Shiny Pennies

A couple of weeks ago, I made a post about how to make green pennies. Click here if you want to visit that post. Do you want those pennies to be shiny again? If so, then this is the perfect experiment for you! This experiment takes dirty pennies and makes them shiny again!

What you need:

• A lemon or lemon juice
• Dirty pennies
• A bowl
• A paper towel

Steps:

• If you are using a lemon, cut it in half and squeeze its juice into the bowl. If you are using lemon juice, pour a thin layer of lemon juice into the bowl.

• Place the dirty pennies in the bowl with the lemon juice. Make sure the lemon juice is completely covering the top of the pennies. If it is not, add more lemon juice to the bowl.

• Let the pennies soak in the lemon juice for 10 minutes. Then, take them out and wipe them off with your paper towel.

• Admire your shiny pennies!

How do the pennies get so shiny?

Pennies are made out of copper. When copper mixes with oxygen in the air, oxidation occurs, and this makes the pennies look dirty (to learn more about oxidation, click here). Lemon juice is acidic, and it removes the dirty color or oxidation from the surface of the penny, making it appear shiny.