JKK

Bob's right. Here's the key hurdle for you to get over: the idea that coins need to be shiny in order to be nice. Coin collectors do not think that way. There are un-shiny coins that are Mint State, in that they have never circulated. Coin collectors prize the coin looking the way it should for its level of wear/handling/age. A penny would normally acquire a dark color in certain climates, for example, but also through contact with hands and pants pockets. In fact, a penny that has been cleaned to make it shiny will stand out to any seasoned collector as "badly cleaned," and if that collector is anything like me, s/he will say: "Was probably a nice piece until some yahoo got hold of it." Is a natural piece of red copper a thing of beauty? Surely. But the key word is 'natural,' and we know what it looks like.
Green stuff is probably either PVC slime or copper tarnish. We'd probably reserve "patina" for the overall rich chocolate brown hue that an older copper coin is likely to have. If the coins were stored in old tubes for a long time, the tubes probably deteriorated and coated the pennies with disgusting green slime, like Ghostbusters coins or something. Acetone will indeed take that off--I've done it. Otherwise it's probably verdigris, a sort of turquoise tarnish. In that case, there are two choices. If the coin is hugely valuable, you could have NGC take a crack at removing a tarnish that will grow worse over time (that's why they call it 'conservation'). If it were an S-VDB, for example, that's what I'd do. If it's worth very little even in untarnished condition, might as well try olive oil on it since there's no value to lose.

Bob's right. Here's the key hurdle for you to get over: the idea that coins need to be shiny in order to be nice. Coin collectors do not think that way. There are un-shiny coins that are Mint State, in that they have never circulated. Coin collectors prize the coin looking the way it should for its level of wear/handling/age. A penny would normally acquire a dark color in certain climates, for example, but also through contact with hands and pants pockets. In fact, a penny that has been cleaned to make it shiny will stand out to any seasoned collector as "badly cleaned," and if that collector is anything like me, s/he will say: "Was probably a nice piece until some yahoo got hold of it." Is a natural piece of red copper a thing of beauty? Surely. But the key word is 'natural,' and we know what it looks like.
Green stuff is probably either PVC slime or copper tarnish. We'd probably reserve "patina" for the overall rich chocolate brown hue that an older copper coin is likely to have. If the coins were stored in old tubes for a long time, the tubes probably deteriorated and coated the pennies with disgusting green slime, like Ghostbusters coins or something. Acetone will indeed take that off--I've done it. Otherwise it's probably verdigris, a sort of turquoise tarnish. In that case, there are two choices. If the coin is hugely valuable, you could have NGC take a crack at removing a tarnish that will grow worse over time (that's why they call it 'conservation'). If it were an S-VDB, for example, that's what I'd do. If it's worth very little even in untarnished condition, might as well try olive oil on it since there's no value to lose.

I often wonder whether my question "Can you imagine school, college, and life without an Internet?" mirrors that of 1940s people asking "Can you imagine life without a telephone?"
"Dad, without telephones, how did you even communicate? Did you just write a damn letter and wait for it to show up?" "Mom, what was it like when all your communications had to go by stagecoach?"

I often wonder whether my question "Can you imagine school, college, and life without an Internet?" mirrors that of 1940s people asking "Can you imagine life without a telephone?"
"Dad, without telephones, how did you even communicate? Did you just write a damn letter and wait for it to show up?" "Mom, what was it like when all your communications had to go by stagecoach?"

We need a FU designation. For when it's beyond DETAILS.

You'll be missed, my friend.

We need a FU designation. For when it's beyond DETAILS.

I was never sure how many the pinball/video game company supplied when servicing the machines, but the ritual was pretty straightforward. If the machine chowed your quarter, you went to the counter and told Shirley or Zillah, and they gave you a red one, so it must have been plenty. In adulthood I came to realize that it was to avoid throwing off the accounting; by segregating the red quarters from the haul, they could pretty much be sure their income figures were correct while enabling the store owner to make people happy without having to keep a tally of freebies handed out.

If the quarter is red as in fingernail polish, it was probably a vending machine/video game/pinball replacement coin. In those days, vending machine suppliers and operators gave nail-polished quarters to the people operating the establishment so that when the machine ate a quarter, they could supply a replacement. They still turn up in change, though I assume that their use declined as most such games ended up in arcades where tokens came into use instead.
Be prepared for most of the "errors" to turn out to be post-mint damage. At the top of this forum are some guidelines I penned to help people post their coins correctly. Feel free to review them before posting--it will save you a lot of trouble and help us to help you.

If the quarter is red as in fingernail polish, it was probably a vending machine/video game/pinball replacement coin. In those days, vending machine suppliers and operators gave nail-polished quarters to the people operating the establishment so that when the machine ate a quarter, they could supply a replacement. They still turn up in change, though I assume that their use declined as most such games ended up in arcades where tokens came into use instead.
Be prepared for most of the "errors" to turn out to be post-mint damage. At the top of this forum are some guidelines I penned to help people post their coins correctly. Feel free to review them before posting--it will save you a lot of trouble and help us to help you.

Not like FUBAR , But  we could call it  FUCAC  that would be F%#Ked UP COIN AFTER CLEANING

We need a FU designation. For when it's beyond DETAILS.

Name it WangDang1234 or something.

No need to take it out on everyone else here because you got burned. That was no ones fault but your own. My advice would be, if your gonna pay that much money for a coin look it over really good first. If it looks like someone took a wire brush to it dont buy it unless your buying it for melt prices or its a very rare date. 

