I want to make some good sets of '60 - 2012 pennies... that look really nice...the pennies are circulated and they never will be worth more than one penny IMO... so I am going to practice certain dips and whizzing techniques.
So far, for dips I have been looking at vinagar, lemon juice, and potassium cyanide.
My technique for whizzing right now is basically using a standard drafting eraser, inserting it in my corded drill and going to town on the penny.
I want to read more about the cyanide before I get my hands dirty with that of course... but so far I have done a bit of whizzing on some pretty ugly coins to see what can be done about the "brown"
Be very -no, not very, extremely-careful with cyanide...NEVER, NEVER, NEVER get it mixed with ANY acid...otherwise, you'll get a whiff of hydrogen cyanide which will kill you in a few breath...If you smell a odor of bitter almonds, it's a serious warning: get away! with any person with you. There's some methods to safely destroy cyanide, but these are quite difficult to use by someone not familiar with chemistry.
Otherwise, put gloves on your hands, let any food away (don't confuse it with salt...).
You absolutely want to have so shiny coins? A coin can be as nice with a brown patina...I'm not opposed to remove the grime and grease found on anSo old coin, but to have such contaminants, the coin had normally circulated a lot...so the grade is rarely higher than VF...