subject: Coin Collecting - Why Keep Coins Away from the Cleaning Products ? [print this page] Coin Collecting - Why Keep Coins Away from the Cleaning Products ?
Ron remembers the day a nicely dressed man in his mid-40s came into his coin shop with a complete set of peace dollars he wanted to sell. The man explained how his father had painstakingly built the collection over many years. He had inherited the coins after his father died. Now, many years later, he was curious to find out how much more valuable his coins had become.
Before Ron opened the album, the man pointed out that some of the coins had become tarnished over the years, so he had cleaned them to make it easier for Ron to see what they looked like. Hearing that, Ron's heart sank. Sure enough, when he opened up the album, Ron saw rows and rows of bright, shiny peace dollars. But, they were too bright and shiny; all were obviously scrubbed and cleaned. Once beautiful, high-grade coins, they were now pieces of junk worth a fraction of their former value. A very disappointed person left Ron's store that day.
Leave coin cleaning to the expert conservators. Never clean a coin yourself until you master proper cleaning techniques.
Most coins should be left alone, but some coins cry out to be cleaned. The following coins could benefit from a cleaning, but they all need to be treated differently:
Coins found by metal detectors
Coins that are extremely dark with tarnish
Coins that have developed a film from spending too much time in a vinyl coin holder
Coins with tape residue or some other localized problem
We know you have coins that need to be cleaned, and we know you're dying to clean them. So because you're going to do it anyway, we may as well give you some safe cleaning tips. (Abstinence seems to be out of the question.) Please practice these techniques on inexpensive coins until you feel comfortable cleaning coins that are more desirable. Never clean coins that are valuable take them to a professional instead. Finally, if you don't feel comfortable cleaning coins, don't do it.
