How do I clean Lincoln cents

[jfines69]

I am new here but have been collecting coins for over 40 years. Can anyone tell me the best way to clean the Lincoln cent so as not to destroy it. I have numerous coins that need a closer look but are to dirty at this time. Any help would be appreciated.

[unc-usf-fsu]

First off Welcome to the forum.

With cleaning a coin you never want to use any kind of abrasive brush or cleaner.

There are a couple of things you can do to get some of the dirt and other things off coins. Acetone, Goo-gone, water and dish soap, these all work well.

Acetone- if your coin looks to have some kind of glue, paint, residue, sticky stuff, etc on it you can put it in some acetone and the acetone should get it off. You will want to buy only the 100% pure acetone. This can be found at most Walmarts, CVS, Walgreeens in the beauty aisle with the nail polish removers. When placing your coin in acetone I recommend putting the acetone in a glass dish and placing the coin in with the acetone, then swish the acetone around for 10-15 secinds. Acetone will evaporate pretty quickly so you may have to do this a few times. Another thing you can do is just get a Q-tip wet with acetone and softly dab it on the coin, try to not use the q-tips with the plastic stems, as they sometimes could harm the coin or even get destroyed by the acetone. This chemical is highly noxious so you will want work with it in a well ventilated area.

Goo-Gone- Will work great for dirt and other crud that is on the coin. Goo-gone can be found in most retail stores in the cleaner aisle. What I do with goo-gone is to again put some goo-gone in a glass dish and place the coin in with it. You can leave the coin in the goo-gone for as long as you want. I have left a few coins in it for up to 2 months with no harmfull affects. You can use a q-tip to halp break up some of the stuff on the coin.

Water and soap- the good old stand-by. You will want to try and use the liquid dish soap. Again try to not use a brush. fingers will work fine.

I honestly use most of the these methods for my coins. If you run a search on "cleaning", you will find alot more info than just what I have here. Also, many people advise pouring distilled water over the coin after using any of the above methods, sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.

You can also try verdi-gone made by a user here BadThad. If you run a search in the forum for it you will find the listing for it and more info.

With all of these options I implore you to use caution and not try and clean a coin that is worth a good deal. Usually cleaning a coin will take away from it's value, but with the above methods you should be fine with most average coins. Just remember that truly there are some things that may never come off a coin, but then again that is part of the personality of the coin.

Hope this helps,

Adam

[kloccwork419]

Welcome!!!

As for your question...well..he pretty much summed it up..lol

I use Goo-gone. Baby food jars work great

[lineop3]

I want to welcome you to the forums and enjoy!
There's a lot of good advice from a lot of great people here.

Aisha

[jfines69]

Thanks for the info and the Welcome. I will give these ideas a try and see how I do.

[jcuve]

Welcome to the forum!

Adam has some good advice, I'll just reinforce doing any experimental cleaning on valueless coins. Also, if you over do it, the coin will re-tone unnaturally AND experienced collectors normally know a cleaned coin upon inspection, so be careful.

Finally, I have removed crud from some doubled dies to see the doubling better but I did this with a microscope and very slowly.

[RWBILLER]

welcome to lcr - the only cleaner i use is goo-gone.
roger

[illeagle]

A young, green rose thorn works well to "scratch" away debris etc. without scratching the cent's surface.

[RWBILLER]

learn sm0thing new every day - a rose is a rose!
roger