I got tons and TONS of 1943 steel pennies and I wanna clean about a hundred of them for novelty purposes.
The best way I know of so far is to buff em with a wirebrush dremel under flowing water, but that takes too long to do each and every penny.
The second best way is to soak 30-40 of them in some Tarn-X in the sink. Let them stay until they are "all" perfect. Then release the Tarn-X down the drain and flow some water over them.
The only problem with this second method is the discoloration you get on most of them afterwards. They turn a little yellow in spots. If you dry them with heat, they will REALLY turn dark yellow...as if someone tossed em in the fryer.
Anyone know of any other goods ways? The dremel wirebrush is my most favored and I'm currently researching better ways to do multiple coins at a time. I currently can do 3 at a time in a wooden holder I built, but they don't like to stay in their tight fit slots all the time. I drilled drain holes in the slots also, because the liquid grime would fall below the coin and stain it worse or even again if you already cleaned it.
oh yea, if your interested in buying some steel pennies, then check out this auction:
For little packs of 3 steel pennies:
http://igoto.co.uk/68s
They were only made in 1943, so they are constantly becoming more and more rare. The Secret Service of the US called a withdrawal of these steel pennies in 1955, and dumped a ton of them in the San Francisco bay.
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