How can you tell if a coin has been cleaned?

Tassa

How can you tell if a silver or gold coin has been lightly cleaned or dipped? Also, if a coin which has been lightly cleaned is submitted for grading, is it more likely to get slabbed or body bagged?

airplanenut

A light cleaning will show small hairlines... big hairlines would be a full-scale whizzing. Dipping would be most older coins that are white- true evidence isn't too obvious, though.

With cleaning, tight places also won't be cleaned necessarily... look inside letters such as O and R.

More often then not, a hint of cleaning is a bodybag... only slightly cleaned coins from a LONG time ago (read earlier 1800s) that show little signs of cleaning can get slabbed... read this thread from David Hall linky

Jeremy

ldhair

Tough question.
I feel everyone here will admit they have been fooled more than once.
Grading services will sometimes let a light cleaning slide. But not often.
I have always felt the best way to tell is to view enough coins that are right.
When one comes by that is cleaned you will spot the problems.

JxnBoy

I can only speak of 20th century (or maybe or a late 19th Morgan or two or five or ten), but what Jeremy's saying about white coins certainly seems to be a great indicator. It's really tough to keep a 100 year old coin looking shiny white silver, and that's the dip. Cleaning? Hairlines. Usually moving the same direction. But I even asked last week about hairlines vs. die polish, so you need to do your homework. Dull or no luster. Then look for hairlines. Or maybe it's been overdipped, which is just as bad hairlines (IMHO). Lots of hairlines with bumpiness on the fields - pass on it.....David

Cam40

How can you tell if a coin has been cleaned?
As far as whizzing or harshly cleaned,wire-brushed....when you can tell the difference between
hairlines-bad, and die polish lines,not bad.

from dipping? Luster. Full original mint luster looks great. For every `good` dip it takes
the less booming the luster would look, comparitively speaking.

Look for subdude cartwheel-effect for some MS coins. The less cartwheel effect ,the more dips
it probably took.