Reynolds Metals

how do i clean old aluminium coins with white metal stains?

10 Mark Jewish Getto Coins (1943). I am giving them as gifts to people, they are not for keeping so it doesnt matter if the value decreases! they are aluminium metal -what is best for cleaning them please?

Public Comments

1. I wouldn't try cleaning them... even if you don't care about the value, they could be over time; and since they are gifts, they might be appreciated and kept. You could use a bit of lemon juice with an old toothbrush, gently rubbing it around on them... Best wishes.
2. Cleaning coins is fairly risky. Botched cleaning jobs can make a very valuable coin almost worthless on the market, and actually do more harm than good to a coin. Deciding whether or not to clean isn't easy. Cleaning goes in and out of fashion like any other trend; some years, cleaned coins are popular and other years, they're not. Overall, serious collectors prefer "natural" coins. You will often hear collectors talk about "toning". That's just a nice way of saying tarnish. Oddly enough, an evenly toned coin with an attractive color can be worth more than an artificially shiny, polished coin. Toning, however, is not the same as dirt or corrosion. Leaving these on a coin can cause even more damage to it over time. Removing the dirt and corrosion will often leave pits behind in the surface, but at least there will be no further damage...
3. Don't clean the coins. Let the people you are giving them to make that decision. As you can tell from the answers here, collectors never want coins that are cleaned.