I just wanted to hear some differing opinions on using those coin cleaning solutions on circulated coins before putting them into Whitman folders. I cleaned a very common 1950 penny and put it back into the folder alongside the others and was horrified at what I had just done. I had always been taught as a young collector to never use these cleaners on ANY coin. Did I just remove all the history from that older coin? I think I did. Please forgive me collecting community.
Hello If you do a search on the forum I think you will find many interesting threads on this topic with useful information. Ruben
The basic rule is to never clean a coin for any reason other than to remove a substance that will otherwise eat away the metal and destroy the coin. There are a lot of coin cleaners for sale, but they are about as useful to coin collectors as fishing lures are to fish.
I for one have cleaned some coins, ones that already have little to no numismatic value to them. Acetone does a pretty good job getting gunk off them as well as jewelry cleaner. I do not recommend ever cleaning coins unless you want to clean some junk ones and learn how to spot cleaned coins (which is what I did). Edit: 5C = 5 cents or a "nickel"
