To Clean The Green on a 1956 RED wheat penny or leave it? And tips about cleanin plz

So when a coin looks like this 1 does, do you clean it? Or leave it as is? Also whats the best method for cleaning a coin, and when is cleaning recomended? I don't want to destroy the value of any coin I have or may come across in the future. Thanks alot everybody for your help and knowledge.








:hatch:

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

This coin is worth 1 cent, and if you clean it, I bet it will still be worth 1 cent, coins like this could just be lost causes, I say you should practice on coins like this, who knows you could find a super rare coin in the ground one day, and might need to clean it to see what it is
I have no clue what to go about doing to clean this coin, but on a coin like this, where the value is so low, I say go for it

 

is it just the green that makes it that value? Or is the red also very low in value? Thanks for the quick response.

 

The coin has lost its natural color, and has environmental damage, and is heavily corroded.
I'd say all those things brings it down in value. This is a common date wheat penny and doesn't being to be worth something until it gets to really really high mint state grades.

 

Great coin for experimentation. However, since it is not a valuable coin, you really have nothing to loose so if you mess it up further, you can still take it to a bank. First try items around the house so you don't waste money purchasing items that are of no other use for you. You can start with all the items normally mentioned on this and many other coin related web sites. Such items as baking soda and water paste, Lemon Juice, Tamato juice, Venigar, ligher fluid, molases, Orange Juice, battery acid, distilled water and the list goes on and on and on.
The main thing is when your all done you would end up with a one cent coin worth one cent. You've spent many hours and possibly several dollars and still end up with one cent worth one cent.
I'd just spend that one.

 

lol, thanks for the tips, :bow:

 

Not even worth the effort. You can buy a new one in BU red for a buck or two.

 

I would consider it a practice coin if you want to see the effects of cleaning.

As a copper cent, it might still be worth fractionally more than 1 cent if you can clean it enough that it doesn't scare people to touch it.

 

OMG that poor coin is covered with that space crud that was growing on the MIR space station. BEWARE !!!! Lemon juice concentrate with an steel/iron nail added to solution. Soak for a half hour. Might work. Traci

 

This coin is not worth cleaning unless you want to use it as a test coin as others pointed out. There are LOADS of threads on CT that discuss coin cleaning issues that you inquired about, just search them and start reading the opinons and techniques. With that stated the green on the coin is typical Verdigris, look it up on Wikipedia. Avoid using lemon juice as it is acidic (natural acetic acid) and will only further erode what copper is left in this thing and likely change the copper's color. Definitely this coin has seen better days, had a long adventurous life and can be a learning tool for you to test out cleaning without harming a coin of any potential numismatic value.

 

I have learned on this column to never clean a coin, check threads , search . read books etc. Knowledge is the best key. I can not tell how much I have learned from this forumn , :thumb:

And welcome to the forum :bow: