How to Clean a Penny: A Cheap and Easy Way to Clean Your Coins

Have you taken a look at the coins in your coin purse or lying around the house? Chances are they are tarnished and have some form of residue on them. It is really gross and disgusting to pick one of these up only to see that they have gotten worse for the wear. I remember once going to grab a few coins out of my cup holder in my car only to find some residue on it. I later learned that it was a combination of liquid, from my cold drinks mixing with the air that causes a chemical reaction to occur to the pennies.

So how do you clean them? Good question.

You can easily clean a penny or other coins for that matter with some vinegar and table salt. Usually a tablespoon of salt for every half cup of vinegar should do the trick. You can also add more or less to see what works most effectively for your coins.

You can also try substituting lemon juice for the vinegar. Once you have this mixture set aside in a cup, get your pennies ready for cleaning! You can try a couple at a time and place them in the cup for a few minutes or so. You can try longer depending on the strength of your cleaning mixture.

The reason the cleaning occurs is because the acidic fluid and salt form a hydrochloric acid. This acid helps to clean off the tarnish and other residue built up on the penny.

As mentioned earlier, you can also try other types of coins to clean up your coin collection.

Once the coins are done sitting in their cleaning bath, take them out and rinse them off. This ensures that the chemical process stops. Rinse and place on a towel or paper towel to dry. Once they are nice, dry and clean you can place them back into your coin holder or collection. Which ever you prefer.

A word of warning though - this mixture will eat through zinc; so you need to determine if the year of your coin has any zinc in it. If it does, then you need to be careful not to leave the coins in the acidic mixture for too long. Otherwise you may come back a few hours later with a hole in your favorite penny. Many coins in circulation are older than we are; it just makes sense to take care of them, as they are a part of our nation's history.