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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 2396879, member: 57463&quot;]It is an old problem, that coin doctoring is, like alchemy, a secretive art. It is funny, though, that museums clean and restore paintings and no one seems to mind. The one egregious case was the Elgin Marbles that were cleaned with acid.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I was shocked (shocked, I tell you) to learn that our local metal detectorists and others tumble coins to clean them. These, of course, were found in the ground. Another company retrieves them from fountains. Tumbling with crushed walnut shells seems to be what is recommended for cleaning off corrosion.</p><p><br /></p><p>That said, I agree that &quot;polish&quot; (smoothness) is not something that was added to the surface. I caution against roughing up a coin to remove &quot;polish&quot; (wear). That is uncalled for damage.&nbsp; The best remedy is toning, either &quot;natural&quot; (leave it alone) or &quot;intentional&quot; (help it along).</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Yeah, as has been noted here, we have coins that have been handled for 100 years from collector to dealer to dealer to collector and yet they remain miraculously &quot;uncirculated.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Rather than &quot;natural&quot; toning, I recommend &quot;unintentional.&quot; For AT, I suggest, intentional toning.&nbsp; All toning is chemistry. I agree that the surprising abundance of rainbow toned coins that magically appeared - magic being supernatural - when people began paying more for them certainly should be a warning.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can tell the difference?&nbsp; Always? Sometimes? Usually?&nbsp; As has been noted in this thread by others, even the professional experts cannot always tell.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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