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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Maxfli, post: 3458123, member: 69089&quot;]There are two parts to the cleaning story. Let&#039;s start with the &quot;never, ever, ever&quot; part...</p><p><br /></p><p>Never use abrasive cleaning agents on a coin. No baking soda. No Comet cleanser. No toothpaste. Even liquid dish soap is mildly abrasive.</p><p><br /></p><p>Never try to clean a coin by rubbing. Not with a brush. Not with a wash cloth. Not even with a Q-tip or a fingertip. Never polish or buff a coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Any of these things can render the collector value of the coin null and void. </p><p><br /></p><p>Now the rest of the story . . . older circulated coins often come with extra baggage: dirt, organic gunk accumulated from decades of handling, or any number of diferent types of environmental contaminants.</p><p><br /></p><p>These things can damage a coin over the long term, so ideally they need to be removed to the best of one&#039;s ability — without affecting the coin itself.</p><p><br /></p><p>Fortunately, there are safe ways to do it. First by soaking the coin — not rubbing, just soaking — in distilled water. If there&#039;s still gunk in the coin&#039;s devices, soaking in either acetone or xylene will often remove it. (Personally, every raw coin I buy gets a bath, because I don&#039;t know where it&#039;s been or what invisible nasty stuff might be lurking on its surface that could adversely impact the coin over time.)</p><p><br /></p><p>I won&#039;t go into the details of the process because there are numerous threads on the subject here on CT. Just do a search if you want to learn more.</p><p><br /></p><p>By the way, technically speaking I would consider this conservation, not cleaning.&nbsp; None of the materials mentioned interact chemically with coins themselves...just with the stuff that can accumulate on coins, and ultimately damage them.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s not a particularly complicated process, but as [USER=68]@cladking[/USER] suggested, best to learn by practicing on coins with no collector value. Always err on the side of caution.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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