Coke for Cleaning Coins ? or Destroying them ? RESULTS ADDED

Just remember to take the coins out of the glass before you drink it.
 

I had a brass token that I soaked in olive oil for about 6 months and it didn't do a thing. Ditto a wheat penny. I used extra virgin olive oil. Does it make a difference what kind? Maybe I should use the slutty kind next time? :D Monty
 

bk said:
Just remember to take the coins out of the glass before you drink it.

LOL!!! I really had to laugh at this one bk!

Yesterday I dropped a coin into my coffee and it's a mighty good thing I saw it happen. I may have had a 1802 large cent inside me. I hate to think what that would have done to the patina ;D
 

Re: Coke for Cleaning Coins ? or Destroying them ?

gord said:
And what really happens when you add an Aspirin?

Claim: Combining Coca-Cola and aspirin will get you high.

Status: False.

Origins: Various
bits of popular "wisdom" circulate about what ingesting Coca-Cola and aspirin together will do. The more common (with the first two being by far the most popular) are:
it's an aphrodisiac
it's a great way to get high
it causes instant death
it cures headaches
Without exception, the beverage is always Coca-Cola and the pain killer is aspirin. No other products will do, apparently ? not even another soft drink, let alone a different analgesic.

These beliefs have been around for decades and are generally picked up in high school. Usually, a student hears only one of these old wives' tales and is unaware others outside his region have heard different things about the efficacy of that particular combination.

In some parts of the U.S., girls were in the habit of keeping a careful eye on their Cokes, lest some less-than-successful Lotharios slip aspirin into their drinks, rendering them wanton and willing. In other areas, kids downed aspirin and Cokes with the firm belief that they'd soon be lightheaded and silly.

What might well be the origin of the "gets you high" belief appeared in the early 1930s. A doctor from Illinois wrote to the Journal of the American Medical Association to warn that teenagers were dissolving aspirin in Coca-Cola to create an "intoxicating" beverage with addictive properties that were as bad as "narcotic habituation." His rant was baseless, and the rumor eventually died down and stayed down for a very long time.

The teen years are a time of experimentation and initiation into the world of adult knowledge and thus mark a bridge between childhood and adulthood. Two things that kids can't do but adults can are drink liquor and engage in sexual activity. It's not surprising that a great many of the whispered snippets of secret knowledge exchanged by teens have to do with one or the other of these activities. To kids of that age everything is a mystery, so bits of lore that enhance the aura of mystery fall upon receptive ears.

Teens stand with one leg still in childhood, a time of lessened responsibility. Actions aren't clearly perceived as having consequences, certainly not in the way they will later in life. A teen will be enchanted by the notion that combining a popular soft drink with an equally popular pain killer will result in his getting drunk or stoned, and he will set out to get himself into that condition via this method just to prove that he can. Never mind that illegal drugs aren't all that hard to come by, and a bottle of liquor even less so (even if one is underage) ? it's the sense of putting one over on the system and not the hoped-for high itself that lies at the heart of this belief's attractiveness.

Another eagerly exchanged bit of secret knowledge tangentially related to the "it gets you high" notion is the idea that drinking beer through a straw will render the imbiber utterly legless. It too lacks any basis in reality. However, the psychosomatic effect of such a belief can be startling.

The belief that the Coke-aspirin combination makes for an aphrodisiac leaps straight from the ordinary teen urge to have a way of making the object of his desire feel the same way about him. Adolescence is not just a time of awakening sexual feelings, but also of learning how to deal with romantic rejection. It's only natural to wish for a magic drug that would make the pain of being rejected a thing of the past by doing away with rejection itself, and what more suitable potion could there be than the most American of beverages combined with something that takes pain away?

Far less widespread are the beliefs that the combination will kill whoever drinks it or that it will cure a vicious hangover. The first of the two is easy to explain: teens are always seeing lurking phantom dangers in the oddest things ? the more innocuous, the better. Perhaps the belief that combining two common products will result in a deadly poison is a teen's way of beginning to conceive that the adult world is fraught with dangers. That teens makes up the dangers instead of recognizing the real ones is part of their romantic nature ? it's much more exciting to imagine Godzilla is after you than it is to view a motorcycle through the eyes of someone who has read rider survival statistics.

