Cleaned US Braided Hair Large Cents

I have never been afraid of cleaned coins so long as the eye appeal is there and they are priced right. In the old days many coins got cleaned and few collectors cared. Once the TPG's stuck "details" on the slab it all changed.

CoinFrog, Presently I am limiting myself to one coin per year, with the exception of 1852, which I want to collect one each of the varieties.

With the way I collect, my year collecting is kind of kit a snag. I need 1840, 42, 43, 44, 49 and 57 to complete a year set. And I am only about 30 percent of the way on my 1852 Variety set. But I have managed to collect several varieties in other years because the parameters I set for eye appeal put these coins in the buy if while it is there category.

Once my initial goal is achieved, I will they try collecting whatever I can find that meets my collecting standards. I know I will never finish a complete Braided Hair Large Cent variety set, but I will keep trying to collect until I croak.

I just hope that my inheritors do not think these are garage sale coins. Several of my coins have pedigrees, and to me that means these coins have history, and bring a slightly higher purchase price.


IndianGoldEagle, Yes, several of these pedigreed coins have tremendous eye appeal. It does seem that they stay up for sale without buyers. I am wondering if people are put off because they are noted as Genuine, Details, Cleaned?

There are a few well known dealers on ebay that I purchase from. All of them have these coins from time to time. I guess they would not carry them for sale if they thought they would never sell. I will ask one of them about this.

A details coin is not always the "kiss of death" if it has "wow factor" someone else will think so too. And yes there are cleaned coins even if the best collections. I managed to get a coin out of the Naftzger collection, It was either a 52 or 53 and it was slabbed as an AU details by PCGS. And when I look at it I can tell it was cleaned, but it was from NAFTZGER'S collection (Not the most complete but about the finest condition large cent collection ever assembled. I believe it also pedigrees to the French and Beckworth collections, two other very famous collection in the large cent world, and to top it off it is the third finest known for the variety. Do I care that PCGS called it AU Details?

Condor101, I'm going to purchase these little gems that are cleaned only if that is all I can get. But I have decided that the "Wow" factor is a big part of collecting, and sometimes even the big name collectors will purchase something that was cleaned years ago, and has begun to age nicely again. One coin in particular has surfaces that under a 10X loop, are nearly perfect, with only tiny imperfections. If not for the cleaning, I venture to guess that it would come in at MS65 or possibly 66, and of course would be an EAC60/60.

Unfortunately I will have to wait for my next coin, as the fix it Gremlin has struck me again, with my wall furnace getting red tagged by the local utilities. Right now I do not have heat in the house. Brrrrr!!!

Joe2007, I've been collecting coins, off and on, for the better part of 60 years. I never really thought about cleaned coins, unless the cleaning was very obvious. It's really only been the past 10-15 years that cleaned coins have gotten real notice, and I think someone mentioned it is basically due to third party grading services labeling the submissions as such.

I used to be all over the place when it came to collecting, without any real direction. It has only been since the early 1990's that I started collecting Braided Hair Large Cents. Back then it was nothing for me to lay down a thousand dollars for one coin.

Unfortunately I had a medical condition that my insurance refused to cover, so my first collection of really wonderful, top coins had to be sold.

I started up again a few years ago, though my economic situation has not improved enough to go for coins like I was collecting. I just try to get what I can for the money I now have available. My coins cost only between $100 and $400 each, generally in the AU range. I still look for the perfect coin for a grade, and if they have a pedigree. I only have about 7 to 8 coins that have any kind of pedigree, versus my previous collection that was over half from prominent collections sales.

I guess I kind of got spoiled back when I could afford richer things. It's difficult to change my standards for collecting, which makes finding coins with my lower budget much more difficult.

For my coins, I know exactly what I am looking for. The only problems I encounter are the super subtle cleanings by collectors from way way back. Some are very difficult to identify as cleaned and retoned.