One of the most preached things when it comes to coin advice is the term "Don't clean your coins!" To some people, this has become a habit, or even an instinct. When somebody mentions cleaning a coin, those parrots hear it from states or continents away and come in to re-preach those words. But when a coin looks so vile and in dire need of a "proper" cleaning, it must be done. I present to the court, Exhibit A: This coin was an instinct purchase. I saw obverse color, cheap dollar tags, and a proof to boot. I did not thoroughly inspect the reverse because I was entranced by the other coins cascading from my hands and those on the dealer's table. When I brought the coin home and started imaging my haul, I came across this and stopped. I finally was able to take the reverse into consideration when I saw how terminal the toning was. I shot some quick pictures of it, no worries on quality because I knew I was going to try something with it. I held onto the coin for months doing nothing with it. I hid it away from the rest of the coins because I did not want it to deter my eyes from the rest of my coins. I treated this coin as the red-headed stepchild, ignored and cared for the others more. I dug the coin up when I decided to send some other coins to Greg to image and thought I'd ask if he could do a cleaning on it for me. All I can say is that this has got to be one of the best turnouts I could hope for. Greg managed to dip the reverse without doing harm to the obverse toning. And now the coin has its mirrors back! So when you are told not to clean your coins, I will be here to preach proper cleaning and safe methods. There are times when it is okay to clean your coins, times where it is needed and times where you should just not touch your coins at all. I'd like to say thanks to Greg publicly for doing this for me, and that I am beyond pleased for the work he did for me. Thanks Greg!
Nice results & I agree cleaning is OK if done right. With ancients it can be done in what is considered harsher to modern collectors & cleaned coins are the norm.
Heck of a nice cleanup, and kudos to you OP to recognize that coin needed help if it were to survive. Great outcome.
Yep, there sure are a lot of "preachers" in this hobby, and personally, I pay no attention to them. However, a person who gives advice without the preaching, well, that's another story. By the way, your coin looks great!
This thread is just another reason why Greg is the Man. Always willing to help and very knowledgeable and professional about the topic at hand. Congrats Canynn on a beautiful coin!
Black like that should be cleaned, as it can corrode the silver.. You did the correct thing Caz, even if it went against what you are told. :thumb: I have no problem for modern coins that are cleaned correctly, like the above. I do not like modern coins that are cleaned in other ways.
It does look better after the cleaning. And the toning on the obverse is still good. I got a few coins that needs to be cleaned too, but I'm not experienced enough to do that yet.
