What is y'alls opinion of Naval Jelly?

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Using ANYTHING acidic on coins is not a good idea. I've experimented with almost every acid under the sun on copper, it ruins the coin consistently. The only thing that's somewhat safe is olive oil. But the ion mobility is so slow, it takes forever to do any good.

 

Guessing you use Belly Button lint...... to apply Navel Jelly?

 

I would not use it at all - as a matter of fact I would not use most of what is mentioned or used on this board. All that stands out on the link is "down to bare metal" - ie strips the luster right off a coin.
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pardon my "stupidity" but has anyone ever asked themselves why "luster" or "patina" is the only way to collect coins and who started it off, surely it's a matter of personal preference whether you collect coins that have been cleaned so that you can see them clearly and enjoy them. i realise that as things stand no cleaning is the way to go and that is based on personal preference but why can't we start a "clean coin" collection which is visualy pleasing to the eye. just a thought. mike. :secret:

 

You can certainly collect what you like and if you like them that is all that is important. And in a light heated fashion - you obviously you have not seen some of my posts for coins in my collection. I plainly have some cleaned coins in my collection. And I like them.

You also mention - "Pleasing to the eye". That can be what ever you want it to be. Personally the rainbow toned coins are not for me(a lot of those are nt). Now some of the harshly polished or striped coins have 0 eye appeal to me. Again it is person decision. There was one crust coin some posted that was beautiful in my eye - NCS preserved it. It was blast white and still a very nice coin in the NGC holder, but I thought the original was nice.

That post was to say "I would not ever clean one of my older coins" - which are not ancients. One day I will clean some of my moderns - like the 1959 which might have a spot of corrosion. I would never ever dip or clean one of my busties for preservation. Now if somebody wants to just give me some that might make me change my mind.

Also for collections - several around here have holed type sets.

 

my post was not intended to be a critisism of anyone merely my observations on coin collecting, if anyone is upset i apolagise. mike.

 

I tested the jelly on a Tunisian coin I had. It had, I guess you could call, verdigris. You can still see the dark areas on the obverse. I wish I thought about doing a before picture but I wasn't really expecting to use naval jelly. I had the coin soaking in acetone since Sunday night but it didn't change anything, so I decided I would get the jelly a try. The coin itself looks a lot better in hand, but it looks a hundred times better electronically than it did before the naval jelly.

What I did was soak it in naval jelly for about 30 minutes, then wash in warm water and soap. Then I did a quick dip in acetone and rubbed a little olive oil in it.

 

No apolagy necessary I think. It's a good point though and as with any hobby, there are numerous ideas of what is what. Car collectors collect old cars, new cars, big cars, racing cars, etc. There are collectors that still collect Beanie Babies too.
With coins the most common collectors that you hear on these forums are more or less a little on the fanatical side with originality. I sometimes fall into that catagory but try to be a little more versatile also. Just like the Antique Road Show on TV where they constantly stress not to clean old items so you don't distroy the originality. And there too you will see someone that took a excessively valuable table and sanded it down to get rid of all that dirty old finish.
I've met many people at coin shows that actually look for only shinny, possibly cleaned coins since they want to display them and don't want to hear things like your coins are all dirty. I like collecting those 1943 Steel Cents and have several rolls of the refurbished ones. Why anyone would spend money to redo those and then sell them for $0.25 each or less is beyond me.
The thing about coins is if it's your hobby, do with them as you wish. Buy the ones you like. Collect what you would rather have.