Charles 1 Medallion Cleaning

[ozjohn]

I was watching  Antiques Roadshow the other day and a Charles 1 medallion was being appraised. It seemed to be genuine and looked like it was gold on silver. The owner talked about how it was in a very dirty condition and he polished it with metal polish to clean it up. It was very shiny indeed.. No mention was made by the expert on the effect such cleaning would have on the value of the item in fact it seemed not to draw any comment other than it had removed some of the surface metal and would not have to do it again for a long time.

As we all know this would be the worst thing that could be done to a coin and it would lose much of its value if polished. Is this true for medallions?

Your comments are invited.

[mrbadexample]

I can't see that it would be any different myself. Not something I would do.

[Rob]

Cleaning medallions doesn't affect the desirability as much as coins. They were things to be displayed, so the odd rub is only to be expected. Uncleaned original surfaces on a 2 or 300 year old medallion are somewhat rare and highly desirable. Medallion or medal collectors tend be less picky IMO.

[TomGoodheart]

I think if the cleaning removed gilding to the extent the underlying metal showed through it might detract a bit.

As Rob says, they were made to be worn so some signs of that are to be expected.  But an "uncirculated" one would surely command a premium?

Edited February 23, 2016 by TomGoodheart

[Rob]

3 minutes ago, TomGoodheart said:

I think if the cleaning removed gilding to the extent the underlying metal showed through it might detract a bit.

As Rob says, they were made to be worn so some signs of that are to be expected.  But an "uncirculated" one would surely command a premium?

If you could ever find one. They were made to be worn, and were, with pride. The likelihood of someone having one just to set aside as a collectible is not great.

[ozjohn]

That was the thing that surprised me was the fact that the expert did not seem to indicate that polishing such an item with metal polish was a bad idea and should not be repeated.