Coin Cleaning Vs Coin Conservation?

Theoretically no in coin language. Conservation techniques are (or at least should be) non-evasive to the coin or it's surface. Many times NGC will return a coin in a body bag or without a numerical grade with a stipulation that the particular coin is eligible for conservation. When they do that (and there is no guarantee) they are saying that the coin can be "conserved" (basically getting rid of the problem that made the coin ineligible for a numerical grade in the first place) in such a way that it may be able to get a numerical grade after the conservation.

Remember, TPGs became the ultimate authorities in this hobby when they self-proclaimed themselves as being the experts many years ago.

So of course their actions are not cleaning! They just remove things that are present to make the coin look like it did when it was new.

You see, they have perfected a system whereby the fee they are paid for the process automatically (it's magical really) redefines the process from "cleaning" to "conserving."

Also remember that without that (magical, service-name changing) fee in their pocket, the identical process performed by any other entity most certainly is not conservation, but is just a cleaning by a non-expert and so will devalue the coin.

Yes, and the real kicker is that after they "conserve" it, they still won't certify it because the surface has been altered. It's like the old shell game and why I don't own a single certified coin unless it came as part of a lot that I bought for the other coins.

The experts do conservation; The amateurs do cleaning. But then I am cynical.

This has nothing to do with educational credentials as much as it does common sense and factual data. That is, unless of course the educational background cited has to do with years of expertise in various coin "conservation" classes/courses, labs et cetera. Do such classes and degrees even exist?


Conservation of art, documents, etc. are procedures performed by people who are also willing to explain the detailed processes by which they conserve the work of art/document. These legitimate conservationists do not have a potential mass market they can create for profit.

The TPGs, so far, have been tight-lipped as to what they do to "conserve" the coins. Some of their work on them is impressive. But the coins have been still just been changed/cleaned up from what they were before the process was done. The only difference between the TPG and Joe public doing the same procedure is that Joe is not a TPG employee.


Just as the initial concept of slabbing coins was born from someone's concept of how to make a buck off of collectors, the TPG's self-proclamation that they can clean a coin and yet not clean a coin just follows the entire scam.

As is witnessed by factual data displaying mistakes/problems/re-slabbing to get higher grades that has been going on since their inception, the TPGs are a money-making niche created b/c the masses give credence to the word "expert" whether it applies or not.

Granted that now after all the years the TPGs have been around, they now DO have exposure to more coins than the average Joe, these same "experts" were self-proclaimed experts before they had the years of experience behind them that gave them credentials. And even with these "credentials," the companies are not consistent from one to the other.


Think CAC ... the CAC-inventers were intelligent enough (educated?) in human psychology to see people would pay money to have the CAC self-proclaimed experts verify the self proclaimed TPG experts had done their job correctly ("expertly?").

... and it worked. The situation is almost laughable if it were not so sad.

Will it end? No.

Yes, you straighten coins quite nicely, Devlec. Thanks

I was surprised when I watched the video, where they mentioned that coins that were returned ungraded (aka body bagged coins) by NGC, 'could' be sent to NCS for possible conserving and then off to NGC for grading.

Also, as for coins with PVC damage, I know that ICCS graded coins will state "PVC Damage" on their certificate. So, could one have a ICCS "PVC Damage", high value Canadian coin cut out, submitted to NCS for conserving, and then graded, and cross graded with ICCS, without indicating PVC Damage? Would ICCS spot it? If they don't you have an ugly coin become a beauty (and the value could be significantly more)!

I am curious to see a conserved coin from NGC, broken out of it's plastic coffin, then submitted raw to PCGS or to ICCS would be caught by them as conserved or cleaning. Coins don't come with a specific serial number unlike paper money notes.

It is largely a matter of semantics. For NCS/NGC, it's a matter of "conservation" versus "cleaning". For others, it's more like "market-acceptable cleaning" versus "market-unacceptable cleaning".

NCS are experts at undertaking "market-acceptable cleaning".

I have found that "market-acceptable" does not necessarily equate to Sap-acceptable. From my perspective, it's all about chemistry. If the "conservation" method does not produce a chemical reaction with the metal or metallic compounds on the surface of the coin, then that's legitimate cleaning. Acetone removal of "goo" is fine. But toning/tarnish removal is not acceptable to me, because toning/tarnish is a chemical reaction and cannot be removed except by another chemical reaction which causes further damage to the coin.

Sometimes, harsh cleaning may be necessary if anything at all is to be saved from the coin (eg. a fire-damaged coin). But such a coin should never be considered anything other than "cleaned" or "restored".