To clean or not to clean

[richtips86]

I’ve recently come across the below dot to dot, and whilst it’s in lovely condition (the photo was just a quickie and doesn’t do it justice), it has a hideous fingerprint. Again the photo doesn’t show it but it’s got lovely toning as well. Has anyone ever tried cleaning a fingerprint off? I’ve never tried for obvs reasons but given it’s a relatively youthful coin think shall I? Would acetone shift it? Just some soap and water? I’ve never faced this predicament before!

[1949threepence]

The fingerprint is unfortunate, but unless you are sure of what to do, it's best to just leave it. My motto is no cleaning of coins unless absolutely safe to do so. 

Not sure whether acetone would remove it or not. Probably someone else would know.

I've recently been advised that acetone removes old lacquering. 

 

  

[Ukstu]

With Acetone it's all timing. If it were a recent print within a few hours it would lift it but any longer it's hopeless. I have a lovely Irish proof 10 shilling coin with a nasty print on it. I tried using acetone on a Q tip to remove it but it never worked unfortunately. 

 

[Platinumskies1]

Don’t clean it unless you know what you are doing to some testing on cheap coins before you do and coins of value and silver dip should remove that fingerprint 

[VickySilver]

Try the old trick on a coin of similar metal (CuNi): household ammonia in 1:1 with water. Immersion or the aforesaid Q-tip (bud) tamping with this solution can remove much of the accumulated cra-. I have found this to work rather well although not perfect - usually get improvement. CuNi is much harder to work with than sterling silver!

[richtips86]

Thanks all, in the end I tried just soap and water and it’s come away beautifully! 

[VickySilver]

Wow, we left that bit out, that is exactly right do the simple first ALWAYS.