Medal preservation

[Judas]

Hi again guy's,
I expect this topic has been covered before but here we go again!

As is common knowledge the 'aging' & 'patina' of wartime medals adds a certain value of 'untouched' quality..
When I started collecting medals I remember an old sage telling me to leave them in their untouched condition, the urge to 'shine' these babies is so overwhelming well, me being me of weaker mind has in the past 'cleaned to a shine' certain artefact's in my collection, although they seem to dull again with time almost immediately!

So my question really is this, if you clean your medals does it really devalue them? obviously I wouldn't add black paint to my EK I & II , this would be a crime, but the 'silver' just itches to shine again.....

Am I alone in this?

[history-buff1944]

Some people say it devalues them but-if your like me and collect a badge-I forever will keep each and every WWII medal and badge I own. If I decide to clean them (which I never have done) I could care less what someone else thinks about the values of my stuff. Since I never intend to sell any of them off-I could paint them all green and tan if I wished-not that I would.

Now, the only item I ever did clean was a VERY dirty and smelling as if they were stored in raw sewage for 60 years-was a pair of Nebelwerfer/Smoke Troops Enlistedmans shoulderboards. I had no choice-these HAD to be cleaned-otherwise I could not even keep them indoors because they smelled so bad.

It took me at least 4 days of soaking and scrubbing-to finally get the smell and stains out. Im sure they would seriously fail any "authenticating tests" by blacklighting since I used modern detergents to clean them with. Since I never plan on selling these-I could care less if they passed any tests or not? I know they are real-and before I cleaned them, they still had corrosion and button residue on them from the aluminum buttons corroding because of all the chemicals or gasses and such, that this man was around and amidst of.

[Judas]

I see what you are saying, and yes, I do buy in the knowledge that I intend to keep hold of them, I just think that when I display them they look better 'cleaned' rather than dull, rusty or just plain manky.
I am always advised to not clean them but can't see what a bit of tidying up could do to hurt their appearance?
Thanks anyway

[history-buff1944]

I see what you are saying, and yes, I do buy in the knowledge that I intend to keep hold of them, I just think that when I display them they look better 'cleaned' rather than dull, rusty or just plain manky.
I am always advised to not clean them but can't see what a bit of tidying up could do to hurt their appearance?
Thanks anyway

Sorry for not being able to get back here earlier to reply but-yep-that's exactly how I collect.I collect to keep-and rarely get rid of anhting unless I just no longer have a need for the item(s)

Im seriously thinking of getting shed of all of my Imperial German SHoulderboards collection-as well as my Luftwaffe badges. Still not sure yet?

Anyway, I know collectors (if you can call them colectors?) who collect in order to trade or sell off-or just to make a quick buck?These types IMO-are not collectors-just Profitteers. However, being it's their stuff - they an do with it whatever they want-makes no matter mind to me ;-)) My stuff though,does-and rarely do I even think of shedding an item from the collection.Right now my way of thinking is that I no longer am interested in collecting non-Army items since the collecting field is so huge--I just don't have funs to keep collecting everything. When I did collect everything-I rarely got a nice catch thanks to the wide range of stuff I got. Now that i narrowed it down a bit-im starting to reap in some nice things ;-)) I wish I had thought this way 10 years ago-because I could have bought a nice C.E>Junker made Knights Cross-for only-ONLY $450.00. Now if I tried to get one-looks like ill have to shell-out upwards to $10,000 ;-(