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Buying A Cleaned Coin

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Bedrock of the Community
United States
36845 Posts
 Posted 08/01/2012  5:00 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add IndianGoldEagle to your friends list
Even putting it in your pocket for awhile will still show signs of cleaning in the protected areas.
Valued Member
United States
187 Posts
 Posted 08/01/2012  7:06 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add regularguy to your friends list
I would buy a cleaned coin if it was a hard to find and expensive key date coin. For example, I am looking for a 1894 Morgan. If I find one that has been graded and is in my price range, I will over look the fact that the slab says cleaned. Cleaned or not it still is what it is.
Pillar of the Community
United States
556 Posts
 Posted 08/01/2012  7:14 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add CrazyCat to your friends list
If the coin is at a reasonable price and it's a coin I want, then it's a deal.
Pillar of the Community
United States
1436 Posts
 Posted 08/01/2012  7:47 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Dave H to your friends list
Basebal21, thanks for the reply. I personally would rather have a coin that would've graded UNC or AU+ and has been lightly cleaned than have the same coin in XF that doesn't "look" cleaned. As IndianGoldenEye said, in the protected areas, it can still look cleaned even though the rest of the coin doesn't.
Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts
 Posted 08/01/2012  9:14 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add basebal21 to your friends list
Dave I agree. But I'm also of the belief that coins can just get so ugly they need to be cleaned which I know a lot will disagree with me on
Pillar of the Community
United States
1436 Posts
 Posted 08/02/2012  09:27 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Dave H to your friends list
I agree. I would rather have an attractive cleaned coin to one that has verdigree or other crud fixed to it.
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts
 Posted 08/02/2012  11:18 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add ninamason to your friends list
For me, it's a matter of: how expensive was the coin to begin with?

Example: Here we have a 1906 Indian-head penny. It's worth about seven bucks in AU (all details intact or mostly intact, just toned), or was the last time I checked. I discover it has been cleaned, and this lowers its price to $2. Do I offer a buck-fifty? Sure. There may come a day when 1906 is in high demand, and even my buck-fifty coin is worth five bucks.

But here we have a rare Morgan (I don't know Morgans well, so use your imagination). In AU, it's worth $150. It's been cleaned well* and the seller has marked it at bullion price, which for the sake of example we'll say is $30 at the time of my potential purchase. Would I buy it? Heck no. Even though it may go up if there's a sudden run on this hypothetical rare Morgan, $30 is a full tenth of my gross pay (actually, a little more than). If I'm blowing $30 on coins, they're going to be coins I can be guaranteed will be a good investment, or at least not outright junk, for my nieces. I would take the $30 and get a nice, uncleaned, common Peace dollar or coins in some other denomination, instead.

That's my take on it.



*I know, I know, no cleaning is "good," but I'm talking about something that doesn't make the surface look like someone scratched it across concrete, like dipping.
Pillar of the Community
United States
539 Posts
 Posted 08/02/2012  3:49 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add weavus135 to your friends list
since I collect common, circulated world coins, I have very little opportunity to buy what I am assuming are US silver coins that most folks are talking about in this thread. however, what I do see a great deal of are a lot of folks that seemingly don't care that they are cleaned. I can only assume that the very few people who actually believe the coin is worth less once cleaned is a small majority of buyers. All you have to do is go look on ebay and see how many cleaned coins are going for over any reasonable published source of value. And it seems the shinier it is, the more it goes for regardless of the opinion of other collectors.
Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts
 Posted 08/02/2012  5:00 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add basebal21 to your friends list
I agree with that. There's definitely a significant number of people that don't care as long as its not in a slab that says so. Unfortunately I do believe on ebay a number of those coins labeled cleaned are being bout to be passed off as uncleaned premium coins elsewhere
Pillar of the Community
United States
1436 Posts
 Posted 08/03/2012  09:41 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Dave H to your friends list
Not sure what the difference is between a slabbed coin being noted as having been cleaned and a raw coin that has been. Cleaned is cleaned... I guess it's just the stigma about it being documented as such?
Pillar of the Community
Australia
4411 Posts
 Posted 08/03/2012  10:25 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add enworb to your friends list
The coin would have to be a key date, one that there's no way I could EVER afford with original surfaces. I would rather wait and pay $500 for a nice example than jump at one that is only $50 but cleaned.
Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts
 Posted 08/03/2012  10:52 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add sel_69l to your friends list
Cleaning DOES increase the value of some coins!

What sort of coins?

Ancient coins that have been dug up and are otherwise unidentifiable. Mostly, ancient coins ARE cleaned before they come onto the market.

For any other cleaned coin, the value is reduced, but sometimes has to be done to remove verdigris or ugly toning. Some would prefer to call that 'restoration'.
Pillar of the Community
United States
7197 Posts
 Posted 08/03/2012  11:48 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add muddler to your friends list
So I bought this 1875 s Trade dollar raw, it was obviously cleaned. I later sent it in for grading and it came back as an 1875 s/cc.

Buying-A-Cleaned-Coin

Buying-A-Cleaned-Coin

Buying-A-Cleaned-Coin

Buying-A-Cleaned-Coin

For a $300 investment I felt this cleaned coin was a good choice
Pillar of the Community
United States
1436 Posts
 Posted 08/03/2012  12:45 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Dave H to your friends list
That's awesome. Getting something extra you didn't expect is always good.

I recently purchased an 1887 IHC that looked like it had die cracks on the reverse. Well, one of the die cracks was actually a Lamination peel. Really cool.

Nice coin by the way!
Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts
 Posted 08/03/2012  2:03 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add just carl to your friends list

Quote:
Even putting it in your pocket for awhile will still show signs of cleaning in the protected areas.

The main problem with that putting it in a pocket story is similar to when people say they used water. All sorts of water. There are possibly millions of different types of materials that make a pocket and or what they are put together with. There are just as many different types of people that walk, run, bounce, stroll, etc. And some are in wheel chairs too. And a coin in a anyone's pocket with other coins will get dinked, scratched, marked, etc. too.
Putting a coin in a pocket is basically what is known as an old wives tale.
I've purchased all kinds of cleaned coins. Some now look like any other coin, some will always looked cleaned.
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