High Grade Cleaned Vs Low Grade Straight

I've heard frog skin is an excellent coin buffer

If I had a choice between a 1916 LSQ in VF straight or the same coin in AU that had been cleaned I would get the VF coin. If I am going to pay thousands for a coin I want it to be certified and slabbed and untouched, no details and no cleaning. Any coin that costs more than $1000 needs to be in a slab because even experts can be fooled. If the coin is certified you can find a bigger fool.

What do we define as "cleaned"? I think there is some dispute among us about just what that definition. Is dipping a coin considered cleaning it? I can dip a coin for five seconds and it will have 100% more eye appeal but be the same XF or AU coin.

I was looking at some Draped Bust Dollars on the Heritage site and the VF coins look good, but the EF ones look so much better. Of course, there is a difference of $2000 between VF and EF. Even so I would rather have the uncleaned version in VF than the cleaned version in EF for the same price. We still do not have general agreement on what constitutes a "Cleaned Coin". I dipped some of my more common AU Morgans and Peace dollars and they instantly looked much better and much more appealing. Did I do wrong by dipping them for 5 seconds? The dirt, grease and grime of decades came off instantly. I even had a 1928 Peace dollar that looked pretty dull but was graded as EF. After dipping I think I could get it to slip by as AU. It has luster and no details and little ware.