To Clean Or Not To Clean....your Thoughts

There are 1000's of coins on the open market that have been polished, cleaned,washed,rubbed,wizzed,filled and airbrushed ... graded and slabbed. Many of these coins are currently in the process of being sold or are for sale as we speak.
How can anyone here deny it?

118howest ... Yes, there are thousands and thousands of cleaned coins out there being sold every day, but TPG's are getting very tired about complaints from people who have bought their certified coins and noticed that they had been cleaned, but nothing in the remarks section. The top 3 US firms now are very reluctant to even grade coins that they feel have been "enhanced" and new electronic tests have begun to set aside those that have, in fact, been cleaned. You can still float them through ICG and other second tier TPG's, though. ICCS is starting to get tougher on them and CCCS was, for a while, doing the same. However, I see an awful lot of CCCS coins that you can see that have been cleaned or brightened up and certified with no remarks at all. It has been the bane of the collecting community and people don't like it.

I would hope that, within 2-3 years, you will never see a certified coin that has been cleaned with no remarks to say so. Howevr, I still think that, for large submitters of coins, the TPG's kind of turn their head and don't say anything to "good customers. No proof, but I see way to many out there recently that you can tell, at an arm's length, that they have been 'enhanced'. That doesn't make it right and every collector needs to learn that you don't touch things, especially copper, to make them look better. A very quick dip for silver is sometimes warranted to remove hints of past cleanings or fingerprints, but even that should be a no-no. Media and word of mouth about needing to have certified pristine-looking coins for personal collections has brainwashed people into thinking that they have to 'pretty-things-up' before submitting them to a TPG. That can't be further from the truth.

TPG's are getting rich by taking that 10 second glance at your coin and giving it a printed cardboard sticker grade .. it absolutely makes me sick to see F-12 certified narrow 9 1859's or 1876's that someone has forked over $20 to have graded that will never be worth more than $10. Don't clean your coins unless absolutely necessary and then the bare minimum and you don't need to certify any coin in your collection unless extremely high grade, the need to resell remotely, or for inheritance/insurance reasons. To each his own, but that's my opinion.

To Bill in Burl:


Precise, concise, and accurate information...

This is what CCF should be all about...

Thanks,

cameron93

I understand dipping is harmful to coin surface. How about just use finger to rub the coin under water to remove dirts, which simulate the normal usage, can TPGs tell the difference?

Thank you bill, you put the info in a form I could understand ! If I understand correctly, silver coins with fingerprints should not be acetone or anything. I have a couple silver coins I bought, that I can see fingerprints through the capsules. I just wanted to clarify. It's been a great discussion . Rox

wow

ok...whatever that means. This is suppose to be an informative topic...dont be ridiculous

Short, sweet and so true!