My friend cleans every coin, what do I do?

I have a friend, Harry, who introduced me to coin collecting, and he has been collecting for over 20 years. He cleans every single coin he gets, and I don't know how to stop him. It's already too late to save the majority of his collection, but in the future he should understand. He is planning on selling his collection for his retirement(he's 35) and I'm afraid he'll have problems doing so. I knew this was a bad situation from the moment I saw his large cents, cleaned so that they gleam like the day they were minted. I was just reminded of this nasty habit of his when we traded a few halves. He gave me a 64-d, a 65, and a 39 walker. They were all shining like proofs, except there are visible scratch marks all over every single one from him scrubbing them.

Does anyone know how I could convince him to stop?

 

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Try telling him it's hazardous to his health with copper poisoning. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002496.htm

Hope it works
Ben

 

Take him to a local dealer to see what his collection is worth if he were to sell it right now compared to the price he has spent. Let him see how much he has already lost.

Money will usually open a mans eyes.

If that dont work bring him here & we will put him through the ringer :hammer: & beat it into him .....J/K :smile

 

I loved bonedigger's idea.

You could also let him know he's basically putting off his retirement because he is losing money by cleaning them.

 

It's a shame. Show him this thread and others in this forum. Hopefully he has a lot of silver coins so they will be worth at least melt value.

 

Wait a minute, doesn't your friend destroying those coins make mine that much more rare and valuable? Hum? Ask him if he needs any sandpaper. I'll gladly suggest some "coarse" grades he may want to try out. Mua! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! ha! ha h.

 

You slap the CRAP outta him and take his coins because he's tooo #$%#$^ Stupid to own them!!!!

 

I would have to assume that he already knows about the resale value of harshly cleaned coins.
I mean, 20 years in the hobby would seem to be enough time to have learned about such elementary details.

My conclusion would be, that he follows his own collecting path, and that coins aren't that important to his future retirement income.

I would hope that most collectors would follow suit.
(Not clean your coins, but...)

 

Remind me ,NOT to buy any coins from Harry-because I don't want them in my collection.

 

While I agree if it was a one of a kind coin and I could get it cheap I might think about it---such as...if it was a 1877 IHC in VF or better and I could get it for half the price of a non-cleaned one then I may think about buying it.

Speedy

 

Let him go ... he can not be saved.
Find new friends.
If he really thinks that he can sell his collection and retire, he has more serious problems than cleaning coins. He also seems to be delusional. Possibly from 20 years of cleaning fluid fumes.

You can't save everyone ...for gosh sakes ..save yourself !

 

Ben

 

LOL
LOL
LOL
Also, I agree with budgood. Choose a coin that he thinks is worth a couple hundred bucks. Maybe he'll wake up when a dealer offers him chump change for it.

 

you can not be serious, what does he collect? common date stuff? if not that should be a crime. Every time he buys a coin drug him and replace it with a worthless one.

 

is this one of those situation that requires theft, you know, for the greater good...

 

I too am having a problem understanding how anyone could be collecting anything for 20 years and not know what they are doing. This person must be a little on the mentally slow side. Nowadays with TV's antique roadshow, coin shows, computer web sites, etc., how is it humanly possible that anyone could have missed that statement about leave it alone.
If you insist on attempting to make this nut see the light, why not look up local coin shows, have him take some cleaned coins there and pretend to sell them. However, you obviously have a computer and know how to get to this web site so why not invite that lame brain over and have him talk to us.
If all else fails we could always use his coins as targets at a local target range. Have you tried throwing one in the air and shooting it?

 

You know, as I read through all these posts, I can't help but think of the truth that eveyone collects coins their own way. It's true enough if your friend is collecting coins as a future retirement investment he is doing it the hard way, but he is doing his own way and who are we to act so indignant about his methods. Cut the guy some slack and climb on down off of your high horses and be content in the knowledge that you are collecting coins the "right" way.
Heck, why don't we find out how he is storing all of those cleaned coins and maybe, just maybe, you all can have something else to be smug about. :whistle:

 

aint that the truth

 

This is the most rediculous thing I have ever read on this forum.
Who are we?
These kind people are collectors who give a darn and are trying to collect in a way that is most generally accepted within the hobby. They are trying to educate the uninformed and misguided. This website is a great source of information and the posters here are authorities on the hobby with generations of combined experience. To turn a blind eye and not try to right this wrong is simply not an option. No one here is on a high horse, but they do speak with some authority and their opinions should be respected.

If you saw a car heading down a one way street going the wrong way ...would you not say something? would you not try to help? or would you just "cut him some slack" and figure that he was just "doing things his own way"?