What is your take on cleaned coins/conserved coins?

fcloud

With all the talk of AT coins going around here, what is you opinion on white coins? Are all white coins cleaned? Are properly cleaned/conserved coins the same as AT? If it is the same as AT, why do the grading services allow properly cleaned/conserved coins in their holders?

As you can see below by my tag line. I prefer blast white coins--does this mean I am buying coins that will be considered doctored when this new anti-coin-doctoring-group starts up?

I was at a show on Sunday, and I would say if white coins are considered doctored coins, most if not all uncirulated coins (at least at that show) are doctored.

Tony

nwcs

Surely some degree of white coins are cleaned. However, I'm not of the belief that all white Morgan dollars are cleaned. From everything I have read, the coins that were in the bags stayed white (when they were not near the bag surface and were surrounded by other coins) and it's not impossible to imagine that some white coins were the result of careful preservation.

As for cleaning versus conservation. I think the difference between these two is found in intention, disclosure, and being properly executed. So I am against cleaning but for conservation.

Neil

JML

Coins that have unsightly tarnish or PVC contamination should never be considered doctored if the tarnish or PVC is properly removed. I am of the opinion that anything that is removed carefully, without abrasives, from the surface, such as that removed from the Central America coins are not doctored.

coppercoins

Toning is tarnish. Some is appealing, most is not. I prefer to have my coins "as issued" if possible, which does not include abrasion, scratching, etc. If a coin can be treated with a chemical of sort to restore its original appearance so as to not harm the surface of the coin, then that's what I want. If it harms the coin, I am against it.

clw54

I just like coins to be what they are, without people trying to make them into something else.