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Cleaning Coins

Started by SteelPenny-migration,

24 posts in this topic

Matt_dac

Matt_dac

Posted
Posted

Welcome to the forum!

 

Cleaning coins is bad and significantly reduces their value. I'm not sure where you would ever hear cleaning coins is a good thing!

 

Good luck with your collection efforts.

 

--Matt

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RWB

RWB

Posted
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Unlikely you would have heard that coin cleaning is good from any coin collector. If you hear one recommend coin cleaning, run the other way and get behind a shrubbery until they have left the vicinity.... :)

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Nutmeg Coin

Nutmeg Coin

Posted
Posted

He could try to post pictures good enough so that it is clear whether anything should be done. I can't remember the last time I needed to do anything with a coin before submission, quite a while.

 

I had a PCGS certified old holder $20 better date coin in an MS62 holder with artificial toning. I soaked it in acetone then ran it under water. I did not touch the surfaces of the coin, NCS got the remaining gunk off and it upgraded. If I had sent it in in the old holder I doubt they would have touched it as AT is considered a problem that usually cannot be fixed.

 

Copper and silver are more difficult, I wish NCS would get into specifics on their proprietary methods. Their lawyers I'm sure advise them not to.

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PerryHall

PerryHall

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That is true, even with the case of coins NCS degraded by their methods leaving submitters no recourse.

 

Sometimes, whether a coin is ruined or improved is in the eye of the beholder.

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Nutmeg Coin

Nutmeg Coin

Posted
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They do good work and in other cases not so great. In my case an $18K High relief should not have been worked on, the dealer who sold it to me was adamant that they had reduced ("ruined") it by conservation significantly in eye appeal. I have heard of other cases where valuable coins in non-details holders were conserved and the put into details holders. If you read the paperwork they are immunized from the results.

 

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Kurtdog

Kurtdog

Posted
Posted
If they do it they are not "improperly cleaned" at least by those who make the rules apparently.

I always wondered what constitutes "not improperly cleaned." I guess you nailed it, it's "if they do it." :)

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PerryHall

PerryHall

Posted
Posted
If they do it they are not "improperly cleaned" at least by those who make the rules apparently.

I always wondered what constitutes "not improperly cleaned." I guess you nailed it, it's "if they do it." :)

 

The term "properly cleaned" means to me that the coin doesn't look cleaned to a professional numismatist.

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Kurtdog

Kurtdog

Posted
Posted
If they do it they are not "improperly cleaned" at least by those who make the rules apparently.

I always wondered what constitutes "not improperly cleaned." I guess you nailed it, it's "if they do it." :)

The term "properly cleaned" means to me that the coin doesn't look cleaned to a professional numismatist.

Do they have to disclose they cleaned it? I mean, "properly cleaned" it?

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PerryHall

PerryHall

Posted
Posted
If they do it they are not "improperly cleaned" at least by those who make the rules apparently.

I always wondered what constitutes "not improperly cleaned." I guess you nailed it, it's "if they do it." :)

The term "properly cleaned" means to me that the coin doesn't look cleaned to a professional numismatist.

Do they have to disclose they cleaned it? I mean, "properly cleaned" it?

 

An honest dealer will disclose the coin's history if asked by a potential customer. Once the coin is slabbed and has changed hands a few times its history is quickly lost so the coin has to be evaluated on its own merit.

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Kurtdog

Kurtdog

Posted
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An honest dealer will disclose the coin's history if asked by a potential customer.

I suppose that would include if the honest dealer "properly cleaned" the coin, right? An honest dealer would disclose that if asked by a potential customer?

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PerryHall

PerryHall

Posted
Posted
An honest dealer will disclose the coin's history if asked by a potential customer.

I suppose that would include if the honest dealer "properly cleaned" the coin, right? An honest dealer would disclose that if asked by a potential customer?

 

Yes, an honest dealer would answer your questions truthfully although I guess he could plead the fifth.

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Kurtdog

Kurtdog

Posted
Posted
An honest dealer will disclose the coin's history if asked by a potential customer.

I suppose that would include if the honest dealer "properly cleaned" the coin, right? An honest dealer would disclose that if asked by a potential customer?

Yes, an honest dealer would answer your questions truthfully although I guess he could plead the fifth.

But then he'd be withholding, right? Better I think if he stands on the eighteenth, he was drunk when the question was asked.

 

Forgive me but the old BS meter is really flashing, now. What happens when the "potential customer" doesn't ask? I suppose your answer is the "honest dealer" can just go ahead and trick him, then.

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Nutmeg Coin

Nutmeg Coin

Posted
Posted

Any cleaned coin will usually sell at a discount anyway. As a practice it would not be right to not disclose known issues especially with raw coins, but also with coins with issues where either the guarantee the grading company offers or the resale value will cause serious problems when they go to be resold.

 

And yet "US Coins" did not disclose obvious problems on this listing, instead backing up the coin's quality in spite of light graffiti, possible tooling in the hair and possible over-grading:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1796-1-DRAPED-BUST-DOLLAR-LG-DATE-SM-LET-PCGS-VF20-/360990539909?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item540cb68085

 

"1796 $1 DRAPED BUST DOLLAR LG DATE, SM LET PCGS VF20

NICE! SCARCE! SHARP!"

 

I would never keep a coin I did not like or saw after receipt hard to see problems in a listing, and it is right that sellers should pay for returns of mis-represted items if requested under certain circumstances.

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