I have a question, with ancient silver coins, is it okay to polish them?

How about if it were 2000 years ago?

 

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Never polish a coin. There are ways to get rid of/lighten the toning on old silver coins that do not involve polishing or anything abrasive which will damage a coin permanently.

Better not to clean at all though if it can be helped. Black is beautiful!

 

Good point @Kentucky : noone would probably notice...
"Forever" was meant at the scale of a human life I guess

Q

 

They are your coins, you can do whatever you'd like to them.

But harsh cleaning will make them unappealing to other collectors.

If it is retained dirt, I've found distilled water soaks fairly effective. Shouldn't damage the coin at all.

Anything harsher should be tried in a stepwise pattern starting from the most benign- try a little diluted lemon juice before going to a strong acid.

Or leave it alone. You can always decide to clean/conserve it later. You can't undo what you've done.

Keep in mind just about all ancient coins have been cleaned to some extent, even if just with water and soap to remove the loose dirt.

 

Polishing is another word for removing metal and smoothing ... you are intentionally adding wear to your coins (that's selfish)

=> leave those babies alone, so future collectors can love 'em!! (but that's just my opinion)