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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 1135010, member: 112&quot;]Precisely. If left alone it will only get worse because there is still &quot;stuff&quot; on the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Get the cleaner, it is not as strong. And any coin dip contains an acid. It is the acid that removes not only contaminants, but it also removes any and all toning. The reason it does this is because the acid is actually removing the very top layer of the metal itself.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Again, as has already been pointed out - that particular coin is already damaged and will forever be a problem coin. Its surfaces have already been altered. All you can do now is prevent it from getting worse. </p><p><br /></p><p>But when speaking of dipping coins in general - dipping coins, when done correctly, is perfectly acceptable in the numismatic community. The TPGs have slabbed millions upon millions of dipped coins and pretty much every collector there is has many, many dipped coins in their collections. Some collectors have nothing but dipped coins in their collections and most of them are not even aware that their coins have been dipped.</p><p><br /></p><p>To answer your question directly - dipping a coin in acid is not considered to be altering the surfaces. Techincally, it is absolutely altering the surfaces since it removes the top layer of metal from the coin. But we are talking about things on the atomic level. Even with the most sophisticated machine there is it cannot be proved that a given coin was dipped. Nor can the best coin expert in the world say with certainty that a given coin has been dipped. And that is why it is not considered to be altering the surfaces.</p><p><br /></p><p>That said, anybody, even a novice coin collector, can tell if a coin has been dipped simply by using common sense. It&#039;s very simple - if a coin is more than say 25 years old then it will be toned to some extent. This is because coins begin to tone from the instant they leave the striking chamber. So if a coin has no toning whatsoever then it is almost a certainty that that coin has been dipped. Every coin expert there is agrees with this.</p><p><br /></p><p>The key words in the above paragraph are &quot;to some extent&quot;. With many coins, most people who look at them would not recognize that the coin is toned at all. They would even consider that coin to be blast white. But if that same coin were placed side by side with a freshly minted coin of the same compostion (metal content), then it would be easy to see at a glance that the older coin had indeed toned somewhat.</p><p><br /></p><p>To understand it all you have to do is think of the virtually infinite variations in the shades of gray. Well, that&#039;s what happens to coins from the instant they are struck - they turn from one shade of gray to another shade of gray. That is what toning is in its earliest stages. And depending on conditions those shades of gray may just get darker with time or they may switch to any of all the possible color combinations.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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