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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 1714449, member: 112&quot;]Not trying to be a wise guy, but in whose opinion do they look better ? </p><p><br /></p><p>Yeah, to your eyes they may look better. And you&#039;re far from being alone in that, there are many who think the same way. But to an experienced numismatist a circulated coin that has had dirt &amp; grime removed from the coin looks weird, worked on, unnatural, and they can identify them at a glance. So they look anything but &quot;better&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Even if it is, using soap of any kind on coins is a very bad idea, for a couple of reasons. For one thing soap of any kind always leaves traces of that soap on the coins. And in time those traces will affect the coin, some rather quickly and some slowly. And for soap to be effective (to remove the dirt &amp; grime) you pretty much always have to rub the coin with something even if it&#039;s just your fingers. And when you do that particles of that dirt &amp; grime (which are abrasives) are rubbed across the coin - leaving marks and damaging the coin. </p><p><br /></p><p>Now the inexperienced eye will probably not see these marks and think the coins looks &quot;better&quot;. That is because people equate cleaner &amp; shinier with better. They think it makes their circulated coin look closer to what an uncirculated example looks like. As a general rule that is what people are trying to achieve when they clean coins. If they had their druthers they rather have an unc coin, but they probably can&#039;t afford an unc coin, so they clean their circ coins in an effort to make them look as close to being an unc coin as they can - to make the coin look better than it really is. And usually this makes them happier.</p><p><br /></p><p>That&#039;s the psychology behind cleaning coins, people are trying to fool themselves, make themselves feel better about their coins. Now most probably won&#039;t admit it, many are probably not even aware of it. But it&#039;s human nature, it&#039;s how we&#039;re made. So before you clean your coins you should at least think of it and consider what you are really doing.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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