Everyone seems to have an inherent need to maximize the value of a coin we own. Maybe we all did until we realized what the realities were about attempting to improve a coin and ultimately damaging it. My friend Julian tells a story we've all seen firsthand. In the end, we mourn the washing away of an original piece of our history [the original coin surfaces] that cannot be replaced for everyone that comes after us to see. The trip from MS64PL to a TPG bodybag.
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IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website:https://fairfaxcoins.com
Quote: Big time ouch! Cannot believe he ignored the dealer's advice.
Is this very common with many collectors? Or just few?
I have heard of this before. Not with respect to cleaning but someone who , against the dealer's advice, bought a lot of the gold when the Bank of Canada got rid of the last of their gold reserves. The coins were over-graded and consequently over-priced.
It was not as bad a financial bath as this person, but this is what can happen when ego gets in the way.
People who are not knowledgeable about coins and other potentially valuable investments, will often make this irreversible mistake. I once saw a $300,000 Tiffany Lamp get destroyed because the lady wanted to "clean it up" with Brasso.
I've seen this sort of "collector" problem happen with antique firearms, too. If you don't know what you're doing, don't spend $2,000+ on a late 19th century rifle with its original finishes and patina, beautifully damascened and engraved, and then try to "clean" it yourself with a box of Brillo pads, spray cleaners and Comet, then use your $19 outdoor store rifle cleaning kit to jam your incorrectly sized bore brushes and a large metal rod down the barrel repeatedly. They permanently stripped all the patina, ruined the finish and the damascene on the barrel and receiver, stained the butt stock, and damaged the barrel rifling beyond any reasonable repair short of a rebarreling with vintage parts or a custom job; or a cut rifling rebore which would have necessitated a lot of additional (and expensive) modifications by a skilled gunsmith and further ruined any remaining value at the same time.
There's a local coin shop that I bought quite a few coins from, but they mostly dealt in gold and silver bullion. A guy was in there buying a couple rolls of pre-21 circulated Morgans for stacking and was asking about cleaning them to get the dirt off , and I straight up heard the owner telling the guy to polish them up with silver cream or tarn-x! I was shocked but not everyone treats coins as numismatic collectibles instead of junk silver.
I recall a post in a thread from a few years ago where someone posted a picture of a gold coin - perhaps in the Smithsonian? - that had been "cleaned". Looked like it had been scrubbed with Brillo. Unfortunately I can't find it with a CCF search.
Inordinately fascinated by bits of metal with strange markings and figures
@Hondo Boguss the Smithsonian has an 1849 $20 double eagle. There are only 2 known. One in the Smithsonian and the other has never been seen. It was discussed here:
http://goccf.com/t/430502 in page 2. It does look cleaned with steel wool and we suspect that the curators of the museum tried to clean or "conserve" the coin in the past.
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website:https://fairfaxcoins.com
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Posted 11/18/2023 2:39 pm
