's are worth more than a cent...they would be worth about 5 cents each..and if you have any of the rarer ones up the the thousands...so they are worth something.

I suggest you don't try to fool your teacher---

Speedy

 

from a cow

Actually no idea who would carry this other then a farm. I have no idea if human urine world work either and think that cow urine is used because of their diet or what is in it.

I tried looking it up but cant find much info on it.

As for toning it like I said but I know it turns it green and is part of the oxidization. Here are some links. one guy mentions about just peeing on it will work to turn it green.

http://www.taxidermy.net/forums/HabitatArticles/03/03D8767F69.html

and since sceintific here is link about cow urine

http://www.hkrl.com/cowurine.html

 

you might want to search the forum for a user named billzach and contact him. He does hobo nickel carvings and one of the important things about that is that after he has carved a design on a coin then he must retone it so that it looks old. I believe he makes his own solution for retoning, so he may be able to help you find a suitable solution. IIRC, he said at one point that it contains spit, chewing tobacco juice, and a bunch of other stuff. I have no idea if his solution is a trade secret or if he'd share the process with you, but it's worth a try.

As an aside, even if you retone the coin to the same color as before, it will still be obvious to all but the most inexperienced coin collectors that the coin had been doctored. If your teacher is a competent collector you have no chance of fooling him.

 

Don't eggs have a high sulfur content? I thought I heard that you could put a coin in a jar with a peeled, hard boiled egg and it will tone due to the sulfur?

 

Hmm cow urine has sulfur according to that one link I posted so maybethats what is doing it. I bet if you dont want green you could dilute the cow urine or whatever with water or something.

 

haha come on. where the frigg is he gonna get cow ****, im sure it would be gross and nasty trying to get it... :hail:

 

In that other link though says that human urine can be used to though.

 

what do you mean a heating grill,on the ceiling .do you mean a heating duct where the heat comes out of.i have ones on the floor.should i lay them in the bag ontop of the heating duct.

 

I would try sunlight. Solar radiation will alter most things. There are gases in the atmosphere that will "tone" copper. I think your chemistry teacher is just trying to show the effects of metal oxidation. Put a coin on the deck of a pool or hot tub. That ought to do it!

 

The cow urine is right next to the milk.

 

IMHO the guy/gal is not a collector at all, or he/she wouldn't have come up with this bizarre idea of trying to teach school kids how to scam real collectors; and using coins worth more than face value for the project.

 

A fair point. Well, I suppose that means that you might be able to fool him.