Detecting Cleaned Coins

well some can be detected rather easily if they have been harshly cleaned because there will be lines that can be seen on the coin. Others are a little harder to detect and you just have to ask yourself if you had a coin this old, in this condition how would you expect it to look. A complete lack of luster would also constitute a coin that should be questioned to wether it has been cleaned or not

Both Bryan and Dave hit the nail on the head. For many or even most cleaned coins, a cleaning can be readily detected, but there are some coins which requires a real expert to make a determination meaning the professional graders at ANACS, PCGS, NGC, and ICG who can make comparisons with benchmark specimens and even then sometimes a very light cleaning decades or centuries ago may slip by them or they may decide a coin which has never been cleaned and for which its provenance (history) is documented back to the mint is labeled as "cleaned". I asked this question about degrees of cleaning, especially with those coins where it is a judgement call of James Taylor (allegedly now late of ANACS) during his January session and he never got back to me.

Fred

You have to develop a sense for this. If a coin doesn't look right then the bells start to go off for me.

I begin from the over all look of the coin. There is an internal trigger with me as I look at a coin that sends up a warning. After that, I begin with the rim an progress to the devices and fields.

After a few months of practicing there is a sixth sense that kicks in.

I have many reservations about a coin that is 150 years old but looks like it was in circulation yesterday.

This is a very good question. I know I have purchased many "cleaned" coins in my 24 plus years of collecting, but you have to determine if the chemically cleaned (never whizzed) coins are at the correct pricing.

If you like the coin and know it is cleaned and at the right price, follow your instincts.

If you don't feel good about it move on. There are hundreds more like it out there.