What is Your Opinion About this 1796 Small Eagle Dollar

I like it. A nice vf

Looks nice and around vf25 with no significant marks and dingless rims.

Lightly cleaned sometime in its past.

@PQueue said:
Lightly cleaned sometime in its past.

It was also worn in a necklace by the wife of the Mayor of Schenectady on 7/15/1883. It was a Sunday night grand ball everyone who was anyone attended.
We can sure tell a lot from a picture. I see no signs of cleaning other than a bright picture we were told is darker in hand. The main reason to call it cleaned is that most have been one time or another over 200+ years. I can’t tell from a picture and I don’t know if the Mayors wife wore it to a ball. 7/15/1883 was a Sunday.

I guess the relatively heavy crud around the devices and light centers indicates, at least to me, that it was likely lightly cleaned at some point. Still a very nice coin at that grade level and would be proud to own it.

If we can’t tell anything from photos and can’t reasonably conjecture our thoughts, why even have these threads? Or perhaps those who feel that way should avoid them….

@JimTyler said:

@PQueue said:
Lightly cleaned sometime in its past.

It was also worn in a necklace by the wife of the Mayor of Schenectady on 7/15/1883. It was a Sunday night grand ball everyone who was anyone attended.
We can sure tell a lot from a picture. I see no signs of cleaning other than a bright picture we were told is darker in hand. The main reason to call it cleaned is that most have been one time or another over 200+ years. I can’t tell from a picture and I don’t know if the Mayors wife wore it to a ball. 7/15/1883 was a Sunday.

We can be sure that if the wife wore such a necklace, that it would feel like a millstone to her causing her head to droop and fellow attendees would whisper in the ears of the other dilettantes "what a strange women"!

@WAYNEAS said:
It has pezizas.
Wayne

But they're properly draped and appropriate for all ages.

Well, I like small eagle coins even when they are bent, scratched, holed, and on fire.

This one is decent. A few hits, nothing nasty, nice enough dentils and rims, Detail is nice. There's some appropriate gunk around the devices. I agree that it's been gussied-up a bit. I'm guessing straight-grade but likely not a coin CAC would sticker. For the record, my expertise in this area is pretty limited.

@Eddi said:
Thank you very much, everybody, for your comments and opinions.

I am myself, very critical with my own collection. For this reason , and due to the fact it was bought raw when I had little experience with US coins , I have examined this coin repeatedly over the years to see if I could detect signs of inappropriate handling/cleaning on the surfaces, and have not found them. I am certainly not an expert, but I have also seen my share of harshly cleaned coins. They are not present here.
However, I do also believe that it was dipped at some point as the toning is a bit subdued for a coin of this age and degree of wear.

Cleaning sometimes isn’t so much what is wrong but more about what it doesn’t look like.

Is there some green above the date and in the 9? If that looks like pvc you might want to remove it.

When I blow up the image, the high points of her hair in back has a green tint. I would soak the coin in acetone for awhile.

How many members can say that they own a very attractive 18th century small eagle dollar?
Cleaned smeaned, she's a beauty!