Dipping and or Cleaning, or just carefully wiping a bit with water and soap?

YQQ · May 8, 2016 12:41AM

Ok, which is acceptable and perhaps recognised as being OK?
is whatever the Pro's do acceptable ? Do the pros have to declare, or is it fraud if they do not?
what are the consequences? Is a seller obliged to disclose that the surfaces have been manipulated? a million questions.
I believe that there are a ton of different opinions out there.

LindeDad · May 8, 2016 1:47AM

Dipping done by those knowledgeable in it is accepted by many but not all, all the others you mentioned are frowned upon in the collector arena.

And those frowns close many wallets.

JRocco · May 8, 2016 2:32AM

Dipping can and should be done only in a very few circumstances and only done properly.

As for wiping....never..

As for soap and water... well I bet young kids have been washing coins since well...kids have been kids. Even colonial kids I bet.

I bet there are quite a few coins that kids washed to get the dirt off a couple hundred years ago that are now in slabs. The coins survived. Now the drying part is where coins got in trouble. If those silly kids back in colonial times washed a coin they found in their yards and then dried it by rubbing it really hard with their mothers washrags.....

ricko · May 8, 2016 9:38PM

Dipping can be acceptable (except by some purists) if done properly. Dipping can also ruin a coin if done improperly. Dipping in acetone will not affect the metal and it will remove organics.

Cheers, RickO

Nap · May 8, 2016 9:45PM

If you're talking about coins that have been in the ground for 2000 years, I think most collectors are ok with cleaning with soap, water, and even harsher methods.

If you're talking about 19th and 20th century proof coins, acetone is probably the only thing that is safe.

Most collectors view dipping as a way of artificially enhancing a coin.

Insider2 · May 9, 2016 12:21AM

Ditto Ricko!

When a coin is CLEANED PROPERLY by ANYONE who knows how to do it (conservation), NO ONE can be sure the coin is not in its original state. And I'll have no more comments on this as members write that dipping a coin a few times ruins it or that a 200 year old coin cannot exist in brilliant Unc!

steveben · May 9, 2016 3:00AM

this coin was probably washed with a little soap and water...*not* by me though! regardless, ample skin and luster remains.

cleaning is acceptable as long as the coin or it's surface and natural patina are not harmed by the cleaning in any way. this example retains the gritty surfaces, as struck.

TwoSides2aCoin · May 9, 2016 3:08AM

Most prefer original dirt but it's hard to dig up. I remember a sign while traveling the highways. One particular billboard read : "Wanted: Clean Dirt".

.... as an example : One could have "dipped" it , before listing, then put it back in the holder and resold it for much more, and few would be the wiser But ugly haze is ugly haze, indeed.

TomB · May 9, 2016 4:19AM

People do all of these things, and more, with and without acknowledgement of the process. People also have differing "lines in the sand" as to what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. However, keep in mind that most of what might be done to a coin's surface can essentially be thought of as irreversible.

s4ny · May 10, 2016 12:18AM

If I found a rare coin in the yard I would rinse it off with water to remove the dirt.

I would never dip a coin.

Dipping and or Cleaning, or just carefully wiping a bit with water and soap?

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