First, I apologize for having offended any of you with this novice's abuse of the nomenclature. Obviously, "coreanicum" is merely the subspecies nomenclature, for the local variety of Ceratostoma burnetti. See http://www.gastropods.com/Taxon_pages/TN_Family_MURICIDAE_OCENEBRINAE.html . When you click on the Ceratostoma coreanicum and it brings up the pictures, it adjusts the nomenclature to show "coreanicum" as a subspecies instead of a species. Thanks for the notes about the de-scaler. I will look into it, but it probably is too expensive for my needs. A collector in California who has vast experience (and collection) of similar Murex uses a "sand"-blaster with walnut dust to wonderful effect, he says. That sounds more affordable and may be more effective than the de-scaler. I also will try Lime-Away on a shell that is too defective to matter and determine how well that works for spot cleaning. Korea has some very strong cleaning vinegar. I soaked some of my heavily mineralized dug Chinese coins in that vinegar diluted by half, was called to the phone briefly, and returned to find one coin half-dissolved and the others well past the point to which I wanted them treated. Fortunately, they were early Republic coins that I had dug in abundance, not my only Pan Liang, from @220 BC. Anyone who wants to see pictures of the Korean shells, send me an email and I will provide the pictures. I don't have a website. Thanks, again. Chuck ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs To leave this list, click on the following web link: http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1 Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and click leave the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------