Cleaning Wheat Pennies

I get a lot of requests on how to go about cleaning wheat pennies. My answer is PLEASE DON'T! Cleaning wheat pennies will almost always decrease their grade, which will in turn decrease their value.

There are many methods that people use when cleaning wheat pennies. Some people recommend scrubbing your wheat pennies with anything from a toothbrush to a wire brush. Others recommend rubbing them with anything from soap, to ketchup, to baking soda. Yet others suggest soaking them in anything from coca cola, to vinegar and salt, to nail polish remover, to jewelry cleaners, to silver or copper cleaners.

While there are many methods that people swear by for cleaning wheat pennies (and while most of them remain untested by me, as I'm not willing to risk my collection), there are no methods that I know of that are 100% safe and guaranteed not to devalue or ruin your wheat pennies. For this reason, cleaning wheat pennies is risky business, as far as I'm concerned - especially when it comes to rare wheat pennies or valuable wheat pennies.

Most of these methods for cleaning wheat pennies will produce disastrous results, from chemical reactions, to blemishes, to scratches, to removing the surface metal of the wheat penny. Anything you use to scrub your coins while cleaning wheat pennies - even the softest materials - may produce at least hairline scratches. These scratches may go unnoticed by the amateur, but if you try to sell your wheat pennies to a professional collector, they will examine the coins under magnification and know that you cleaned them. Then they will likely become uninterested in your coins. Grading companies also know how to find traces from wheat pennies that have been cleaned, and will not grade your coins very well if you have cleaned them.

Your best bet is to leave your wheat pennies alone and not clean them. The truth is that most coins will be worth more to collectors in their original, untouched, and uncleaned condition. Cleaning lowers the value of wheat pennies. Most wheat penny collectors view cleaning wheat pennies as an antiques dealer would view stripping down a piece of antique furniture and refinishing it. They may not look as bright and shiny as you would like, but most collectors would prefer an untouched coin to a shiny coin that has been cleaned - and that's the bottom line on cleaning wheat pennies.