Cleaned, Rag & Water, Never Touched

For years now I have read time and time again the age old debate of "cleaned" versus "market acceptable" (what I like to refer to as "rag & water" from a long time ago) versus never touched. Its an age old conversation and has often seen great debate here on the CCF.

There are a lot of new collectors to the hobby who might often times become confused by this and whereas grading is subjective, "market acceptable" cleaning can also be very subjective.

That having been said, IMHO, for assistance to the newcomers to the hobby, here is a quick visual difference of 19th century silver in the three mentioned categories:

Cleaned

Notice how bright the devices are. This coin might be deemed "market acceptable" by some but truly, this is a cleaned coin. The brightness of the devices take away from the originality of the coin and its surfaces. I would not consider this problem free and would avoid.



Rag & Water/Finger Rubbed

Same issue but never "cleaned". Notice the uniformity of the surfaces. You get darker peripherals and lighter towards the center of the mirrors indicating that somewhere around 1896 this had a "rag & water" or perhaps a good old fashioned finger rubbing. But much more original than the above coin and I believe an advanced collector would choose this one.



Cleaned

Again, notice the bright devices. The mirrors have darkened over but the devices really give it away.



Wholly Original

This is what an untouched aged, circulated piece of business silver looks like





I hope this information and opinion on the subject is useful.