Hi again everyone, I will be posting alot of questions because I finally found a site devoted exclusively to coins. Here's another question for everyone. I've been thinking of the best way to clean my coins without damaging them. Then last night my girlfriend comes running in the room saying "I got it". I guess she was watching one of those home fix-it channels. She said lemon juice and salt works wonders on copper. So she cut up a lemon grabbed some salt and cleaned a junk penny I had laying around. My eyes almost popped out of thier sockets, it actually worked. Yet, the coin looked funny. No luster, just a totally clean copper penny. And I mean copper, kinda yellowish. If ya don't believe me try it on a penny. Cut a lemon into wedges, dip it in some salt and rub the penny again it. Please tell me what you think? Beats spending money on acids and restoration liquids. Thx Ron
Hello Ron.. As a general rule of thumb.." do not clean your coins" lemon juice is highly acidic and salt well if you look up Na on the periodic table you will see that it is a "Alkali Metal" and corrosive..with the acidic and corrosive properties of the mix no wonder the copper turned colors...best to leave them alone. The Atomic Mass of Na (Sodium) is 22.99 g/mole...the lemon juice could be pH tested on litmus paper to determine its acidity..if the coins are just junk copper that you want to clean, I would suggest that a mild soultion diluted to ~ 10mmole/500ml might do a better job for you. But as mentioned.. its better not to clean em at all! RickieB
Thanks thanks for the info. I think I'll just leave them alone. I was better off just collecting without even thinking about cleaning.
Think harder ! It might be interesting to see if the weight of the coins changes after a few years of this.
Oops, Speedy's right; I didn't consider that Ron just got here. We're not trying to be mean; honest. It's more like we're trading a few inside jokes, but we should have considered that you haven't been here long enough to privy to the jokes. Actually, the subject of cleaning comes up often. The one word answer is :don't ! But even that isn't the whole story. If you search on "cleaning" here, I expect you'll find a lot of previous threads. And: Welcome to Coin Talk, Ron !
I apologize, I wasn't trying to be mean. I thought a few people would get a laugh out of it. I meant no harm. Peace out.
< Yet, the coin looked funny. > There's your answer right there. Even to you the funny color was noticable. It would jump out to any experienced collector as well. As mentioned, lemon juice is VERY acidic, somewhere around a pH of 2. And the salt, if it doesn't dissolve completely acts as an abrasive. In effect you are cleaning the copper with acid and sandpaper.
As Conder says don't use lemon juice and salt on coins. It should only be used in conjunction with tequila. I thought everyone knew that!
