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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sundance79, post: 2954109, member: 84413&quot;]Nobody really tied to answer his question.</p><p><br /></p><p>But it is one that books have been written on.</p><p><br /></p><p>I will try as simply as I can. However, the following only really pertains to silver coins. Copper, nickel and gold are entirely different stories.</p><p><br /></p><p>For uncirculated coins they should have what is referred to as mint luster. The larger the coin, the more apparent - like silver dollars. Take a silver dollar and reflect light off it while tilting it back and forth in your hand. You should see broad rays and what is referred to as the cartwheel effect. Smaller coins will have this as well but the smaller size makes it harder to see. A cleaned coin will not have the luster or the cartwheel effect. A cleaned silver coin will lose that luster and take on an almost monotone surface. Cleaning sort of sucks the life out of a coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>And the same goes for a circulated coins. On circulated coins, the crevices around the features and the letters and numbers should have dirt and tarnish. It’s what gives a circulated coin character. Cleaning removes all that. A worn coin should not look shiny.</p><p><br /></p><p>Most coins that are cleaned are dipped in a solution of cleaner. Some can be very mild and diluted to make their effect on a coin less drastic. And there are stories about how someone dipped a coin and improved it.&nbsp; All I can say is that for every coin that was improved by a cleaning (in this case dipping), probably a thousand were ruined.</p><p><br /></p><p>You might hear about the use of acetone or xylene on coins, that’s another chapter entirely. But those are two chemicals that can be used to clean a coin (when done properly) that will not remove any of the luster or tarnish from a coin (silver and silver tarnish is nonreactive to either chemical). For instance, let&#039;s say you got some tape adhesive on a coin. A brief soak in acetone would remove the adhesive without hurting the coin.</p><p>I got some circulated Walking Liberty halves that had some sort of hardened oil or paint on them. A soak in acetone removed the oil and left the coins looking as they were intended to look - like circulated Walkers.</p><p><br /></p><p>But this is just the tip of the iceberg.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cleaning circulated coins to make them look new and shinny is a rookie mistake. I&#039;d bet most of the people on this board did it in there early collecting days. I remember taking copper cleaner to all the pennies in my penny collection when I was 8 or 9.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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