Is This Coin Cleaned?

It does look cleaned to me.
John1

But also, It does not look that much different then this coin to me...

how do I tell the difference?

Thanks

The coin you posted has no mint luster and shows wear and possible cleaning.

The pictured slabbed coin has mint luster and has most likely not been cleaned. It has been professionally graded and encapsulated and met the standards for the assigned grade. TPG companies have a role to play and most of them, at least the big three, do it fairly well.

Compare the coins surfaces. Huge difference. Until you learn what you are doing try to avoid impulse buying of coins. Don't throw money away on mistakes.

Good luck!

Agree yours has definitely been cleaned.



to the CCF!

Always hard to tell cleaning from the lighting, it is something you will learn as you go.

Your first coin looks like it had a cleaning long ago.

Second coin is hard to tell with the strong glare, but maybe. It looks like some hairline scratches which can be a sign of cleaning

Third coin a bit hard to tell, but looks like a nice AU. Could be an old cleaning hiding under the darkness

An important thing to note is that grading companies treat cleaning differently. PCGS is usually pretty strict, especially for MS coins (except the Cook collection, that seem to have gotten a pass). ICCS is notorious for net grading cleaned coins, be very careful with nice looking AU 55/58 and MS 62 coins. They look like they are undergraded, but then in hand you can see the cleaning, sometimes they do use the "Cleaned" notation, but not consistent. Don't have enough experience with NGC, but they seem fairly consistent on cleaned coins, others may disagree me though.

Remember that all grading services have their limitations and do make mistakes. NGC/PCGS seem to be very generous with F-AU grades for canadian coins, while ICCS is more strict.

@madsloth

I suspect the first coin (bright glare/lighting)) is a victim of polishing/whizzing or a scouring pad. Would like to see its reverse.