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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 2292519, member: 112&quot;]Dipping coins is nothing new, it has been with us for well over a century. It was acceptable then and it is acceptable now, and there is a very good reason for that. You see, dipping coins has allowed us all to have the coins we have today, in the condition they are in today. That is because dipping has protected those coins from certain destruction.</p><p><br /></p><p>Think of all the millions of older coins, beautiful older coins ! Hardly any at all of them would exist today in that condition had it not been for dipping. That is because toning, if left unchecked, will destroy coins with a certainty. And prior to recent years none of the storage methods that we use today to greatly slow down the effects of toning even existed. </p><p><br /></p><p>And that is why the harsh cleaning of coins, as well as the dipping of coins, even came to be. Hundreds of years ago coin collectors realized what the ravages of toning was doing to their coins. So every so often they would pick up each of the coins in their collections and wipe them down with cloths and rags in an effort to wipe away the toning, as well as the dirt and grime that accumulated on the coins over time.</p><p><br /></p><p>Eventually somebody discovered an easier way, and a way that did not result in their coins looking polished and covered with fine scratches and hairlines - dipping. They discovered that an easily obtainable chemical would remove the effects of toning and prevent their coins from turning an ugly dark brown, an even gunmetal grey, or even black. What&#039;s more they discovered that sometimes even those ugly black coins could be returned to their original beauty, assuming the coins were dipped correctly.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is how and why dipping coins came to be acceptable, and why it will probably always be with us. At least until somebody can manage to come up with a storage method that will actually prevent the ravages of toning and preserve a coin in its present state.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now today, yes some frown on the practice of dipping coins. But that is because they have never experienced what toning, if left unchecked, can and inevitably will do to coins. This is a certainty, it is not a question of if it will happen, only when. And they have forgotten the lessons of history, or never even been aware of them in the first place.</p><p><br /></p><p>They have also forgotten, or been totally unaware, that those beautiful toned coins in their collections, were almost certainly dipped at some point long before they ever acquired them. And that the beautiful toning they see on them today would not even be there had those coins not been dipped earlier in the life of that coin. If they had not been dipped those beautiful coins would today be ugly and dark chunks of metal that would be shunned by collectors.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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