Some Pennies and Coins Like Silver, Gold and Proof and other coins worth a lot of money should not be cleaned unless by a professional.

Coins will lose their value if you clean them and cause blemishes.  Gold, silver and rare coins must be pure and blemish free.  Keep them that way.

Products like Brasso and cleaning agents can ruin rare coins and they will lose their value when you try to sell them.  Proof coins should be kept in an airtight container so they do not corrode.

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Will Cleaning a Penny with Alcohol Work?

I tried it and the results were very minor if any at all. In fact, alcohol may do more harm than good because of the chemical effects on the metal, and probably just adds more corrosion.

So no, alcohol is no good for anything except to clean a penny or coin of germs and bacteria, that it will do. But to clean them for the visual effect of shininess and looking new, alcohol doesn’t do well. It may get the penny clean but the penny doesn’t look like it. And that’s with pretty much any kind of alcohol.

I’ll only waste your time if I show you a picture of this one. Alcohol just does no good making a penny shiny. Maybe it does better on a nickel, dime or quarter? Actually I just tried a quarter. Nothing. Squeaky clean and disinfected, yes, but shiny no. Strange…

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We’ve tried baking soda by itself and we’ve tried vinegar by itself to clean a penny…

baking soda vinegar and pennies

Will combining both do a better job of cleaning a penny in light of the chemical reaction?

baking soda vinegar and clean pennies

The result is yes, cleaning pennies with both seemed to actually do better than cleaning with them separately.

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But here’s the real kicker about cleaning coins with Brasso…SHOULD a penny be cleaned using Brasso? My answer is an emphatic no, unless you need to shine it quickly and really don’t mind what the penny or coin looks like a week later, and if you don;t mind some of the metal rubbing off.

Disadvantages of using Brasso to clean coins:

• Brasso is a chemical and therefore can be hazardous or toxic if you’re not careful

• Brasso scrubs some of the metal off, and the coins lose value that way

• Brasso is messy and takes several cloths, gets a blackoily metal film all over your hands and clothes of you’re not careful

• The penny loses it’s shiny luster after a week or two, and then looks just as bad if not worse from some sort of corrosion caused by the brasso and your fingerprint oil

Brasso is a quick fix for how tro clean a penny and probably the quickest and easiest way to clean a penny but it is definitely not the best way, and may be one of the worst in the long run. To me using Brasso is not the way to go if you can avoid it, for cleaning a penny or any coin. I recommend against it.

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