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 Replies: 10 / Views: 1,447 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
759 Posts |
I figure if it would help me, it might help others too...
I see a lot of comments when people post pictures of new acquisitions to the effect of "it looks cleaned." Well, OK, but how about adding an educational component to the reply sometimes? If people could add comments like, "if you look here, you'll see this, if you look there, you'll see that. Both are indications of probable cleaning."
Such comments would be a huge help to me and probably would have saved me some money in the past. It's easy to see when somebody takes a wire brush to a coin, but some indications are subtle, so I ask for your help in enlightening me and anyone else along for the ride.
Thanks!
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Valued Member
United States
75 Posts |
OneBowl,  thanks for creating this topic.i have thought about posting the same topic....just wasn't shure how to word it. the cleaned/wizzed/etc. thing is the reason why I have been collecting mostly slabbed coins,proof & mint sets instead of raw coins.i just don't feel I would be up to par making the determination on my own right now. i hope you have lots of replies to this topic. T J |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2661 Posts |
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Rest in Peace
United States
9104 Posts |
Often, examples are given when discussing ebay items. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1304 Posts |
Sounds like a great idea OneBowl.
Looking forward to examples of different "cleaned" coins.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
I would think there are really way to many different situations of cleaned coins to start listing. True, some are excessively noticable, however, many cleaned coins are almost impossible to tell. Then too, some were mildly cleaned a long time ago and since have almost returned to normalicy. A long time ago, many people used to spit on their fingers and rub a coin to see it better. Many kids used to clean coins with baking soda and water for their collections. Coins have been in washing machines, wishing wells, street puddles and almost anything else on Earth that would sort of clean a coin. Or at least make it cleaner than it was.
If your referring to purposely cleaned coins to make a sale, that is one thing. Purposely cleaning coins for a pretty looking collection is also done by many. Many that purposely clean coins also spend time attempting to hide that fact making it more difficult to notice.
The only thing I know is if a coin shows lots of wear, is old and there is no dirt wedged inbetween the letters and numbers, Might have been cleaned. Maybe.
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Pillar of the Community
Egypt
3470 Posts |
I too agree that most of the coins that exist have been cleaned sometime, somewhere, somehow. IMO the important question is what harm did this cleaning do to the coin? if you were able to remove the dirt from circulation without leaving scratches or a polished surface ... and the coin is still eye appealing ..... then I think I would added to my collection. One day I asked a senior collector about cleaned silver coins, because most of people try to clean silver coins before the sell thinking the this will increase the value, he told me that he would buy such coins on two conditions that the details show no wear and that there is no scratches and regarding the luster ... he said it will eventually disappear by time because silver tends to tarnish  Still this is a very good topic and I will subscribe to receive replies because I really would like to see some links and pics to how can you spot a previously cleaned coins. Thanks for starting this topic |
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Valued Member
United States
404 Posts |
I agree with OneBowl, but on a more overall sense. I've read so many threads where someone will post a picture of a coin, and you'll get replies like "that's not a proof", or "that's obviously fake".
Wish posters would elaborate a little more. How can you tell it's an obvious fake, or that it's not a proof, or it's cleaned?
There are a lot of members on here that go the extra mile to be helpful, which is great. I've learned so much on here even when I wasn't looking for specific information.
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Moderator
 United States
188391 Posts |
Quote:
IMO the important question is what harm did this cleaning do to the coin? if you were able to remove the dirt from circulation without leaving scratches or a polished surface ... and the coin is still eye appealing ..... then I think I would added to my collection. This is important. I believe almost all circulated coins have been "cleaned" at some point, whether intentionally or not. The actual act of circulation does the same damage to a coin that cleaning does, the key difference probably being the resulting eye appeal. In my opinion, any coin that has cleaning which is detectible by the way it affects eye appeal is to be avoided. This only applies to circulated coins, but if it has been cleaned and still has the eye appeal I desire, I may buy it (for the right price) and have no problem keeping it. However, I believe a cleaned mint state (or maybe a better AU) coin will almost always have signs of the cleaning that will affect eye appeal; therefore, I will avoid it. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
539 Posts |
jbuck brings up a very important distinction between circulated and mint state coins. As a collector of common world coins, 60 to 80 years of circulation vs. a cleaning look pretty much the same (assuming no harsh cleaning leaving really ugly marks). I've long believed that any coin that was ever in circulation that is that old or older has been cleaned. After all it was quite acceptable (or at least common) to clean coins years ago - maybe as few as 15 years ago I dare say.
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Valued Member
United States
92 Posts |
I recently got 2 Morgan $, both of them called " extra fine condition" and " hard to find". Both show the signs of circulation,use and wear.
1893 p and 1895 o All the markings / features are easily seen and readable but both coins are discolored grey.
I do not know if this is the right place to ask my ? but are these coins hard to get and rare? Should I try to clean them up a little bit and how do I do it? I welcome any comments. thank you gasman96
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Replies: 10 / Views: 1,447 |
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Posted 11/29/2011 8:25 pm
