TIL I was cleaning my old coins all wrong for years

A guy at the flea market last month saw me buff a 1943 wheat penny with a cloth and told me to stop. He said I was rubbing off the patina and killing the value. I switched to just soap and water with a soft toothbrush, and now my finds look way better without wrecking them. Anyone else get schooled on cleaning methods they thought were fine?

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ryanf662mo ago

Man, my buddy Derek learned this the hard way. He had this old mercury dime he found metal detecting (actually a pretty nice 1916, not the super rare one but still cool) and he scrubbed it with baking soda and vinegar thinking it'd make it shine like new. Totally ruined the surface, all these micro-scratches everywhere and the detail got all fuzzy. Coin dealer at our local show basically laughed and offered him melt value for it.

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christopher9522mo ago

Micro scratches everywhere" from one baking soda scrub? I'm not totally buying that.

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