How can I make a coin look older?
If you just want to fake-antique it for jewelry, it's a lot easier and faster. Take a soft lint-free cloth, a permanent black marker (Sharpies are great for this) and some clear nail polish. Mark all over the coin and completely cover it in black. Paint clear nail polish on half of one side of the coin. Before it dries, rub most of it off with the cloth. Repeat for the other halves of each side. This is quick, but really comes out looking great.
What is the best way to clean an old penny?
i would check if u even should clean it, maybe it lessens the value...also check what it is made from, if it is copper use any gentle metal polish, or like we did in school use lemon n salt (but it scratches). if it is a zinc penny im not sure what cleans zinc. some r steel, and a basic metal cleaner probably works, but if they r rusty it might remove a lot of detail or something.
How can I make an old rusty brass instrument look new? (or at least better)?
Most Mellos are silver plate, you sure its a mello and not a piston French Horn? If the finish is off of brass it starts to look like an old penny, if its silver it just turns black. For brass wash in warm water, let dry, then sit down to a good hour and a half of polishing using brasso. You will also need soft cloths or strong paper towels. Follow the directions on the Brasso Can. There is no good reason to use another polish. The problem is that if you can polish it up with brasso that means that there is no clear finish on the instrument and it will start tarnishing as soon as your done. Store in a tight plastic bag to make the finish last or use car wax on it. You can have a pro buff it like in my film below:
What are pennies from the 1960s worth?
f you find a penny in circulation, it will have wear.Therefore, it really cannot be in mint condition (also known to coin collectors as uncirculated).Here are some old penny values:1943 steel penny (this one often looks silver or white): 20-50 cents if well worn.1934-1958 no mintmark, D, or S copper wheat penny: 5-10 cents if well worn.1959 no mintmark or D Lincoln Memorial penny: 1 cent (face value) if worn.1960-1974 no mintmark, D, or S Lincoln Memorial penny: 1 cent if worn.1974-1981 no mintmark or D Lincoln Memorial penny: 1 cent if worn.1982 both heavier weight copper or lighter weight zinc core pennies: 1 cent if worn.1983-to-date no mintmark or D penny: 1 cent if worn.Doubled Die Old Pennies:While penny values vary widely if they are worn, if you do find any of these old pennies, take them to your local coin dealer to get a value estimate.1955 Doubled-die obverse cent: worth several 100s of dollars even if very well worn. The 1955 doubled-die can be easily detected thanks to extreme doubling of the date on the heads side of the coin. By the way, the obverse is the front of the coin, and the reverse is the back, or tails side1972 Doubled-die obverse: look for signs of doubled images on the obverse1983 Doubled-die reverse: there will be doubling seen in the lettering on the reverse1984 Doubled ear: very hard to detect because of the design, but look for indications that Lincoln’s ear is doubled1995 Doubled-die obverse1999 Wide AM: look for extra space between the A and M in America. For comparison, look at other Lincoln cents made since 1994.What determine a Penny's Value?As you see, unless you were lucky enough to find one of the very scarce doubled-die pennies in your pocket change, your Lincoln Memorial pennies are worth only face value right now if worn.Even many wheat pennies are worth just a marginal premium over face value if worn.In general, pennies struck before 1934 are scarcer than those minted since 1934. This is primarily due to generally lower production numbers during those earlier years. Also, many of those early Lincoln pennies saw heavy use in circulation and were not taken care of very well. So, many of the remaining early Lincoln cents are highly worn, corroded, cleaned, bent, or in other ways, damaged.
How can I tell if my motorcycle has a rusty gas tank?
As to a couple of the other answers here, rust forms in the gas tank of older bikes normally because of storage. Water condenses out of the air during temp change and into your tank, oil floats on water, so it generally goes to the bottom of the tank, and sit there forever, because no one runs the tank all the way down. Based on your previous post, and the fact that you saw nothing on the petcock filter, you are probably fine, and don't have rust. While an inline filter (especially one that is clear that you can check occasionally for debris) is a very good choise for making sure that your carbs don't get gunked up with that stuff coming out of your tank. But what it DOESN"T do is protect your petcock. Some older bikes have a horrible time trying to find a petcock after thiers gets screwed up by debris. Anyway if you petcock is partially blocked you get a very weird running bike as well. Like I said, sounds like you are good, if you saw nothing in the petcock screen (that will catch the big stuff, but probably not the smallest stuff). Other cleaning techniques I have heard of in case you want to really be sure is to use pennies to rattle around in there along with a solvent, then dump the pennies and solvent out and check for rust flakes. Then a quick rinse with gas and reassemble. This is a real common problem for older bikes and restoring old cars. Improperly sealed tanks can also come back to haunt you as the sealing materials come loose and totally clog you up.