Did I ruin my wheatie with Tarn-X?

DorkyDeric

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I am still new to this. I found my second oldest coin, a wheat penny. I couldn't see the date and had a bottle of Tarn-X on hand so I though,t, let me try this! Stupid. I am thinking I might have ruined the penny? It doesn't look all that great. You can see the "ONE CENT" on the back, but can't see much on the other side, especially the date. Does anyone have any advice from here on? Any help would be appreciated. I am now going to read up on cleaning my finds BEFORE actually doing it. :no:
 
Cleaning Copper

I have heard that people use ketchup and just a little bit of water to clean copper. All you do is get a small plastic cup, put your coin in the cup, and then put ketchup in the cup until the coin is completely submerged in ketchup. Let it sit for 15 minutes, then come check on it. If it needs more time, let it soak in the ketchup longer. Ketchup works because I believe that there's vinegar in ketchup. When your'e done make sure you wash the coin with soap and water. I hope this helps. Good luck!
 
Common date wheats in circulated condition are usually only worth a couple cents, and dug ones aren't really worth anything over face unless they're a rare error or key date so chances are you didn't really "ruin" anything.

There are all sorts of threads on cleaning coins of various compositions in this sub-forum. If I'm looking for a date, I usually go with boiling peroxide on copper coins. Most of the time most of us just toss the wheats in with the other pennies in the tumbler when we run a load of pennies.

Congrats on the wheat and HH! :aok:
 
Do you have a rock tumbler? If not check out Harbor Freight Tools, they have them cheap. Wheat pennies look great after being tumbled. It works great on cleaning up your dug clad too, you just have to do them seperately.
 
Do you have a rock tumbler? If not check out Harbor Freight Tools, they have them cheap. Wheat pennies look great after being tumbled. It works great on cleaning up your dug clad too, you just have to do them seperately.

Yeah, I just got a rock tumbler from HF and did my first batch. Even though the wheat penny is in pretty bad shape, I can now see the date! And, I can now polish up all my clad! Thanks for the help...
 
Yeah, I just got a rock tumbler from HF and did my first batch. Even though the wheat penny is in pretty bad shape, I can now see the date! And, I can now polish up all my clad! Thanks for the help...

You may already have a method that's working for you but if you have any trouble getting the clad looking good this is what I use:

Aquarium gravel
Water
Dawn dish soap
About 4-5 Oz Ammonia

I usually let them tumble for 6-8 hours depending on how dirty they are and they come out looking great.
Any that still look a little dim I just toss them in with the next batch.
Hope this helps, good luck!
 
You may already have a method that's working for you but if you have any trouble getting the clad looking good this is what I use:

Aquarium gravel
Water
Dawn dish soap
About 4-5 Oz Ammonia

I did all except the ammonia. Here are my results and they didn't get as clean as I thought they would. I did a total of four hours. I think I will do another 4 and add ammonia and see how it looks. Thanks a bunch for the tip!!
 

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I did all except the ammonia. Here are my results and they didn't get as clean as I thought they would. I did a total of four hours. I think I will do another 4 and add ammonia and see how it looks. Thanks a bunch for the tip!!

Dont waste time, electricity and money trying to make them shiny and perfect looking. They only need to be clean and identifiable.
 
I did all except the ammonia. Here are my results and they didn't get as clean as I thought they would. I did a total of four hours. I think I will do another 4 and add ammonia and see how it looks. Thanks a bunch for the tip!!

Your'e welcome, It's true they don't have to be perfect but I like to get them shiny. I should have mentioned before you want to do the clad and pennies seperately, The pennies will usually turn the clad a little pink looking.
 
I cleaned this week's clad by tumbling for half an hour to get the dirt off, then shaking all but the pennies in toilet bowl cleaner for a few minutes and then tumbling again for about 90 minutes. They come out looking pretty good.
 

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