Penny Cleaning Science

The circulation of money from one hand to another causes the sparkling appearance of coins to eventually fade. So if you have dull and dark pennies and you want to clean them to give you a particular level of satisfaction, there are several easy steps that need to be followed. This process is a cheap and amusing way to revive the shiny layer of your pennies.

This simple process will require you to prepare your kitchen.  First, get some lemon juice and salt. Then, dissolve one tablespoon of salt on two tablespoon of lemon juice. When the mixture of salt and lemon juice is ready, put the penny in the solution. Be sure that the penny is totally dipped. After a few minutes, take it out of the solution and polish it with cotton cloth. Now you have a sparkling penny free from copper oxide accumulation. 

Pennies are made of copper and copper oxide makes pennies look tarnished. Copper oxide is formed when it bonds with oxygen or air. The mixture of salt and lemon juice is a simple way to make a weak hydrochloric acid solution. Chemical reaction occurs when you soak a tarnished penny into the salt and lemon juice solution. The bonding of chloride ions and copper ions gets rid of layers of copper oxide giving your old penny a facelift. 

Another method thereby requires the use of a pencil eraser. The process is simple. A clean eraser is all you need to scour the penny. Use a pencil-size eraser if you have a lot of pennies to clean. You can also use a vinyl eraser to polish the penny.