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Hey guys,

So I had this really weird thing happen today. I picked up a few rolls and as I was opening I noticed 5, yes 5 we SOLID WHEAT! I thought I hit the 'jackpot'! haha was I wrong. As I looked through all 5 rolls I realized each coin was covered in this WEIRD BLUE/GREEN GUNK! I have no better way to put it. It was like nothing I have ever seen. Some are worse than others. And the unfortunate thing is that the coins seem in good condition otherwise expect that either the front or the back is covered in this gunk, but not both sides. I think some guy was collecting wheats and maybe tried to clean it with some weird solution and realized he messed up and just gave up and cashed it in. However the only reason I dont believe this is the case is because only certain parts of the coins are affected. This defintely wasnt your traditional 'ketchup wash' or 'salt and vinegar' wash. This was something entirely different and unexplainable.
I tried cleaning it in some 'salt and vinegar' but had no luck at all really. If I REALLY scrubed HARD for about 10 mintues straight I might be able to clean up the coin decently. However considering there is about 250-300 of these I really dont want to spend 10+ mintues cleaning each and every one. All common dates btw.
If anybody has ANY ideas it would be MUCH appreciated. I guess its a good problem to have but its defintely frustrating. Id feel terrible spending wheats.

Thanks a lot guys

heat gun?

Thats an interesting idea. Dont have one, but good idea none the less. Thanks for the idea.

try to hit it so that the crap melts off but doesnt roast your penny.
in fact, if you have any non-wheat-coppers that are covered in that mess, experiment with that one first

Put them in the oven and see what happens. Can't really hurt them at all

try the free coin cleaner....taco bell fire sauce

coins stored in certain plastics for many years can look this way.Id just keep them separate in a glass jar,and experiment with the different suggestions you get on this thread.

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions guys! s

I am hesistant to put it in the oven, not so much from the coins standpoint but in the rare case that this gunk is some kind of toxic sludge haha. I considered putting them in the microwave...

I've heard about the taco bell 'fire' sauce. That really works? Bgretz do you know if its a soak in the 'fire sauce' or like wipe it down with the sauce? I'll have to go to taco bell haha.

I wonder what would happen if I put them in a pot of boiling water on the stove. Anybody try this? They wont rust will they?

Thanks again guys. I really appreciate the help

Is it a blue/green fuzz? Could be what's known as "Bronze Disease". Chlorine in whatever was used to clean/store them has formed hydrochloric acid & is going to work on the copper.

I collect ancient Roman coins, and it's relatively common to see them get attacked by Bronze Disease. If left in the open air untreated, it's contagious & can turn your entire hoard to rust.

Here's some info about treating it with pictures:
http://tomross.ancients.info/Electrolys ... isease.htm

Perhaps you could try acetone? Based on what Coppercrazy said about coins stored in plastic bins, I'm thinking the gunk may be plastic based. If it is, taco sauce, vinegar & salt, and any other acid based cleaners won't touch it, but acetone will make it melt right off. The best part is acetone does nothing to any metals so the actual penny should be totally unaffected.

Be careful with the acetone though. It's highly flammable and harmful if you breathe in too much. Might want to do it outside (or under a fume hood). Good luck!

Johnny99 wrote:Is it a blue/green fuzz? Could be what's known as "Bronze Disease". Chlorine in whatever was used to clean/store them has formed hydrochloric acid & is going to work on the copper.

I collect ancient Roman coins, and it's relatively common to see them get attacked by Bronze Disease. If left in the open air untreated, it's contagious & can turn your entire hoard to rust.