I was never sure how many the pinball/video game company supplied when servicing the machines, but the ritual was pretty straightforward. If the machine chowed your quarter, you went to the counter and told Shirley or Zillah, and they gave you a red one, so it must have been plenty. In adulthood I came to realize that it was to avoid throwing off the accounting; by segregating the red quarters from the haul, they could pretty much be sure their income figures were correct while enabling the store owner to make people happy without having to keep a tally of freebies handed out.

That's sad to hear, because YT is full of buffalo bagels. It's a great place to get bad information, and yes, some of its people would and do lie. There doesn't seem to be any control over that.

If the quarter is red as in fingernail polish, it was probably a vending machine/video game/pinball replacement coin. In those days, vending machine suppliers and operators gave nail-polished quarters to the people operating the establishment so that when the machine ate a quarter, they could supply a replacement. They still turn up in change, though I assume that their use declined as most such games ended up in arcades where tokens came into use instead.
Be prepared for most of the "errors" to turn out to be post-mint damage. At the top of this forum are some guidelines I penned to help people post their coins correctly. Feel free to review them before posting--it will save you a lot of trouble and help us to help you.

I'm reminded of when our Finnish exchange student said to my mother, "Oh. I have sex for money." My mother is a religious fanatic, and you can imagine her reaction. Finally the family language junkie, who had analyzed her accent patterns, held up a checkbook. "Checks, right?" "Yes. Sex." Then we told her what she'd been saying. She immediately colored like a second-degree sunburn.

Heh. You just said "Quarters anus 1964 silver..." I remember that in my first quarter college Spanish class. Our instructor was a Spaniard. "Cuantos años tienes, Margarita?" he asked a young woman. "Tengo veinte anos," she said, haltingly. "Please," said the TA, "not in here."

Heh. You just said "Quarters anus 1964 silver..." I remember that in my first quarter college Spanish class. Our instructor was a Spaniard. "Cuantos años tienes, Margarita?" he asked a young woman. "Tengo veinte anos," she said, haltingly. "Please," said the TA, "not in here."

You're getting there fast. A couple refinements already suggested, and you'll be able to present photos we can evaluate. Note that it is okay to supplement the full pics with zooms of areas in question (necessary for repunched mint marks and so on). Armed with that information, some pretty sharp observers equipped with 40+ years of experience and good references regarding known errors are in position to help you a lot. Your next step would be to get a current Red Book, the bible of US coinage, and an ANA grading guide. That would help you filter out a lot of questions by enabling you to know the answers yourself--quicker and more self-sufficient.

Funnier: it was in the car and my mother was driving. She had been mother-henning Paula about having enough money to go shopping. Her response was her head on a swivel and asking: "You do WHAT?" She then went into a splutter about not knowing how they did things in Finland (like most religious fanatics, my mother is deeply ignorant; one of her first questions to Paula was whether Finns were related to Russians...good lord), but that they needed to have a talk before Paula went anywhere. No idea what would have happened if I hadn't been riding along in back, having realized early on that Finnish native speakers have terrible trouble with our consonant blends and some other sounds. For example, Paula would say she spoke Feeneess, Svediss, Zerman, and Engleess. She called me "Zahn," as close as she could get to "John." So I was able to disassemble the problem without too much delay, cackling as I did so.

I'm reminded of when our Finnish exchange student said to my mother, "Oh. I have sex for money." My mother is a religious fanatic, and you can imagine her reaction. Finally the family language junkie, who had analyzed her accent patterns, held up a checkbook. "Checks, right?" "Yes. Sex." Then we told her what she'd been saying. She immediately colored like a second-degree sunburn.

Heh. You just said "Quarters anus 1964 silver..." I remember that in my first quarter college Spanish class. Our instructor was a Spaniard. "Cuantos años tienes, Margarita?" he asked a young woman. "Tengo veinte anos," she said, haltingly. "Please," said the TA, "not in here."

Maybe you still do like it. I see it as copper tarnish, but I don't have the right to tell you what coins you should like. That's a big problem around here, people who think that their hobby (meaning, as they experience it) is the only hobby. That is a mentally_challenged and narcissistic way of looking at things. Do I give two f-bomms about collecting tokens? No. Do I respect the TAMS folks and their interests? Sure, and I'm glad they're around in case I trip over a token I don't recognize or understand. They probably don't get off at shoveling through book after book to attribute a barracks emperors era Roman bronze, either, but they leave me alone with my quaint perversions. Seems I can do the same. Do I think state quarter collecting is preposterous? Whether I do or not is beside the point. The point is that it got literally millions of kids interested in coins. Some have become YNs and some grew into ANs. That's a huge win, and much more important than me looking at a post about one and wondering whatever it is I might be wondering. So I STFU.
So if you like it, you like it. "Like" is not automatically equal to "value." I like the 43-P Jeff, heavily worn, that I found in change when I was eight because I found it in change when I was eight. It is worth $1.26 right now, melt. Don't care. It reminds me of the start of a hobby that is in its sixth decade for me. To anyone else it'd be a melt value worn wartime Jeff. To me it's special.
Of course, it's always good not to overpay for a coin. But it's always a valid question what your goal is. If it's to collect coins you like, then learning to value them from a market standpoint keeps you from being a sucker. If it's to make money, obviously, price paid is everything because that's the break-even number. As with liking or not liking a coin, no one is justified in imposing his definition of his hobby on yours.