cleaned coins

[supaplums]

I think I know the answer to this but is there any way at all to rectify the cleaning of a coin? Can it "wear" off? Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

[supaplums]

Cleaning is just the rubbing off of the top portion of metal so I'm not quite sure how this differs from normal circulation wear. Can a coin ever be worn or retone naturally to look like an uncleaned coin?

[GarryN]

Anytime you see this mentioned in an auction catalog, the cataloguer will say someting like. "Old cleaning. Retoned to a silver gray." So by old cleaning the cataloguer is refering to cleaning that happened 100 or more years ago. Careful scrutiny will still pick up the hairlines.

[eagames]

Abrasive cleaning goes into the low areas of the design, wear is more on the high points. If a cleaned coin gets wear after the cleaning it probably will still show in the low areas. Even a re-toned coin often has that shiny cleaned look or dark areas around the devices and shiny fields and high points. Cleaning often gives a pattern of hairlines, normal wear is different.

A lot depends on how harsh the cleaning was done.

Bottom line is that once a coin has been cleaned it's probably not going to recover.

Try this...
Take a cent and clean it. Do anything you want after that, re-tone, carry it in your pocket, wait a long time etc.... Then put it next to an uncleaned coin, it will never look the same.

[GarryN]

Right, copper is the worst. It never recovers from cleaning.

[carlb]

Although you can not redo the old age of a coin once cleaned, it could be made to appear a little more normal. I've been experimenting with heavy cleaned coins, polished coins, scrubbed coins, etc. for some time now. True once something has been done to a coin, reversing is almost impossible. Sort of like trying to put originial paint on the Mona Lisa Painting, a bit to late.
With many coins I've found the opposite to what should or could be done worked to some degree. By that I mean I've taken cleaned, polished, rubbed or something and placed in different solutions over a period of time.
For example I placed polished Nickels, a quarter, several Lincoln Cents, a corroded Indian Cent and large Cent in one glass jar. Added Laquer thinner and left for several weeks. Then poured that out, added Alcohol and again, left for a while. Then poured that out and added Acetone. Eventually placed all on a kitchen Window for several months now.
Still there for now. Starting to look a bit normal but not completely.

[carlb]

Ooopps. Forgot the after photo.

Note the odd Red color on the Large Cent and Indian Cent. Quarter came out looking the best so far. On 1919 Lincoln turned dark for some reason. Highly polished Nickels look a real lot better.
All coins still on that window sill.