Here's some info about treating it with pictures:
http://tomross.ancients.info/Electrolys ... isease.htm

Johnny thanks for that info. Thats very informative. I dont believe its 'Bronze Disease' primarily because the coin isn't erroded and the rest of the coin is fine, in normal condition, no rust whatsoever. It is mostly blue, with a very slight green hue. I too inititaly thought it was hydrochloric acid that did it. In the past I cleaned some pennies in a 'salt and vinegar' mixture, which if I am not mistaken forms hydrochloric acid. Basically I left them in WAY too long, like days and it essentially 'rusted' or 'erroded' them to the color red, however not green fuzz. This time however it doesnt look anything like that and like I mentioned previously only portions of each individual coin is affected. Its more of like a 'sludge' than a 'fuzz'. Like I can kind of chip away at it with somewhat success. It doesnt look anything like those pictures of the coins affected by 'Bronze disease' but thats very good to know thanks for that. I've come to learn to use 'salt and vinegar' VERY SPARINGLY if Iam going to attempt to clean coins with it. I dont even know if I like how the coin looks after it comes out of a 'salt and vinegar' wash. You can defintely tell it was cleaned for sure but in the sense it kind of 'erroded' the dirt away. I dont know how else to describe it.

FullmetalRaymond Thanks a lot for that suggestion as well. I am defintely going to try that. I really like that the acetone doesnt affect the metal in any way. That has been my biggest concern really. Trying to find some heavy duty cleaner thats not just going to disintergrate the coin entirely
I found that applying some heat worked to loosen up the gunk, but its quite thick and heavy so maybe I could heat the coins in boiling water then immediately place them in an acetone solution. Think that'd work?

Thanks a lot everybody for your help!

This is what it looks like if anybody is interested.

Ever heard of Goof Off?

http://www.goofoffstainremover.com/

I've removed some crazy stuff with that. Don't get the spray bottle... get the smaller can concentrate (and WEAR GLOVES!)... Also... may consider Purple Dragon (again... WEAR GLOVES!) We use that stuff at work for cleaning machinery. I'd consider laying them on a cookie sheet and dousing them with one or the other of those and letting them soak for a few min then try to scrub them lightly. You may be surprised! I hope you are able to salvage those! That's a NICE FIND!

Just a quick comment here, as a light bulb went off when I saw your pics. I had the same thing happen one time a few months ago when I opened 10 customer rolled pennies in brown wrappers (all memorial); they were basically ALL crap and nothing worth keeping or checking at all; a few of them even had small pieces missing or were just downright nasty or discolored! My conclusion? I got somebody else's hoard who turned in their rejects to the bank. I even remember mentioning this to HCBTT one time and he also said that I got somebody's rejects. Now in this case, it's all wheats; I would say that it could still be a partial hoard by someone else who is turning in junk.

What to do with them? Add them to the copper hoard to be sold later (ugly Abes plus regulars). After all, they are still copper, right?

Put them in a tumbler with a good ceaning solution.
Or- put them in a plastic bowl and cover them with Snobowl toilet cleaner then dump them in a bowl of water to neutralize. Works every time.

Pennybug wrote:Ever heard of Goof Off?

http://www.goofoffstainremover.com/

I've removed some crazy stuff with that. Don't get the spray bottle... get the smaller can concentrate (and WEAR GLOVES!)... Also... may consider Purple Dragon (again... WEAR GLOVES!) We use that stuff at work for cleaning machinery. I'd consider laying them on a cookie sheet and dousing them with one or the other of those and letting them soak for a few min then try to scrub them lightly. You may be surprised! I hope you are able to salvage those! That's a NICE FIND!

Thanks pennybug I'll defintetly try that. That stuff looks HEAVY DUTY. lol. I just hope it doesnt eat away the pennies. Luckily I have a few to experiment on if it doesnt work. Thanks for the compliment as well! I managed to salvage a 1930 D which is now the best in my collection so I am quite happy with that. It happened to be one of the few that wasnt completely covered in grime. I figured it'd be worth taking 15 mintues and some elbow grease for that one.

