"Artificially Worn" Designation By PCGS

Terry .... I don't know what the cartoons are for (you call them emojis/) other than the laughing guy and the guy pondering over popcorn, waiting. I have never had a cell phone, nor actually talked on one, but have taken a few photos for others. I'm still used to dial telephones or, before that, the operator who asked you what 3 digit and one letter phone number you wanted.
I still remember our old "operator-assist" phone number. The house was 277W and my dad's work was 209J. We had a party line and our ring was a long and a short and the party line could listen in. By the late 50's we had a dial phone, but we had the operator for at least 8 years.

My thoughts are that the grading companies use the same methods for detecting "artificial wear" as they do to detect "cleaning". Microscopic examination, I guess, would be one method. They would look for lines indicating the coin was rubbed with something more coarse than another coin. Perhaps a multitude of very small parallel lines/scratches.

I guess PCGS has worked on methods to detect the artificial wear versus actual wear similar to their methods to detect artificial toning/color as nss-52 mentioned but as to what they do I don't think they post the actual methods used to detect.

This article on pcgs which also covers the appeal to some for lowball coins says:

The dealer warns that low ball collectors need to be careful discerning between truly worn coins and those that were altered to look like they saw heavy circulation. "As low ball collecting becomes more popular and low population PO01 coins start to bring thousands of dollars, the prevalence of 'artificially worn' coins has started to increase." Collectors are reminded they should stick to buying low ball coins certified by PCGS, whose experts can distinguish between a coin that has received genuine wear versus artificially accelerated wear.

https://www.pcgs.com/news/the-lowdo...w-ball-coins

So I guess you can try raw and grade but like with other types of coins ungraded raw coins may be as they seem or doctored in some way and there lies the problem for those who have low skills to distinguish between the two.