Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Cleaning copper coins with a potato.

B

BillV

Full Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
113
Location
Connecticut
I have heard that you can clean copper coins with a potato so I decided to give it a try. I have an 1834 large cent that I found detecting. Its is in good shape but I felt that it could use some more cleaning. I was told that the potato will not discolor or damage the coin so into the spud it went. I put it in last night at 10:00 and I checked it this morning at 6:00. I opened up the potato an to my suprise it was cleaner. I could actually see the imprint of the coin in black & green gunk in the spud. Little black flakes of crud also came off the coin. No discoloration noticed so far.

I excluded sour cream & chives from the experiment seeing how the spud is uncooked. :lol:
 
The spud thing works, but like any other acid, it can eat your coin up if you over do it. Be sure to clean that coin off after using the spud with water or baking soda.
 
Right,i have just found a 1773 George 111 farthing,its in quite a bad shape so ive popped it into a spud,will take it out tomorrow and let you lot know how it worked
 
I haven't used a potato to clean coins, interesting, but, I do use a potato to extract gold from mercury (amalgam). It's an old timer's trick I learned a few years ago.
 
Another thing to remember is you do clean your coins, to rinse them with distilled water. tap water will leave residue that could effect your coin down the road.
 
Key words "so far".
I posted about this method in the old forum last year, after hearing about it on another MD forum.
My results were unsatifactory. Out of 3 gunked up test wheaties, 2 were turned a nasty pumpkin orange color over night, the other was Ok ... And yes, the gunk did come off.
 
Hmmm, seems that I remember a school science project that utilized a potato to make electricty, so maybe electrolosis is part of the cleaning action here.

Starch from a potato, left on a counter top after chopping them or even left in a dishcloth after wiping the counter will turn black when it dries & is exposed to the air.
 
simonthesearcher said:
Right,i have just found a 1773 George 111 farthing,its in quite a bad shape so ive popped it into a spud,will take it out tomorrow and let you lot know how it worked
Click to expand...

How did it turn out?
 
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