Cleaning Coins.

I've had a couple of people lately asking me how I clean my coins. First of all I will say its not wise to clean valuable coins. They are best left alone as by cleaning them it devalues them right away. But, if your like me and like those non valuable coins to look as near as possible to the day they were minted, so you can see the detail, then I will share with you how I go about cleaning them. I just use one product, its cheap, and can be picked up anywhere. All you have to do is use a bit of elbow grease and polish them up.

The product I use is SILVO METAL POLISH WADDING. You just tear off a little piece of the wadding, and rub the coin until you have the desired effect. Its a bit messy on the fingers as that black tarnish comes off. Once you think the coin is how you like it, finish the coin off by buffing it with a clean dry cloth. I use an old towel for buffing. As far as I can see it does not scratch the coins, leaves a nice smooth shiny finish.
That's all I use, simples.

I stress again its not a good idea to clean older valuable coins as it renders then undesirable to collectors if ever you decide to sell them.

Below is a picture of pre-decimal Florins, Shillings and Sixpences I'm working on. The top batch I have cleaned, I've yet to do the bottom batch.

Also while going through my grot bucket what I thought were just Georgian grots a couple have turned out to be something else after a bit of cleaning. Below are two coins I'm working on. The one on the left is a Nova Scotia Halfpenny Token dated 1840. The one on the right I'm still trying to ID. It shows a figure standing with a large shield to the right of the figure and what looks like a large sword/cross to the left. On this coin I can make out a near date of 179?..maybe 1796 or 1798.