Cleaning Copper Coin Experiment

[Beartoe]

I have some Copper Large Cents that I would like to clean up and put in a display. Maybe a small shadow box with a glass face or something. So I have experminted with electrolysis on a copper coin.

I used an old phone charger (5.5 VDC @ 200Ma). Made a salt water and lemon juice brine for the liquid medium. Used a silver plated spoon for the positive pole. I placed the coin in for about an hour. At the end of an hour the silver plated spoon was losing the silver plate. The brine looked like swamp water. The coin definately had lost some of the crud but had turned a dark black. I took a dremel tool with a felt burnishing tip and a paste of baking soda and removed the black tarnish.

It looks like I could do this with a Copper Large Cent. I am more interested in the display as opposed to the resale value of the coin.

For the purpose of a display , which coin looks better to you? Unfortunately I can not seem to get a true representation of the coppery color of the coin to show in these pictures. Holding the coin in my hand it has the copper shine of a new penney.

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[giant056]

I know with my camera it helps to adjust the white balance for the type of lighting that you have. My pics don't always show the true color either, sometimes it's really hard to get the right effects with artificial lighting.

[MangoAve]

The first looks like it was the one cleaned. I do like it better as it is more like a cent from circulation that was cleaned with polish. Do you have office picture manager? There is auto correction for picture color/balance. Sometimes I've used it. Sometimes the phone cam was enough. Or if u got iOS I believe there is picture fix in its picture viewer.

[Trooper Bri]

Is the silver spoon an intentional technique to "antique" the coin Rob, or incidental? I like the contrast it adds to the shine. There's a nice shadowing around the rim and lettering. If not, use a stainless spoon. No mess in your solution.

I've been experimenting with my CREE flashlight instead of the flash if I'm indoors. Limp batteries (too bright with fresh ones) and my Galaxy S5 seem to get decent colors. But it's best to take pics in real sunlight.

[Beartoe]

I know with my camera it helps to adjust the white balance for the type of lighting that you have. My pics don't always show the true color either, sometimes it's really hard to get the right effects with artificial lighting.

I believe the problem I am having with coloring hues is the 500 Watt arc lamp I am using for alumination. The lamp gives off a lot of yellow tones and this is washing out the yellow hues in my pictures. I need to find a different artificial light source for taking close up pictures. I have both auto and manual correction software but can not seem to get the yellows back to where they should be.


Is the silver spoon an intentional technique to "antique" the coin Rob, or incidental? I like the contrast it adds to the shine. There's a nice shadowing around the rim and lettering. If not, use a stainless spoon. No mess in your solution.

I've been experimenting with my CREE flashlight instead of the flash if I'm indoors. Limp batteries (too bright with fresh ones) and my Galaxy S5 seem to get decent colors. But it's best to take pics in real sunlight.

I used a plated spoon as part of the experiment because it was at hand, and also because my wife caught me attempting to use

the kitchen silverware. :shame: The shadowing was a by product of not removing all the black surface coating that came from the electrolysis process.

[Skamaniac]

That turned out pretty good. How did you connect the charger to the anode/cathode?

[Beartoe]

That turned out pretty good. How did you connect the charger to the anode/cathode?

I soldered alligator clips to the positive and negative leads. I then attached the positive pole connector to the silver spoon and the negative to the coin. The alligator clips are cheap aluminum and tend to interact badly with the electrolysis.

I need to get some better clips (Stainless steel) and maybe a carbon welding rod for the positive pole. I believe I can get better results if the anode/cathode connectors would react less with the process.

[BTV Digger]

Is the silver spoon an intentional technique to "antique" the coin Rob, or incidental? I like the contrast it adds to the shine. There's a nice shadowing around the rim and lettering. If not, use a stainless spoon. No mess in your solution.

I've been experimenting with my CREE flashlight instead of the flash if I'm indoors. Limp batteries (too bright with fresh ones) and my Galaxy S5 seem to get decent colors. But it's best to take pics in real sunlight.

Hey Trooper Bri,

Just making sure you don't mean stainless steel. Electrolysis using stainless steel gives off hexavalent chromium as a byproduct. A carcinogen, and believe me, really nasty stuff. Small quantities emitted of course, but you don't want any part of breathing that stuff in!

ohn