Walk Me Through Details: Cleaned On This 1942-S Dime, PCGS Slab?

I wonder if it had a carbon spot removed from the neck? There's a more or less circular area that is discolored and a bit rough there.

Great question. You probably won't like my answer, though.

The picture may be unfaithful. They often are, and that's the main weakness with the medium. We can grade coins pretty well from a decent macro photo, but never definitively. It works both ways. I've produced photos of graded coins with definitively original surfaces that end up looking cleaned. Amateur coin photography yields lots of unintended deception.The focus can be perfect, but lighting and exposure can hide (and create) a multitude of sins.

Coins can only be properly assessed in hand with a microscope. Ruling out cleaning is standard stuff. Is the color within the natural spectrum for the coin? Are the surfaces abraded? Are the abrasions directional? Micro-abrasions that are non-directional are deemed to be from a pocket and won't detail the coin. Directional abrasions are likely to be from a cleaning. Very easy to tell on an uncirculated coin. The cleaning creates patterns in the luster that would not otherwise be there. Is there fixed residue on the coin? This wouldn't be visible from a photo. Acetone doesn't react with silver and leaves no residue from itself, but it imperfectly dissolves residue already on the coin and leaves some of it behind in an unnaturally uniform way, altering luster.

As always, I appreciate the insights, guys. I know that photos can hide or emphasize flaws, but since I do all my buying on ebay, that's unavoidable.

I hadn't considered spot cleanings. Being new to grading, I had been looking for the directional hairlines, dulled luster, darker remnants around devices.