Finally, as for Coca-Cola and aspirin's being a hangover cure, we come to one bit of the lore which has something to it. Individually, both of these products couldn't help but make things better at a time like that ? the Coke because it helps rehydrate an alcohol-dried body, and the aspirin because it eases the physical suffering of a pounding head. When served up together, the combination packs a much greater pain-killing effect than either of the products would on their own because the caffeine in the soda appears to work to boost the effect of the aspirin.

Barbara "Coke adds life even to last night's life of the party" Mikkelson

Sightings: The belief the combination of Coke and aspirin forms an intoxicant comes up in the 1978 film Grease.

Last updated: 27 August 1999

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/aspirin.asp
Click here to e-mail this page to a friend

Urban Legends Reference Pages ? 1995-2006
by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson
This material may not be reproduced without permission


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources:
Allen, Frederick. Secret Formula.
New York: HarperCollins, 1994. ISBN 0-88730-672-1 (p. 209).

de Vos, Gail. Tales, Rumors and Gossip.
Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, 1996. ISBN 1-56308-190-3 (p. 145).

Pendergrast, Mark. For God, Country, and Coca-Cola.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993. ISBN 0-684-19347-7 (p. 191).
 

jeff of pa said:
the properties of COKE:
1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days


3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous China.

4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains.

9. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

For Your Info:
1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8.

It will dissolve a nail in about 4days.

Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.

2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.

3. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/acid.asp
Would YOU use a bunch of sticky goo to clean an engine?
 

"if it will dissolve rust and eat a nail....how come they sell it in cans?"

I thopught about that too but then Irememebered aluminium doesn't rust.
Dig-It said:
Yes, but some of us are old enough to remember when drink cans were made of steel. Those were the good old days when you had to use a "church key" to enjoy your Falstaff or Jax or whatever, and pulltabs had not been invented.
 

Monty said:
I used extra virgin olive oil. Does it make a difference what kind? Maybe I should use the slutty kind next time? :D Monty


LOL! ;D
 

Just wanted to chime in myself...this is taken from a local history written in 1932, this particular section was speaking of the local coca cola bottling plants, note the cirlced area quote by a doctor and the paragraph directly below on it's healthy properties.
 

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At what point was Coke Changed ?

Or Was it ?

I read somewhere that the Original Contents were changed,
and I'm not talking about NEW COKE Vs. CLASSIC COKE.

It may have just been one of them B.S. things, But I heard Coke used to contain Coca.

Even so, I'd be surprised if Coke is Still all Natural
 

jeff of pa said:
At what point was Coke Changed ?

Or Was it ?

I read somewhere that the Original Contents were changed,
and I'm not talking about NEW COKE Vs. CLASSIC COKE.

It may have just been one of them B.S. things, But I heard Coke used to contain Coca.

Even so, I'd be surprised if Coke is Still all Natural

Apparently, at first it contained cocaine and was used as a medicine (pain reliever or something).
 

As a favor to me, too, don't use Coca Cola or any other acid to clean your coins. Let me give you a brief run-down on Coke.

It contains phosphoric and carbonic acids. There is quite enough in there to attack your tooth enamel, many metals, and definitely the surface of most coins (except pure gold, which wouldn't need cleaning anyway). If you have dirty coins, there are better and less destructive ways to clean them than using acids. Electrolysis comes to mind. Sodium bicarbonate or carbonate is another way that does far less damage than acids.

Coins and iron are two different things as far as their behavior in Coca Cola. For cleaning iron artifacts, phosphoric acid does not actually dissolve iron. It dissolves rust, but then when it reacts with the actual iron surface, it tends to cause "passivation" via an iron phosphate coating which resists further corrosion.

