What's the best way to clean an old penny?

Lemon juice and salt.....=)

To clean a tarnished penny:

Coin collectors who like clean money fill a glass with Coke and drop in their tarnished pennies. Let sit for one hour, then wipe clean with a cloth.

Or wipe clean with Tabasco Pepper Sauce and a clean cloth.

:)

chemically and the best way is to boil it in concentated H2SO4..its a very dngerous acid and handle with care

THE BEST WAY..all mentioned are good and will definately clean but not as good as this. dont keep it boiling coz then is boiled for hours will totally dissolve the penny..just for few minutes al it will shine better then it was new.above mentioning methods will work but till sm extent..u wanted th bet way so this is the only best way

Let it dissolve in any type of soda for a day. It will be positively sparking and you won't have to do a thing to scrub it. Soda is actually highly acidic (I forget it's actual pH number, I think it's 3 but I don't remember for sure). Some mechanics use soda to clean dirty battery terminals in cars, if you need some convincing.

Good luck to you. :)

I was taught never to clean coins. I collect them sporadically.

This article is blunt but it should get the point across.

http://www.mycoincollecting.com/collecting/cleanin...

Now, if this coin only has sentimental value then vinegar, salt, and lemon juice are pretty good at cleaning copper.

Toxic Bell (Taco Bell) hot sauce works wonders on pennies too. You can look here and see how shiny their hot sauce will get the pennies... http://cruftbox.com/cruft/docs/cleaningcopper.html

Silver cleaner or the old fashioned brasso. I don't know what would happen if put it in pepsi coke. I've heard it strips dirt of like nobody's business.

tarn-x will turn a brown penny to shiney copper in 1 second flat.

put penny in glass of coke

Hot sauce works well, and so does vinegar, or you could soak them in a Baking soda/water mixture.

drop in vinegar; don*t let those pennies sit in coke or pepsi too long; they will dissolve.