Steve,

Excellent point. I only clean chips that have very little wear and are a little dirty. Cleaning a worn chip makes the cleaning obvious and unattractive, especially when all the dirt is not removed from the grooves in the mold. Also, do not bother to clean a hot stamped chip if part of the hot stamp is worn. You will have a very artificial looking chip. Worn chips that are clean look doctored. Cleaning a chip that has little wear improves its appearence, as it still looks natural. Remember than many old rare chips are only available with holes in them, for goodness sake. But the holes do not diminish their collectability. The idea of cleaning a chip is to improve its appearance. A worn chip's appearance is not going to be improved with a cleaning.