I am Apparently Pretty Good at Buying Cleaned Coins 1 1

[Teddy R]

Can anyone suggest a resource that will educate me about how to tell if coins have been cleaned? I would also like to learn more about grading mint state coins.

Edited December 2, 2020 by Teddy R

[MarkFeld]

The best resource would be a knowledgeable collector or dealer who will sit down with you, review quantities of cleaned and non-cleaned coins and show you the differences. If that’s not an option, I’d suggest looking at quantities of NGC and PCGS - both cleaned details-grade coins and non-cleaned ones, on your own. Over time, hopefully, you’ll learn to detect the differences.

[bsshog40]

Just to add to Marks comment, you can search in the coin forums you visit for threads that are related to cleaning. There are soo many ways to clean a coin and some that are old cleanings and hard to recognize. 

[Coinbuf]

There is no one size fits all answer to your question.  There are many ways to clean a coin and this effects can appear different on a copper coin vs a silver coin; and again different on a modern clad coin vs an 18th century coin.  I would suggest you attempt to find a coin club in your area, within that club you may be able to find a knowledgeable collector that can help mentor you with this.  If that is not an option then looking at the photos on auction sites like Heritage of coins that are slabbed as cleaned vs the same coin in a straight graded holder will help you to expand your knowledge of what to look for.

Would you care to expand on why you think you have a problem with not being able to spot a cleaned coin?

[Teddy R]

15 hours ago, Coinbuf said:

There is no one size fits all answer to your question.  There are many ways to clean a coin and this effects can appear different on a copper coin vs a silver coin; and again different on a modern clad coin vs an 18th century coin.  I would suggest you attempt to find a coin club in your area, within that club you may be able to find a knowledgeable collector that can help mentor you with this.  If that is not an option then looking at the photos on auction sites like Heritage of coins that are slabbed as cleaned vs the same coin in a straight graded holder will help you to expand your knowledge of what to look for.

Would you care to expand on why you think you have a problem with not being able to spot a cleaned coin?

Sure. I recently sent 12 coins to NGC for grading. Most I thought were fairly nice or I wouldn't have submitted them. Five came back as cleaned. I could see someone of my skill level missing something on the UNC/AU coins but it's beyond me what to look for on the 13-S T-1 XF Nickel I sent in. First off, why would someone clean such a coin???

[Coinbuf]

Yes those results would be rather discouraging; well without seeing the coin nobody can say for sure what was done only to suggest that you look for the obvious signs like hairlines and odd colorations.  As to why well maybe someone thought he/she could get a few more dollars for it by "improving" it, perhaps just a case of being improperly stored, yet another possible scenario is that it was an early test by someone learning to be a coin doctor.  Honestly there are many reasons why coins are improperly cared for/handled by both collectors and dealers, just an unfortunate side to the hobby.  Best of luck with finding a collector or dealer that can help show you what to look for. 

[Teddy R]

Thanks to all for the responses.

[Coinbuf]

Something that I thought of this morning that may be of some help to you are the YouTube videos that PCGS put out on coin grading which include some sections on detecting cleaned coins.  I have not seen anything like this series of videos here at NGC.  Her is a link to where you can view these.  Some are just PR videos but if you scroll down you will see the ones that deal with grading and surface detection.

https://www.youtube.com/c/PCGScoin