@mr1874 said:
I never have been able to figure out why some people think cleaning coins makes them look better. Anyone who knows what they are doing trying to assemble a date/mint set of Morgans will hard pass on the coins seen in the OP.
Well, it makes sense if you don't know anything about coins and are just trying to liquidate them, I guess. Too bad people don't minimally educate themselves a little before disposing of collections that potentially could be worth a lot of money. Also might be good for collectors to leave a note in their collections for their heirs, etc. with some tips such as "don't clean" and "this is a blue/red book," etc.
It is too bad though, I agree. About a month ago I was at the local coin shop--I go down to hang out sometimes--and a woman brought in a bunch of old coins. There was this one dollar (I think it was a Morgan if I remember correctly) that was immaculate with basically no wear but when the dealer said to the woman, "This is one of the nicest I have ever seen but it has been cleaned," she said that there was a big gob of nail polish on the face of it that she had cleaned off the day before bringing it in because she figured it would be worth less with the polish on it. Still was a pretty coin though.
She had also cleaned most of the other coins at the same time. On the good side, she didn't seem like someone who was hurting for money and was disappointed but didn't take it too badly. She was mostly "getting rid of clutter."
The whole episode got me to thinking how sad it is that one's possessions (even prized ones) will probably someday be someone's clutter.-
Comments
Well, it makes sense if you don't know anything about coins and are just trying to liquidate them, I guess. Too bad people don't minimally educate themselves a little before disposing of collections that potentially could be worth a lot of money. Also might be good for collectors to leave a note in their collections for their heirs, etc. with some tips such as "don't clean" and "this is a blue/red book," etc.
It is too bad though, I agree. About a month ago I was at the local coin shop--I go down to hang out sometimes--and a woman brought in a bunch of old coins. There was this one dollar (I think it was a Morgan if I remember correctly) that was immaculate with basically no wear but when the dealer said to the woman, "This is one of the nicest I have ever seen but it has been cleaned," she said that there was a big gob of nail polish on the face of it that she had cleaned off the day before bringing it in because she figured it would be worth less with the polish on it. Still was a pretty coin though.
She had also cleaned most of the other coins at the same time. On the good side, she didn't seem like someone who was hurting for money and was disappointed but didn't take it too badly. She was mostly "getting rid of clutter."
The whole episode got me to thinking how sad it is that one's possessions (even prized ones) will probably someday be someone's clutter.-