Vinegar Cleaning Penny
Posted on Mar 3, 2008 in HouseholdA popular project for students is to find and evaluate household products that can restore the shine to dull copper pennies.
A copper penny looses its original shine because with time, the copper metal on the surface of the penny reacts with the oxygen in the air to form a dull brown copper oxide tarnish.
Cleaning with vinegar is a way to restore the shine on dull pennies. The acetic acid in vinegar dissolves the copper oxide layer on the surface of the coin thus exposing the bright copper metal underneath.
If you add a little salt to the vinegar, the reaction occurs much quicker, so try the following cleaning solution:
- ½ cup (125 ml) Vinegar
- 1 teaspoon (5 g) Salt
Another natural cleaning product that can be used is ketchup. That’s not surprising once you read the label on the bottle which shows that salt and vinegar are major ingredients in ketchup.
Don’t use vinegar on valuable copper coins because it dissolves some of the copper, which increases the wear on the coin and thus reducing its value.