I got some walkers and a morgan. One thing that is kinda annoying me is that the coins seem to be in somewhat different conditions as far as tarnish is concerned. I'd like all my coins and gaffs to have a uniform look to them, so I am curious what others like their coins to look like. Also, if anyone has some cleaning tips I wouldn't mind hearing them. I've tried the tin foil in boiling water, salt, and baking soda. It did make the coins shine a bit more, but didn't remove some of the dark spots. I think the darker spots are dirt?

I think dark in the crevices adds character and allows the coin pattern to be seen more clearly. Besides, these are old, old coins. They'd look suspicious if they were bright and shiny.

I'd say clean them, lightly buff up the high spots and leave the rest alone.

If you're just looking to polish them up a bit, ya might want to consider this from a post by Todd Lassen I found elsewhere.....

"By: todd lassen
hiya. there is a product called "never dull". it is a
wadding material impregnated with special sauce. comes
in a blue round can. my source comes from the px, but
have heard it is available at ace hardware stores. i
have seen it a few other places. roberts magic store in
davenport, ia. has it. anyway, if you must polish, this
works on any coin and will not over shine them. you can
actually control it too. i use it to just highlight old
coins sometimes. good stuff, and i have tried them all."

If you're looking to bring out the "relief" in soft coins there are many possible processes. I'm considering using a "Clorox" treatment on a few soft Morgans to darken them, then use very fine steel wool / emory cloth to hit the high spots....I've heard this works well.

Mostly, I just leave my coins alone though. A nice patina helps them look their age and gives them a bit of character.

Take care all....

Coin collectors say to never clean/polish your coins but this is for when one wants to retain the value as a collectible. Other than that, WallyMart sells a special cleaning cloth that works wonderfully.

I've seen a video of someone using a magic eraser. But I managed to get the majority of tarnish using the previously mentioned method. It was just the specks that were kinda bugging me. But it's true, these are old coins and perhaps they should look the part.

In my opinion, retention vanishing a shiny coin is much more visual than a transhid one. The ROV appears much better.

If you want your coins to shine here is a simple and cheap way. Go to a music store and find a polishing cloth that they use for instruments, make sure its LeBlanc (silver polishing cloth) and see if the owner has an old one that you can buy for cheap. I've had one for my Sax (which is Silver plated) for the past 6 or so years which I got used (so its prob like 10 years old) This thing is dirty like no ones business but will polish ANYTHING

I use Never Dull as dockarate mentioned in an earlier post. It works like a champ.....especially on my English Pennies. Does a nice job on my silver coins, too. The nice thing is, you can control just how much tarnish is removed. So if you like to leave some aging on your coins, you can.

That is so true. When the coins catch the light and reflect it when it's in your hand, it makes it so much more convincing that it's in there.