Would You Settle For A Cleaned Coin In An ANACS Holder Or Wait For Better Example To Come Along?

Thats a tough question to answer? Kind of like can you tell me the weather for my birthday next fall? A lot of it would have to do with how the coin was cleaned?
Now, would I buy a cleaned coin? Well, like it or not most of us have as so many of the old classics got a little cleaning years ago and even though it didn't seem so to the naked eye, at the time of purchase, a closer look revealed the truth. Now you must ask yourself how badly do you want the coin? How does it compare price wise to an uncleaned coin? And how available is this particular coin to the average collector today? After you answer those questions you should know what you NEED to do. You can always do as I do, bust it out of the slab so you don't have to read "CLEANED" for the rest of your life?

Sometimes, lightly cleaned coins are discounted so deeply that it is well worth having them. Old, light cleaning doesn't damage the eye appeal too much, although heavy cleaning certainly does.

For me, it depends. Since I like to hoard low-value coins, I don't have a problem with buying cleaned coins to throw in my cabinets of little plastic drawers where I keep my lower-grade circulated coins. If I can buy two cleaned coins for the price of one uncleaned coin, so much the better. I don't like holed coins, however; that is going a bit too far.

But when I want a really nice example of a particular design, i.e. my 1917 (Type 1) quarter, St. Gaudens $20, proof Indian Head cent, or my most attractive Lincoln Cent (a beautifully-toned brown unc. 1910), I will generally not accept cleaning, but I might accept old light cleaning on a high-grade circulated example. As for the slabs, I'm glad ANACS will slab problem coins; the only use I have for slabs is an authenticity guarantee when I purchase something that might be faked, and problem coins need to be authenticated just as much as "perfect" ones.

The coin will, of course, always be considered cleaned; the effects are still visible even after the coin has retoned. If you leave it in the slab, it won't retone very rapidly anyway.

Heather

I am not averse to collecting damaged coins (I have a holed type set, in fact) but it all comes down to eye apeal. How does it look? and will it continue to please you to own it? If at some time you "will need to upgrade it" then save yourself the time and expense and just save to buy what will please you in the long run. If this coin will make you happy long term, then by all means, get it quick!

Not that long ago, I was given the choice of a Bust Half Dollar from a group. Most had not been cleaned, but the one that really caught my eye had been. I knew it and sent it to ANACS because I wanted it in the slab for protection and also because I had one of Terry's holders and wanted it displayed. The cleaning did not bother me in the least. So I guess my answer is I would take the cleaned coin (sometimes).