Caring for coins and notes

Good care keeps a piece in the condition you bought it, and its value with it.

Never clean a coin

Cleaning, polishing or dipping a coin removes its original surface and lustre, leaves fine scratches, and can halve its value or worse. Collectors and dealers can tell. Toning (the natural colour old silver and copper take on) is part of a coin's character: leave it alone.

Handling

• Hold coins by the edges, between thumb and finger, over a soft cloth or table.
• Clean, dry hands, or cotton or nitrile gloves; the oils and salt on skin leave fingerprints that etch into the metal over time.
• Don't talk directly over an uncirculated coin: tiny drops of saliva leave spots.

Storing coins

• Use holders, flips and albums made without PVC (soft PVC plastic gives off chemicals that leave green slime on coins). Archival-safe, acid-free holders are the safe choice.
• Keep them somewhere dry and at a steady temperature: not a damp cupboard, a bathroom, or a room that heats up in the afternoon. A sachet of silica gel in the box helps in the monsoon.
• Keep copper apart from silver, and don't let coins rub against each other.

Banknotes

• Keep notes flat: never fold, staple, pin, or mend them with tape.
• Store them in archival sleeves or a currency album, away from sunlight, which fades the inks.
• Bundles and fancy-number notes keep their value best untouched, in the sequence they came in.