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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Conduitt, post: 4864021, member: 109923&quot;]I&#039;m very much not an expert, and I feel your pain. From what I understand, this whole area is debatable, which is why it&#039;s hard to get a straight answer.</p><p><br /></p><p>My limited understanding so far is that:</p><p><br /></p><p>- The surface of your coins is going to change over time whatever you do. You can slow that down by putting them in inert holders (not PVC), but air and moisture will get into anything to some extent.</p><p><br /></p><p>- The change in the surface of your coins will be in the form of toning (silver) or a patina (copper). This happens because the coin surface reacts with the air and what&#039;s on the surface. These will generally make your coins less shiny, but often more attractive. You can&#039;t be sure how they will turn out.</p><p><br /></p><p>- You could try to clean this off, but actually that would most likely devalue your coins. A patina will protect a coin in the very long term, and is often desirable.</p><p><br /></p><p>- If you do anything to a coin, you run the risk of making it worse (or causing problems where there are none). So most of the time you will want to avoid this. If a coin has been circulating, it will already have reacted with whatever&#039;s on the surface, and, indeed, have started developing a patina. If it hasn&#039;t been circulating, there shouldn&#039;t be anything on it anyway.</p><p><br /></p><p>- Sometimes the patina/toning or whatever&#039;s on the coin is not attractive. If, on balance, it is so ugly it would be better to risk damaging it that leaving it as it is, then cleaning it might be an option. You might also have to clean a coin if it has &#039;bronze disease&#039;, as this will destroy it anyway.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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