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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;troyheights, post: 312582, member: 11271&quot;]As stated above, the luster once gone, is gone forever.&nbsp; Here is why:</p><p><br /></p><p>The luster on coins is caused by microscopic ridges on the surface of the coin.&nbsp; These ridges (flow lines) are created naturally as the planchet is pressed into a coin, and not by some post minting process.&nbsp; They are also fairly fragile.&nbsp; As a coin enters circulation, the flow lines are quickly damaged on the high points of the coin, this causes breaks in the luster which is used to discern an about uncirculated coin from a mint state coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cleaning coins generally damages these lines as well, sometimes slowly, as when a coin is dipped, all the flow lines are eaten away a bit until either repeated or prolonged dipping removes them all; or quite quickly as with a polish and cloth.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you only damaged a common date coin, dont worry about it.&nbsp; Its probably worth the education value alone, as it is important to learn how to spot cleaned coins in the wild.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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