Clean pennies with Vinegar and Salt

In this video we clean pennies with vinegar and salt.

Just mix together some vinegar with enough salt to make a saturated solution. The apply the solution to your tarnished pennies. The combination of acid and chloride etches the tarnish away to reveal the clean copper underneath.

Don't leave the acid on or it will keep etching and produce an ugly green coating of copper salts. So wash off the acids with water after the pennies are clean.

[Draontail]

This solution is also good for finding microscopic cuts in fingers...
*/wipes tears away*

[snow]

Thanks scary voice, I'm going to try this at home.

[NurdRage]

New pennies have smoother surfaces. The pennies cleaned with this method have actually etched off some of the copper. This etching isn't perfectly even so you actually get a microscopically rough surface. The roughness affects the light hitting it to give a slightly duller and pinker color than new pennies.

[dorothywiggins]

l remembered something about vinegar & salt to clean pennies. Couldn’t quite remember the how to. Thanks for your simple to the point explanation - and wonderful reminder to wow the grandchildren.

[thecookiemonstergaming]

Give the Statue of Liberty a bath in that

[isaacurbina]

Anyone watching do not clean old valuable coins!! They reduce the value if you plan on selling/auctioning.

[guineagazette]

It really works! And extremely well, too. I cleaned about 8 lbs of pennies this way.

[AstralStriderZ]

12 people never went to school in their lives!!! Keep Going man!!!

[petebuxton]

Yeah bro, I had my two young daughters loving cleaning coins!! They cleaned all the 1p's and 2p's
Wish I could get them as enthused when it comes to cleaning their bedrooms :-/

[Vnifit]

I took some pennies and put them in a petri dish with white vinegar. Then I forgot about it for months. Came back and fairly large crystals formed on the surface of the penny!

[sean]

That's exactly right. Acetic acid (and anything that can ionize, really) does so to a greater extent in a solution with a higher ionic strength (which is brought about by adding neutral ions to a solution). This allows the cupric oxide to dissolve in the acid much more quickly. I think that's the best explanation I can come up with.

[TheCatAteMyShoe]

Pickling Pennies. A new alternative rock band.

[evecleroux]

Ha Ha! this is great. In Canada we don't use pennies any more. I'm using my last few hundred to inlay a coffee table for my dad, this is going to make it look great!!!

[Dhutton]

Honestly, I've learned more from Nurd Rage about chemistry than in any high school chem class, and passed chem101 and 102 I can understand the way nurdrage explains reactions better than my professor

[tigerfish]

So glad I found this channel :) Please keep putting up the chemical reaction equations like in the other vids!

[johnhassen]

Awesome! Thank you! I’m making a special gift for my wife for our 7 year anniversary which is Copper and Wool including Pennies and this will work wonderfully!

[scumboggle]

Out of all the videos youve produced this is the most useful so far. I produce metal sculpture and the oxide from heating has to be removed on copper for looks. primarily because of my cats I was looking for the safest cleaner ( relative to sulphuric ) to have around, this fits the bill nicely. Thank you.

[MightyBob]

Thanks! I've been periodically making the "gold" pennies and I've been using steel wool to get the tarnish off the pennies so the conduction between the pennies and zinc is better. This method is much MUCH easier.

[NurdRage]

"lol, you should know this! you're a professional chemist!"

You think i should know something because a professional chemist should know it. Since i don't know it (more accurately, i don't think its right, but that's a different story). Therefore, i must not be a professional :P

hehehe

[bamsb]

I personally think Canadians are awesome. They have beautiful accents, they live in a fantastic land, and best of all they have this guy.