Cleaning your coins

How should you clean your coins? Or should you at all? Will this degrade the value of the coin itself?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Generally coins are not cleaned every now and then.
Never try to remove the natural oxidation from coins, such as the tarnish on silver. This is called "toning" and the coin is worth more with it intact. Removing it will damage the coin's surface and greatly reduce its value. In other words, no dipping, polishing, or chemical solutions should ever be used on coins.

What You Need if you want to clean your coins:
•Two small plastic containers
•Mild dish detergent
•A soft towel
•Access to running tap water
•Distilled water

 

So... This may not be the best way to do it, but I've seen people use ketchup to clean coins with great results. I think it works mostly with copper though, but the coins become really shiny afterwards. Is this just another way of cleaning them, or is that also bad for the coins?

 

The ketchup application is very new to me.Yesterday I have tried with one of my coin and surprised to see the positive result.Thanks

 

No problem! Glad I could help! I haven't seemed to notice any damage done to the coins, minus whatever the dirt and grime had already done to them, so I am still going to keep using this method myself. I am still scared to try it on some of the old pennies. Not quite sure what it will do, or if a 1930-something penny would even be devalued if it was shiny.

 

ketchup? that's a new one. I got some coins that you really can't see due to the dirt and I will try this out.

 

I have never heard of using ketschup to clean coins with. But it would be a cheap cleaner.

 

ok, i obviously gotta try that ketchup, any recommended brands?

 

Ketchup is ketchup. It's all worked the same for me so far.

 

Ive used ketchup to clean door handles and i used a cheap brand.

 

Yes, I wouldn't do this to a coin that had any other value not including face value. I have used it as a test, and have used it on newer pennies. Was hesitant to clean older pennies. Just decided it's best left as they are.

The great thing with the ketchup, so far at least, is unless it's heavily corroded, no scrubbing is needed. A minute or less and it's good as new.

To be honest, what I use this for the most is testing old corroded metals by putting a little on, and seeing if it is actually copper or not. I've kept a few junk pieces of metal before that weigh a few pounds because of the copper content.

 

How often would you clean them then?

 

Once. No more is needed, as long as you don't have whatever you are cleaning sitting in muck and grime.

 

So if its looking a bit worn give it a light clean and store it in an air tight container/bag and that will be that?

 

Not sure about a light clean, Ketchup will remove EVERYTHING from the coin, provided it actually makes contact with the metal. If it is a valuable coin, don't clean it at all, the dirt gives it character. I would say the some for any coin that may have value in the future also. When storing them, they don't have to be airtight or anything, unless you are trying to keep them perfect. I just have them all in an old jar, cleaned of course. It does the job.

 

I have been looking into coins and think that they too are worth investing in. Thanks for the info.

 

I've got loads of coins but I probably won't be selling them at any time in the near future, and some are quite valuable even at this point in time. My grandfather used to make sure he never cleaned them and told me that if a coin's too shiny some people will think it's a fake for sure. Worn and dirty means it's been around the block enough times and helps validate its worth.

 

Thats true, I wouldnt clean up very old coins but new ones I would.

 

On a semi-related note (as in, don't clean your coins with this) I use an aluminum pan, baking soda, salt, and water to clean silver. Just mix the three ingredients together in the pan (you don't need a lot) and let the silver soak in it. The pan has to be aluminum and you better not need it again as it can punch holes through it. The one dollar aluminum cooking pans work fine.