Dang Doug, I bet your fingers get tired typing the same answers over and over. I agree with you, just maybe think it could be a sticky or something, then you could just say, "refer to my sticky". Might save some wear and tear on those old fingers. To OP, like you said just assume you do not clean coins. Those here who have done it have started with circulation coins and spent years practicing, and yes occasionally damaging coins. It happens. Cleaning, even in experienced hands, has risks. Many times it looks like the cleaning damaged the coin but in truth it was damaged before and dirt, (intentional or not), was hiding that fact. A beginner will almost always damage a coin. If you REALLY want to learn, there are people who can teach you, but I think most colelctors can have a very enjoyable hobby without once ever having to clean a coin. For a beginner, its more important on how to spot "incorrectly or harshly cleaned" coins, as these are worth far less than good coins. Chris
No kidding huh. By looking at the big picture, in this case eBay, its not an isolated case where its just one or two cleaned coins. I'm willing to guess at least half of the commems on this 200 page listing is cleaned or polished. Even look at the slabbed pieces, most say details, harshly cleaned and so on. It's scary indeed.
It's okay, one thing I'll say is that ebay makes for some good practice spotting cleaned coins. It's a shame coins are damaged as a result of someone's careless desires.
It would be great if there was a game thread where someone posted a picture of a coin that they knew was either cleaned or not and then asked others their thoughts. That would be great practice for all of us.
Ok, so when would it generally be considered acceptable or desirable to clean/conserve a coin? I'm guessing things like it getting dug out of a yard, or anything foreign getting attached to a coin, but anything else? Removing tarnish or toning and other features that a coin develops naturally with age ruins the collector value, correct?
Correct. Never clean a coin unless you already know exactly what you are doing. If you dig a coin up and its valueless you can clean it up just to spend it, but short of that never. I was going to say earlier to the OP, there are a lot of threads here containing various levels of expertise in discussion. If you are a beginner, there are simply some threads discussing amongst expereinced collectors discussing advanced subjects. These subjects are simply advanced for some collectors, just like some subjects are too basic for others.
Really? You gonna open up that can of worms again? Why doesn't NCS change their name to Numismatic Cleaning Services then?
But it does no good Chris. Then there'd be 10,000 sticky threads to search through. It's a circular problem. There is no answer to it because the solution re-creates the same problem all over again. Are you aware that the answers to 90% of all questions ever asked on this forum can be found in one spot ? And that those answers have been in that same exact spot for 6 years now ? Apparently you aren't aware or you wouldn't have made the comment that you made. But yes you are correct. It does get tiring to say the same things over and over. You just hope that someday somebody will listen
Never clean coins is a phrase for newbies as coins are often cleaned (conserved) to insure their longevity. There is a right way to clean and there is a wrong way to clean. Unfortunately, newbies always opt for the wrong way because its simple AND its the same method used for cleaning a cooking pot with burned food on it. SOS or some other type of abrasive is used and the piece is literally scubbed until the foreign material is removed! What the newbie cannot see, are the fine destructive lines which have been added to the surface of the pot (coin). Sometimes the lines are obvious and other times, not so obvious. But then, regardless of how obvious they are, new collectors simply do not see them as they do not KNOW what to look for! All they "see", is a shiney bright coin that looks as good as the day it was made! As such, the best advice is to NEVER CLEAN COINS.