I have cleaned pure iron and carbon-steel objects (tools) in a mixture of phosphoric and sulfuric acids (both will passivate iron and therefore not eat the metal), but the alloy composition of a given piece is generally not known to you, so I'd advise against using it on your finds. Coca Cola is obviously not pure phosphoric acid, as it also contains a great deal of carbonic acid, so I wouldn't trust it to behave entirely like pure phosphoric acid towards iron anyway. Coins, forget it. I would say Coke is as bad as vinegar (in fact they're roughly the same acidity!).

In short, don't put your coins in Coca Cola. You will (1) dissolve any natural patina they might have had, and (2) eat into the surface giving the coin an overcleaned appearance that ruins the value.

Two, huge No-No's for coins are Acids and Abrasives. As far as you and I are concerned, Coca Cola is just another Acid.

If, by the way, you're just cleaning a handful of clad that you've checked to make sure they're all worth only face value, then go ahead and soak 'em in Coke. Then again, here's something to consider. I found a 2004 Michigan state quarter last night in a lake; as a result of its exposure to seaweed and who knows what else, it has nice natural toning that even has some color, like an old silver. What we think is common "junk" today, someone in the future might think is valuable.
 

WV_Detecting said:
Just wanted to chime in myself...this is taken from a local history written in 1932, this particular section was speaking of the local coca cola bottling plants, note the cirlced area quote by a doctor and the paragraph directly below on it's healthy properties.

He says there's nothing synthetic or manufactured... hmmm. Phosphoric acid may technically be derived from natural products (natural phosphates), but it's still produced by an industrial process... and it will still take the enamel off your teeth quite handily.

Coke is interesting stuff that tastes good too, and the cola extracts are probably good for you in a number of ways, but the surface of an old penny isn't as well-equipped as your stomach for handling acidic foods like Coca-cola :)
 

HI to clarify a point made earlier, the Acid in the soft drinks does dissolve the aluminum, especially when the soft drink is allowed to become hot, such as in transporting in the summer.

Sufficient Aluminum is put into soloution over a long term to cause health problems, now making it a prime candidate for Alzheimer's disease, among others.

Morale and hint, drinkyour soft drinks out of glass bottles, not Aluminum nor Plastic.

Better yet, none of them, since it can help change your critical pH to below 6.4, baaaaad.

Tropical Tramp
 

jeff of pa said:
At what point was Coke Changed ?

Or Was it ?

I read somewhere that the Original Contents were changed,
and I'm not talking about NEW COKE Vs. CLASSIC COKE.

It may have just been one of them B.S. things, But I heard Coke used to contain Coca.

Even so, I'd be surprised if Coke is Still all Natural

Hey Jeff. I think was in the late twenties that Coke changed it's formula. It did indeed contain coca leaves. It was named in 1885. By the turn of the century, there was a lot of heat on all the products on the market that contained cocaine (there were tons), but Coke couldn't take the Coca out of the product and still keep the trademark. If they took the coca out, anybody could copy the name.

I just read that by the time they officially changed the formula, there was as little as 1/400th of a grain of cocaine in an ounce of Coca Cola. I think doing lines of the stuff would be both messy and painful! ;D ;D

There ya go-Mike
 

LOL, Mike

so I guess If I want to get High from it, I gotta Drink 50 cases in an Hour :D
 

Coke is best when 'diluted' with about 2 parts Coke to one part Jack Daniels Old No 7...............keep the JD in the fridge - you won't need as many ice cubes..........

For what it's worth:

COKE and ALL other carbonated beverages, contain carbonic acid. This is the result of the carbon dioxide, used to make the water fizzy, reacting with the oxygen in the water. Carbonic acid will, like all other acids, eat just about anything in its path, given enough time.

BTW – the Ph of carbonic acid at atmospheric pressure is about 5.6. Orange and Lemon Juice have a Ph of about 2.8, vinegar is about 3.0, and your own stomach acid has a Ph of about 1.2 – that’s why it burns when you puke. (the lower the number, the stronger it is - 7.0 is neutral)

Diggem'
 

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