To clean or not to clean?

[Liu21]

Found this 1902 barber dime while metal detecting.

It is my first barber dime while detecting, so it holds more value to me than to some collector.

 

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[vpnavy]

Personally, if I plan on keeping a find - I always clean it up. Yea, I know - that takes away from its value - but that is the way I like to roll!

 

[Liu21]

I think cleaning it makes it look a lot nicer, anyone know how to remove those dark toning?

 

[ArkieBassMan]

You can't hurt the value of this coin. Clean away, if you like.

A baking soda paste will sometimes take off the black toning, but it will give the coin an "artificial" looking shine.

 

[Pete_Iredale]

Personally, I'd do what you did. Clean off the dirt, and leave it at that. Cool coin to find in the dirt, that's for sure!

 

[BuffaloBoy]

As others have said, you can't hurt the value of the coin by cleaning it, it's a common date. However, if you have a harder to come by date, don't ever clean the coin.

 

[citystacker]

Try a sandblasting?

 

[decoy218]

Try Beau's method: