Cleaning With Ammonia

I don't know if this helps or hurts, but Tabasco Sauce will clean pennies.

Let me know how it works.

So will Battery Acid, an atomic bomb, Lemon Juice. The main thing here is to try to remember not to reuse the Tabasco Sauce on your food after using it to clean coins. The reverse is also not a good idea.

What about soaking coins in a olive oil bath?

I havn't tried olive oil, but as of April 14th it will be a year that some dirty wheat cents have been soaking in mineral oil. So far only the cents with the heaviest build up of dirt has kind of like a haze or fog around them. The dirt is trying to loosen up, but its a long process thats why I'm looking for a quicker solution.

he may be "aged Rock"... but he probably has more $$$$ than all of us together.....

You can speed up the effect olive oil will have on copper coins by heating it. I've found that holding olive oil at about 214F or slightly higher than the boiling point of water(101 centigrade) for an hour or so and then letting it cool normally will cause the coin to expand and contract within it's crud envelope at a different rate than the crud itself. Result? Crud often falls off with no further intervention.

As a variation on this for more stubborn coins, I put copper and silver coins in a standard freezer for a few hours and then put them immediately into hot olive oil at around 250 F and simply watched attached crud fall off them.

I am pretty well "sitting on the fence", when it comes to clw=eaning crud off the coins. I would like to be able to see the details, which make up the variety, like in hte IHC, the RPD's. Some of the coins I have seen posted, or published have crud in place, and yet the details are visible,. in orh=thrt==er cases, one can't see the details to verify that what is clainedm is actually true. I like the coin in a natural state, and color. it won't always be the same color, because there is not a constant mix of everything I the air, everywhere youu go, so there will be differences.
I have not used, oe even tried ammonia, or many other substances, for obvious reasons. I don't want to mess up my coins. I do use hot soapy water, ( the pure soap, not the fancy ,dressed up kind. One never knows what kind of "additives" were put in "for effect".
Most of the crud has been removed by soaking on mineral oil for a while, and then using a thorn from one of the many roses, or lime, od any naturally thorny plants. The only thing I have found, is that they are not sharp enough to get in really close. A toothpick, looks like the end of a telephone pole, under glass, and is useless.
I guess it boils down to the case that if you don't want a coin that has some sort of crap on it from having been in everyones hand for many years, that it just won't look clean, no matter what, then one must have a deep pocket, and buy the coins as they are minted. Vitgin, without a story to tell about where they have been, much less with whom.....