Well, making money look like new anyway! Today we did an experiment using copper pennies and vinegar. The Older loved this because he likes his coins shiny (and in proper order according to size, edges, and pictures on the coins, but that’s a whole other post).
Part of the fun was having the kids look for dirty pennies. It was like a scavenger hunt for them, and they really got into it! I even found The Older hanging upside down in the washer. Wish I had a picture of that, LOL!
We started with:
- A few dull (not covered in gross stuff from the car’s cup holder or anything) pennies
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Nonmetal bowl
- Paper towels
- Spoon for stirring
Fist we put the vinegar and salt into the bowl and stirred it around a bit. Then we added the pennies and counted to 10…
Voila! Pretty coins!
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Things we learned: Vinegar is an acid and reacts with the salt. It removed the carbon oxide which covered the pennies and made them dull.
We also did different things like trying different coins, different amounts of salt, and washing the coins after versus leaving them out to dry.
Tags: cleaning money, experiment, money
