Body Bagged GSA Dollar???

[lrice67-migration]

I just received a body bagged GSA Dollar back from NGC for rev cleaned?

How is this possible when the coin was still in the government holder and had never been removed?

Were some of these coins cleaned by the good ole USA and sold under false pretenses?

Just a little curious..................................

 

Thanks

[RMontgomery]

Unfortunately, there are examples of coins in GSA holders that have at one time been cleaned. While it probably was not in the traditional sense of cleaning, your coin most likely exhibited noticeable abrasions from direct contact with a cloth, creating a concentration of hairlines on the surface.

 

Rick

[gsaguy-migration]

lrice67,

 

Rick is correct. As a collector/specialist in GSA's for almost 20 years, I have numerious examples in my collection that have been cleaned, some harshly.

 

Amazingly, most of these are in the GSA holders marked as "uncirculated". Just goes to show you how numismatically-challenged the GSA sorters really were.

 

While it is impossible to know when the damage was done to these coins, I suspect that some of it may have occurred before the GSA took possession. After the Treasury shut the doors on silver sales in March 1964, some bags were searched for audit purposes in the years immediately following. In most cases, the entire contents of the bags were counted by hand.

 

It would have been quite easy for someone to have wiped or rubbed any number of coins in order to remove some of that nasty 'tarnish'.

 

Hope this helps.

 

GSAGUY