Cleaning

[Hunterhound]

Guys, I have a question about cleaning my coins. I know already that cleaning pretty much negates all numismatic value but I ask this question regarding common date silver or copper coins. If I find an IHC, wheatie, buffalo, war nickle, etc that is of common date or buy some junk silver coins from a dealer just to enjoy the design of the coin, should I be concerned about the value of these coins? I don't intend to ever sell the coins I collect but should I need to sell them in a pinch or if my kids end up wanting to sell them after I pass on, I don't want to hurt their chances of a least getting the few bucks out of each coin I spent for them. And keep in mind when I say a few bucks, I'm talking about buying like a 9 or 10 dollar walker or something like that from a dealer, not something with sufficiently clean detail in the $200 range or something.

The way I understand it, cleaning should only be an issue for really rare or key date coins. Is this true? If I find a walker, franklin, V nickle, merc, etc. in a roll or while metal detecting and want to clean it up for display in my collection should I be concerned?

 

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[ArkieBassMan]

First and foremost, your coins are yours to do with as you please. If you like the "cleaned" look, by all means go for it.

You know that cleaning negates a lot of numismatic value. Most common date and/or average condition silver coins really have little to no numismatic value. Its value is going to be based solely on the spot price of silver cleaned or no. Just like with dug cents/nickels. There really is not any numismatic value there to hurt by cleaning.