HPMBTT wrote:Just a quick comment here, as a light bulb went off when I saw your pics. I had the same thing happen one time a few months ago when I opened 10 customer rolled pennies in brown wrappers (all memorial); they were basically ALL crap and nothing worth keeping or checking at all; a few of them even had small pieces missing or were just downright nasty or discolored! My conclusion? I got somebody else's hoard who turned in their rejects to the bank. I even remember mentioning this to HCBTT one time and he also said that I got somebody's rejects. Now in this case, it's all wheats; I would say that it could still be a partial hoard by someone else who is turning in junk.

What to do with them? Add them to the copper hoard to be sold later (ugly Abes plus regulars). After all, they are still copper, right?

Yeah its defintely a bummer when that kind of thing happens, but kind of a challenge I guess you could say at the same time. I too believe it was a 'collection' of sorts that wasnt really cared for or something. And I guess the guy just gave up. i mean what are the chances that it was just some spare change that was rolled when they were solid wheat. I mean I guess it could be an REAL old timer who collected spare change until 1959 and then stopped and then waited until 2011 to bring it to the bank, but I kinda doubt that. Lol. Even as messed up as they are I dont think Id ever cash in rolls of wheats. I defintely think I'll save them regardless if they come out or not. Frankly they wouldnt pass as an 'ugly abe' but it might pass as ' a f-ed up wheat' if theres a market for that, LOL.

TXTim wrote:Put them in a tumbler with a good ceaning solution.
Or- put them in a plastic bowl and cover them with Snobowl toilet cleaner then dump them in a bowl of water to neutralize. Works every time.

I Think a relative of mine has a tumbler for jewelry, I dont know they'd like me putting pennies in there, haha! I'll defintely try snobowl toilet cleaner. Do you think that powdered stuff 'comet' works, or like some other liquid cleaner? Thats a good idea tho. Thanks a lot.

Thanks a lot everybody for the responses! I got a whole range of different suggestions and I am going to try everyone. It might take some time though. Maybe I'll post a thread sometime if this works out with a before and after picture and suggestions on what works best incase anybody runs into this problem down the line.

Thanks again!

Pennybug wrote:Ever heard of Goof Off?

http://www.goofoffstainremover.com/

I've removed some crazy stuff with that. Don't get the spray bottle... get the smaller can concentrate (and WEAR GLOVES!)... Also... may consider Purple Dragon (again... WEAR GLOVES!) We use that stuff at work for cleaning machinery. I'd consider laying them on a cookie sheet and dousing them with one or the other of those and letting them soak for a few min then try to scrub them lightly. You may be surprised! I hope you are able to salvage those! That's a NICE FIND!

I'm telling you, it's the acetone! Here's a quote from the Goof Off FAQ:

Why does Goof Off Professional smell like nail polish remover?

One of Goof Off Professional’s ingredients is acetone, which is also used in nail polish removers.

fullmetalraymond wrote:

Pennybug wrote:Ever heard of Goof Off?

http://www.goofoffstainremover.com/

I've removed some crazy stuff with that. Don't get the spray bottle... get the smaller can concentrate (and WEAR GLOVES!)... Also... may consider Purple Dragon (again... WEAR GLOVES!) We use that stuff at work for cleaning machinery. I'd consider laying them on a cookie sheet and dousing them with one or the other of those and letting them soak for a few min then try to scrub them lightly. You may be surprised! I hope you are able to salvage those! That's a NICE FIND!

I'm telling you, it's the acetone! Here's a quote from the Goof Off FAQ:

Why does Goof Off Professional smell like nail polish remover?

One of Goof Off Professional’s ingredients is acetone, which is also used in nail polish removers.

Haha! Great find Fullmetalraymond, that'll defintely save me a few bucks. I picking up a bottle of acetone tomorrow!
Thanks!

Like TXTim suggested try a tumbler. I run my nasty metal detecting finds for a couple of hours with small aquarium gravel, dish soap and water and they come out
looking good. Sometimes the stubborn ones need to be tumbled two or three times before all of the the crud gets cleaned off.