Resubmission Of January Question (Degrees Of Cleaning)

Here is the post by Morgan Fred in its entirety rather than using the link above:

The subject of cleaned coins is controversial and is subject to wide varieties of opinions for the simple reason that there are dozens or hundreds of degrees of "cleaning", especially among Mint State coins . While it is usually obvious when a coin has been harshly cleaned with an abrasive such as Ajax or steel wool (at one end of the spectrum), often a coin has been very lightly cleaned with a non-abrasive non-reactive material such as water and/or simply swept with a small camel's hair brush (at the other end of the spectrum). This problem is exacerbated by the date of cleaning; some coins were cleaned perhaps 100 to 200 years earlier and have since "naturalized". Many of us have submitted coins (mostly Morgans in my instance) which have apparent full luster, cartwheel nicely, and appear otherwise to be uncirculated Mint State fresh-off-the-press with no evidence of surface tampering only to have them returned as "cleaned". There also does not appear to be any consistent standards among grading companies and even within a single grading company on these coins in question; a resubmission of a nice "cleaned" coin will sometimes be returned as an MS. Similarly, coins have been submitted for which a provenance is established with no cleaning history, yet the coin is returned as cleaned. Compounding this whole situation are those ultra-rare coins which probably have been cleaned, but are graded and slabbed anyway; I refer to the USS Republic coins but also many late 1700s or early 1800s coins. What would ANACS do with, say, an 1804 Draped Bust Dollar which is just discovered, but had been rubbed down with a chamois cloth?

Would it be possible for ANACS to lighten up on the "cleaned" evaluation of a coin without relaxing its grading standards in all other respects? I.e., if a coin is so pristine that it is so difficult to determine if it has been cleaned or not, could it not be given the benefit of the doubt? Following this train of thought, could ANACS establish and publish a set of criteria, definitions, and or standards for cleaned coins?

James, you got mail.

For the record, James never did get back to me and now I guess he never will.

Fred