A question pertaining to cleaning silver coins.

[realmhunter]

Hello, I am new to this site, however not to the hunt. A few weeks ago a buddy and I were hunting on a beach near Boca Raton Florida and he discovered a 1849 -0 Seated Liberty Quarter! The only find of the trip. It was in what I thought was rough shape. When we arrived back to his house, he showed me how to clean it. (I thought he was insane! Placing gloves on he proceeded to fill a small bowl with ammonia, dipped the coin in it , ran it under luke warm water and dried it off with a soft towel. I could not believe my eyes! The coin came out looking nice. I dont know if I would ever do something like that to something valuable. My question is has anyone out in this site ever heard or even used this process? I would appreciate any responses. Thankyou, Realmhunter

[JakePhelps]

bad idea, chemical cleaning can detract from the value of coins

[realmhunter]

Thankyou for answering. I know its a bad idea. I was merely looking to see if anyone had a similar experience. I have been dealing with coins for years and never felt the need to clean them. When this happened I was a little surprised. Later-Rh