Just got a tip from a guy who runs a magic shop in Bristol TN to use nevr dull to clean coins. Its a metal cleaner made by eagle one and works better than anything I have tried.

I use Never dull, but sparingly, if what you are going for is a shiny coin.

If you just want to clean some gunk off a coin, toothpaste works well, also a pencil eraser.

For an expensive set where you don't want to affect the natural toning of the coin you might try this:

http://www.vcoins.com/us/kointainer/stor......duct=545

Pretty good discussion here:

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......&start=0

Somewhere on this gigantic site I had responded to a similar post about cleaning coins. Being somewhat in the jewelry business I have a few methods that work great. Most of you probably don't have an ultrasonic cleaning machine but if you do or have access to one use warm water, a splash of ammonia and some lemon dishwashing soap. Let the coins soak for a few minutes and clean them off with a toothbrush, any old one will do. If you don't have an ultrasonic look for something called a rouge cloth, you can probably get one from your local jeweler. One side will be red is rouge impregnated and the other side will be a soft cloth or muslin. Shine it up on the rouge side and clean it up with the other. It's designed to polish gold so it will not get out scratches but it will put a nice shine to it.

Now if you really want to go to town, you can use a buffing wheel. It will really take the relief of the coin down so a collector would probably want to kill me for saying so, but you can almost put a mirror finish on a half dollar, they look great. Just for cleaning them, I'd stick with the soap and toothbrush.

Good luck.

Phil

Toothpaste (not gel) is my preferred method.

Here are some products that I use for both cups and coins:

White Vinegar and Salt: Use to remove existing patina from copper cups. Rinse thoroughly.

Wright's Silver Cleaner: Use for cleaning silver cups and/or coins.

NevR Dull: Use to clean and shine copper cups.

Flitz: Use to clean copper cups and/or coins.

Please note that Flitz leaves a bit of a wax residue to inhibit re-tarnishing, which you may not want with your copper coins. Wright's is a nice, mild cleaner. Wright's also makes a copper cleaner if you can find it. I just used Wright's Silver Crème to shine up my Banded ring, which is steel plated with nickel; worked perfectly.

I keep away from Brasso and Silvo for coins - much to abrasive IMO.

Jim

Good advice everybody.

I have used NevR Dull on coins and other metal items as well. Lately, I have been using a product from Meguir's (the car wax people) called Plastix. It is a polish for taking the haze off of headlamps. It is a very mild abrasive that shined my clad Kennedy Half Dollars to the point that they looked like brand new coins. What I really liked is that all of my clad Kennedy's looked identical after using it. Since then they have dulled down a bit, but at a constant rate for all the coins, so they still look like a matching set. Prior to using the Plastix, they looked very different.