THE OLD OLIVE OIL TRICK (evoo)

[buckeye]

well i just checked on some old indian head and wheat pennies that have been soaking in olive oil for about two years?? the oil had now turn dark green from copper content and dirt so i changed it out to new olive oil. i heard about this cleaning method for copper a long time ago. to my surprise the olive oil has done a pretty good job so far. i can now read the dates on all of the coins and see alot of detail. i think i will give them another year as a experiment to see how clean they come out to be for a three year period. their colors are pretty much natural looking which is good.

[Digger Dan]

wow... that's a long time to wait... I don't think I would be able to wait that long... Keep us posted.

[Diggler]

I tried olive oil with 4 wheats. Let them soak for 6 months picking dirt with toothpick every once and a while. Well they came out looking the same as they did when they went in. Still cant read dates. I have heard most people get better results than I did but watcha gonna do... They were pretty bad though. Into the tumbler with them!

[Me&MyBoy]

Originally Posted by Diggler

Into the tumbler with them!

I agree. I think the vast majority of wheats (and IHs) dug out of the ground aren't going to interest any paying collector enough to justify that kind of time and effort in cleaning. But... if someone has that kind of time and energy, more power to them!

[Jae.999]

2 yrs? dang I wouldve forgotten about them coins....

[buckeye]

olive oil is easy to obtain and pennies mean nothing!! let them soak!! what is a penny any ways?? just copper.........but if you live 20 years from now??? they might be about $8.00 apiece???

[steve in so az]

I have had good luck on copper items using this olive oil method. However, I pick at them every day for about a month and they usually clean up. Steve in so az

[RickO]

If you keep a Redbook handy, you can determine if the coin has any collector value. If so, EVOO is a good method for cleaning. If not, any method will do. HH RickO