Thanks for the link, StashTreasure ... man, it "almost" makes me want to buy and then try cleaning a handful of dirty hoard coins (almost ... yah, I don't have the patience) NOTE: I really appreciate the patient dudes that clean coins well (please don't smooth and tool 'em too much => that's the worst) ... less is more!!
Back in the 70's someone gave me a 1879 Morgan. I cleaned it with toothpaste cause I was going to wear it in a belt buckle and I wanted it shiny. But now I would never clean a coin. I don't have enough smarts.
I suggest you have a go at buying a little inexpensive picked-through, but still uncleaned lot of ancient coins on eBay. I did this about seven years back and cleaned a few nice pieces out of the lot, however expect that many of them will be slugs or so corroded that you cannot id them. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed cleaning and identifying well over 300 pieces, some of which are still soaking in olive oil years after the fact. I have since stopped cleaning these as I now live in Asia and they are very hard to come by here. Sticking to collecting French Indochina stuff (What is available.)
