Recipe Test - Clean Pennies Easily

Carol K

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Here's my recipe test for the people that missed it the first time around.

You can use it to do some quick cleaning of the pennies you take to the bank, or to make them look halfway decent anyway.

This recipe was given to us years ago, and we had never tried it.

It consists of: 1 jar, vinegar, and 1 tsp salt.
 

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Here's what I did. I took my coins I found for this year. Found a plastic mayonaise jar I had in the cabinet. Grabbed some white vinegar and some salt and a teaspoon.

I separated the pennies from the clad, and added them to the jar.

Then I realized I didn't have enough pennies, so I just added all the coins I had, and added the vinegar to half way. :shock:
 

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Here's what it looked like after shaking for 5 minutes.

Of course I had to go out of the room, cause it was pretty noisy.
 

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Here's what they looked like after 7 minutes
 

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Then I took them out and rinsed them, and laid them on a towel to dry.

Apparently it is important that they don't touch each other while they are drying.
 

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Conclusions and Mistakes Made

1. Should have separated the pennies from the clad coins
2. Should have added the salt first, then the vinegar.
3. Do not shake in solution more than 5 min.
4. Doesn't work well on clad, but nickels do best
5. Should have rinsed the coins better
6. Could have used a smaller jar.
7. Do not use on jewelry or anything that will break.
8. Not good for coins already starting to corrode.
9. Do not leave sitting in the solution - rinse immediately.

A quick way to clean pennies - Original Recipe

A quick way to clean pennies is to put them in a jar. Fill about 1/4 of the jar with the coins. Fill the jar 1/2 way with vinegar. Add a teaspoon of salt. Close the jar and shake until coins are clean. It is very fast. Take out coins and rinse well, and I mean rinse well. Put on paper towel. Pat dry. Not to be used on any coin of any value. The more difficult coins put in tumbler. - by George in Montreal

(He wasn't kidding when he said it was fast) ;)

So, if you can't afford a tumbler, give this a try. But use a smaller jar, like a baby food jar and test it first.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR BEACH FOUND PENNIES OR CLAD.

Here's a closeup of the results

You can see the ones that were eaten up already, did not do so well.
 

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I do the same with my pennies, except I use a tumbler. Nothing is going to make the corroded pennies look good but surprisingly most go through the counter at the bank. Make sure to rinse and dry. Rob
 
I've used this method several times now and it seems to work great. I clean pennies in one batch and dimes, nickles, and quarters in another. Coins come out respectably clean after a few minutes of shaking. Much easier and cheaper than anything else I can think of.

Thanks!
 
rcasi44...how much vinegar do you put in the tumbler? How many coins do you place in the tumbler at a time?
 
I do the same thing, but i rinse them in water with baking soda to neutralize the acid. then rense with water.
 
Cleaning coins with vinegar and salt

Y ou need to seperate pennies into 2 groupes. Those before 1982 and those after 1982. These are the zinc coins.

Zinc coins need to be delt with differently than copper coins.

You can use vinegar and salt to clean the copper pennies. On the real dirty ones you can also wire brush them with a brass wire brush (You can buy one of those in the golf section of your sporting goods store) They come out amazingly clean.

If you mix zinc pennies with copper pennies they will all turn black. If you mix any pennies with other clad coins, they all turn orange.

Whenit is all said and done you have 3 groups of coins

zinc pennies that can be cleaned with soap and water and brass brush or in a tumbler.

Copper pennies that can be cleaned with venigar and salt or put into a tumbler with Gravel and venigar.

Clad nickles, dimes and quarters that can be cleaned with venigar and salt or put into a tumbler with gravel and venigar.

If any of the coins have a dull glaze, brass wire brush them
 
Dont dump your mixture on land you will kill every thing in its path.unless it spreads out in some area.Vinager is really bad for the enviroment.I think sink or toilet are good.
 
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