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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Kentucky, post: 1465069, member: 33176&quot;]This gets to be an intensely emotional subject with many on this forum.&nbsp; Many of the members here are super-serious collectors who have mostly or exclusively slabbed coins and appreciate pristine members of the numismatic world.&nbsp; Now, should you chance to find a pristine example of an old coin (perhaps stashed in an old grandfather clock), your first move shouldn&#039;t be to take the metal polish and an electric buffer to it, and I don&#039;t think that many people would.&nbsp; On the other hand, if it is a well worn specemin, there is nothing wrong with leaving it as it is.&nbsp; The Barber coins you showed are a good example.&nbsp; The one that is cleaned seems to lack definition while the one that is au natural shows off well as a kind of cameo.&nbsp; If a coin is gunky, cruddy or just plain nasty and is a circulated coin, any kind of moderate cleaning will do it little or no harm.&nbsp; Totally stripping off any toning so that it is blast-white does make it look un-natural, but in a few years, it might look just fine.&nbsp; On the other hand, with corrosion, that is a whole nother story.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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