Penny cleaning ?

[mickeymost]

I was wondering if anyone has a good way to clean pennies to be used in the penny press machines. My 3 DSs want to start collections this coming trip and I know cleaner pennies come out better. Does anyone have a great solution or trick to cleaning pennies??

Hoping for some sun instead of snow!!

 

[mickey65]

Coke

 

[phorsenuf]

soak them in coke. My son showed me this one time. Makes you wonder what it does to your stomach. I think there is something else too, I will ask him when he gets home from school.

 

[mazzarafe]

I tried a bunch of ways to clean them a few years ago and the one that worked best was letting them sit in coke soda. I did a bunch of them and picked out the ones that came out the best.

I also only used the older ones, I believe from 1972 and earlier because of the copper content. The newer ones get silver streaks in them when pressed. Just an FYI in case you did not know that.

BTW-it is kinda scary though to see how clean coke gets the pennies...what does it do in your stomach?

 

[mickeymost]

Thanks everyone for your quick responses.

Coke it is. And to think I drink it almost every day, maybe time to change my favorite soda!! LOL

mazzarafe I did not know about using older pennies, thanks for the info.

 

[Towncrier]

Gina was right about using older pennies (although they didn't switch to copper/zinc until mid-1982). Any Lincoln penny dated 1981 or earlier is all copper (except for the 1943 steel ones). Some people like the "streaky" effect that you get with newer pennies. I prefer using the older ones myself.

You can use coca cola, hot sauce, vinegar, or commercial copper cleaner to make your pressed pennies all nice and shiny. You don't have to shine them up before you press them either.

 

[DemonLlama]

Hey! We've been penny cleaning ourselves. We went through our batch in the change jar and pulled out all the pre-1982 pennies to clean. We boiled white vinegar and lemon juice to reqtoe them. Now that I've read this thread, I will try the Coke suggestion on some of the ones that haven't comepletely shined up.

Another tip I love: get some M&M Mini Tubes, and layer one shiny penny under two quarters, until it is filled. You won't have to fumble with them at the machines.

Here's a good link that shows the difference between the older pennies and the newer ones (scroll down)

http://www.squished.com/featuresnew/features_101.html

Happy Squishing!

 

[Sleepy]

I agree with the mini m&M tubes. THey work fantastically!

DON"T USE HOT SAUCE!!!!!!

I tried this one time. Big mistake. My dad had told us about this when we were kids, so naturally, when I started the pressed penny thing a few years ago, I decided I wanted all pennies nice and shiny, so I bought some hot sauce. I was wearing contacts at the time and figured washing my hands thoroughly with a nail brush would do the trick. WRONG I took out my contacts and burned my eyes! If you have to, wear layered pairs of surgical gloves to save yourself some agony if you are the kind that has to touch the eye area of your face.