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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 3187504, member: 19463&quot;]In coins, we have a much more fundamental attitude than most of the arts.&nbsp; Paintings are regularly cleaned of the years of smoke and grease that have changed the since the artist last touched them.&nbsp; In this process a bit of paint that chipped here and there is touched up.&nbsp; If a vandal slashes a painting, it is sewed up and healed with the skills of a plastic surgeon uses on a rich old lady.&nbsp; In sculpture, we break apart statues that were &#039;fixed&#039; 200 years ago and reassemble them, hopefully, this time using methods and materials that won&#039;t create the problems of the earlier restoration.&nbsp; Here in Richmond VA, we have a full length statue of Caligula that was recently taken apart and reassembled using clues from the grain in the marble rather than the opinions of the last owner.&nbsp; In coins, we use nasty words to describe people who tool or smooth entire coins and really get belligerent when we catch someone adding putty before they repaint a coin not nearly as badly damaged as was the car we just gave the same treatment.&nbsp; Imagine if coins were like old cars and dinosaurs where you can build one out of parts that did not start out together or even come from the same species.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Standards vary.&nbsp; All ancients coins have been cleaned. The ones with an inch of dirt on them used to have two inches if not a few feet of soil.&nbsp; We have recently seen threads here where collectors of old Chinese coins explained their preference for coins that still have some surface adhesions but that they like to be able to read the coins.&nbsp; Many of us like silver coins with 50-100 years of &#039;natural&#039; tone but the market for &#039;find&#039; patina (dark grey or black) silver is limited.&nbsp; In the future will the Venus de Milo gain arms and people pay more for naturally circulated dekadrachms than they do for those in bright shining mint state?&nbsp; I agree we are just the custodians for future custodians of our coins.&nbsp; I wish I had more faith in what they will want to satisfy the fad of their day.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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