Potato penny cleaning method. (updated)

Re: Potato penny cleaning method.

gold fish said:
I've heard of a potato battery, could it be some sort of super light electrolysis ??
Can I wire up the penny/potato to run my detector? I figure if it puts out a half a volt, I could put 24 potatoes in line with 24 pennies and run without batteries.

And after I am done, French Fries!
 

Some were asking about what type of potato to use. I heard white potatoes work the best. I have some russet and just grabbed a bag of whites from the store. Going to try it tonight and see if it makes a difference.
 

Before asking what potato to use better to ask what's in the potato that causes this reaction.
Long ago mercury amalgamated with gold were cooked in a potato to leach the mercury out.
Potato's are complicated. Along with electrolytic properties they also contain poisons like their
relatives deadly nightshade(Belladonna)
Better to find what causes the reaction with copper and what it's alloyed with. From here it
sounds like electrolysis.
Now if someone wants to buy some potato starch (potato flour) and test it alone I'd like to hear what happens.
Or belladonna or he other active potato ingredients. Then try slow electrolysis.
 

Great tip...

Got about 2 dozen wheats in a potato now. We'll see how things look....
 

Tater treatment is old school, be aware not the best for nickels, turns them pumpkin orange if I recall correctly.
 

A sting, bug bite or a splinter.....grate potato and slap it on affected area, it will draw the item or venom out.
 

Good news.... it worked pretty well.
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The bad news?.... I owe my wife a potato.:dontknow:
 

Right now I'm soaking some Indian Head penny's in Olive Oil as I've heard about, to help remove some green crud from them, reason being last week found a 1908 S, (semi-key date) and wanted to be easy on it. Never heard of the potato thing before, I'm going to take one of them out of the oil and try it. Any other advice from you fella's out there?
 

Well, I tried it, with an Indian head and a Chinese Cash coin for 25hrs. Really no difference. Did I buy a broken potato?
 

I just put 3 of my crusty wheats in a potato to see for myself. I'll check back in with the results tomorrow.
 

I just put 3 of my crusty wheats in a potato to see for myself. I'll check back in with the results tomorrow.

I'm thinking maybe I should have wrapped the potato with tin foil? The potato dried out, and there was basically no improvement in the condition of the 3 coins.
 

Sooooo.....after the potato try, I have a new GEMORO ultra sonic cleaner for jewelry, thought I'd give that a try, no difference, well, they are back in the olive oil, I don't know, turns them more black then anything else it's looking like, only been a few days, again, I really don't want to tumble them, although they are common dates for Indian Heads, except the ONE that is semi-key date, any better ideas floating around fella's, I know about lemon juice for some things, but I don't know that it would be copper friendly. I'm just happy that I have found the ones I have, and we can all go out and buy nice looking coins, but that's not what we do. The thrill is in FINDING them out there somewhere.
 

...and the copper adds a real nice flavor to the mashed potatoes!
 

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