How to Clean a Penny

Cleaning pennies is a fun game for children. There are two ways to clean pennies – one is the kitchen version and the other is a restaurant version. The restaurant version works best when you need a distraction for your children while waiting on food or drinks.

Mix Your Cleaning Solution

In the kitchen, pour ¼ cup of vinegar into a cup and add 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix the ingredients together until the salt is dissolved. Hold a penny between two fingers and dunk it into the cup. The half that is exposed to the vinegar should come out clean and shiny after a few minutes. The vinegar mixture removes copper oxide, the material that creates the brown color, from the outside of the penny.

Think Outside the Box

While sitting at a restaurant, look around for a bottle of hot sauce – preferably Tabasco sauce. Place the penny on a napkin and carefully drip a few drops onto the top of the penny. Let the bubble of sauce sit for about five minutes before wiping it clean with a napkin. The spot where the sauce was sitting will now be bright and shiny.

Easy Step By Step

• Mix a teaspoon of salt into ¼ cup of vinegar
• Add pennies and wait a minute
• Remove pennies and marvel at their shine

Warnings, Advice, and Suggestions

You can use vinegar in many other ways to impress your children. Clean pennies, dissolve the shell from an egg, turn a chicken bone soft – there are dozens of kid friendly uses for vinegar.

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