I remember using ketchup to clean off a barnacle cent I found - 1909. I was both sad and delighted to learn the date. But it did smell tomato-y for awhile.
Dogs on my relatives farms occasionally smell like tomato-y for a while also. Right after they've tangled with a skunk. Soaking them in tomatoes is one remedy to treat dogs that have been skunked.
Vinegar and salt will do the same thing. Little better. http://nobel.scas.bcit.ca/wiki/index.php/Penny_reactions
Do you have Irving's ghost living in your air conditioner? If you do, I can exorcise him out, but I'll need half a chicken.
Hey Kids! Clean your pennies with ketchup... And then go ahead and spend them because you have stripped all the collector value off of them.
Sticking copper coins in a raw potato will sometimes remove excess crud, but unless they are already so bad they are virtually worthless, PLEASE DON'T CLEAN THEM!!!
Found the rest of those pennies cleaned in ketchup. In bulk, they still smell funny almost 40 years later.
