How do you describe a cleaned coin?

[rons]

This is from an ebay auction of some $10 gold Eagles that were marked cleaned by ANACS. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=300247198037&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=020

 

The sellers take on the cleaning

 

The 1883 appears to have once been only lightly cleaned a very long time ago and again, it is not readily apparent!!! Only the easily accessible regions of the fields, and the high points of the devices show signs of “light cleaning” as might be done by jostling around in a pocket.

 

anyone else get a chuckle out of that?

[jesbroken]

Sounds like a heavy dressing on the wound. I doubt if it stopped the bleeding though. A cleaned coin is a cleaned coin(especially when slabbed as such). If the dealer was going to lie about it, why didn't they just take it out of the ANACS slab which doesn't really account for much when notated as cleaned.

Different strokes for different folks.

Jim

[Coindude]

It's hard to get a wire brush in the hard to reach areas!

[WoodenJefferson]

It's referred to as "down-play" of a condition that someone with knowledge will be able to see through but a novice might not and accept the explanation as being “minor” in nature.

 

[physics-fan3.14]

I keep waiting for someone to describe a coin as having "had a facelift." Or maybe "a little work on her face."

[coinman1794]

Sounds like a heavy dressing on the wound. I doubt if it stopped the bleeding though. A cleaned coin is a cleaned coin(especially when slabbed as such). If the dealer was going to lie about it, why didn't they just take it out of the ANACS slab which doesn't really account for much when notated as cleaned.

Different strokes for different folks.

Jim

 

I would hardly call describing the exact condition of a coin's surface as lying. Sure he may have exagerated it, and maybe not. The term "cleaned" certainly tells me nothing. There are many different types of cleaning and many different levels of cleaning. Saying all cleaned coins are equal is like saying all MS64s are equal. I'll take more a description than less, any day!

 

Edited to add:

 

I would be more concerned that this seller seems to think Scrooge was a real person...

[Conder101]

I have to agree, "Cleaned" means nothing. It can be a patch of hairlines in the field, multiple dips that strip luster, hairlines ALL OVER the coin, a harsh acid dip, or many other things that can only be evaluated by examining the coin. "Cleaned" doesn't give you any clue. And the pictures he provided don't tell you anything either.

 

So the TPG description tells you nothing, but from his description it sound like the coin was gently wiped leaving hairlines on the high points and a few hairlines in the open areas of the field. Why would I chuckle over that? His description tells me more about the coin than the TPG did.