getting green stuff off old pennies.

[Guest guest_I'm_a_Guest]

I have been collecting coins for a few years now and have questions about cleaning wheat pennies. today I found a box with about 25 pre-1950 wheat pennies, including two 1943 steel pennies. the only problen about this is that most of them have heavy oxidation turning more than half of the coins green. I was just wondering if there was a way to remove this without messing up the clearity of the lettering and dates?

[Geoff T 3]

If the coins aren't worth a great deal to begin with then it's best not even to try. Cleaning - and even worse, polishing - coins will invariably do more harm than good and is not recommended for anything other than a coin of no collectable value if you insist on it looking nice and shiny. Beyond that it's the quickest way to devalue a coin.

[william 0]

If you are keeing your pennies in a box, then if one coin has verdigris it will spread to all the coins because they are touching. Store them seperately if you do not want it to continue spreading!

[Emperor Oli 0]

Ah if he's keeping them in a box, my bet's that they're crappy anyway.

[william 0]

Ah if he's keeping them in a box, my bet's that they're crappy anyway.

True

[Geoff T 3]

Ah if he's keeping them in a box, my bet's that they're crappy anyway.

I hate to sound like a boring oldie, but to someone who posts a genuine query, no matter how basic it may seem, that could sound just a little bit dismissive. We want to be encouraging people, not frightening them away. After all, we were all innocent beginners once!

[Emperor Oli 0]

He said he had been collecting for a "few years" so I didn't class him as beginner level, even though this is the beginner's area.

[Sylvester 15]

i wonder what condition the zinc plated steel ones are in?

[Guest guest_I'm_a_Guest]

the zinc plated steel pennies are in very bad condition not really somethingf to brag about, but its just that I only have like 7 1943's in any condition, and out of those 5 I have only gotten 1 without having to buy it(well 3 with the two I found before.) lol I do have three in near mint condition in a coing book. I wouldn't have put the coins in a box, I found them that way in the basment of my appartment building. I would still consider my self a beginner because it has just been the last year or so I have been really getting in to collecting coins. I had partcial collections before but now I'm starting to get full collections. I heard that you could use a pencil eraser to erase the dirt and grime on thes coins? is it true? I tried it on some of the newer coins that I have gotten that where really dirty and dark and it cleaned them up ok. but ya. thanks for the hel! I tried to become a member wher I first posted this but when ever I try to post with my user name it says that I do not have permission to post.

[samclab 0]

ok I got my username to work!