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#Clean copper coins how to

Bronze, silver, copper, or nickel coins go in distilled water or olive oil (but, for some reason, not virgin olive oil) to keep from tainting the coins further.

Soak the coin from a few hours to a week or two until any deposits disappear.

Run warm water over the coin for about a minute, preferably using water under some pressure.

Commercial coin polish, however, can be used if the coin is not valuable. (Not because you stole it, but because fingerprints transfer caustic oils from your fingers to the coin.)

Handle the coin by the edges to leave no fingerprints.

#Clean copper coins how to

How to Clean a Coin If you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right: The other is to render them less communicable as reservoirs of disease germs. One is when they are going to be incorporated into jewelry and therefore should look nice. If you strip the coin of this toning, not only will you lose any remaining mint luster, the coin will appear harsh and unappealing, and it will suffer microscopic abrasions that lower its grade.įor coins that are not particularly valuable, there are only a couple of reasons for washing them. Once any metal has been exposed to the air, it’s going to oxidize, or tone. Should you be a collector or intend to become one with this very coin, you definitely don’t want to clean or polish it unless you have just discovered it with a metal detector and dug it out of the ground. It’s the amount of wear and tear on a coin that counts towards its value, not how “pretty” it is. In fact, the two major companies that grade coins, PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service) and NGC (Numismatic Guarantee Corporation), refuse to grade coins that have been washed and/or polished. No amount of cleaning or polishing is going to raise a coin from one grade to another. The bottom classification is “Basal,” which means “A lump of metal barely identifiable as a coin”. Grades run from the top grade, a score of 70: “Mint, un-circulated,” which means there is no sign of wear on the coin. The way collectors establish the value of a coin is by grading it, an art rather than a science. Remove it, and you can reduce its value by as much as 90%! Collectors value coins with attractive patinas, which actually protect the coin’s surface. The patina a coin builds up over the years is part of its total essence, its history, like the patina on old silverware. If it is, don’t even think about cleaning it.Ĭleaning affects the value of collectible coins, and definitely doesn’t increase them. If you can’t look up the coin yourself in the PCGS coin price guide, take it to a reputable coin dealer and ask him whether it’s worth anything. But it could still be valuable! Why You Shouldn’t Clean Your Coinsīefore you do anything, assess its value.

Should the coin have his picture on it, that’s generally (no pun intended) a tip off that he didn’t throw that particular one. Who knows, it could be one of the dollars George Washington supposedly threw across the Potomac (presumably where the river is about five feet wide).

Before you go to town on that dirty coin with the silver polish, find out more about it.