Cleaned coin ?

JJ69 · December 25, 2003 8:53AM

Am trying to train my eye on numerous aspects of numismatics,and my unexpert opinion tells me that
this coin was cleaned.
The tone looks unnatural and maufactured.
Agree / Dis agree ?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2211771403

JohnZ · December 25, 2003 8:57AM

Link-O-Matic

The photo certainly makes it appear to be cleaned. The color is a little bit unnatural.

Veep · December 25, 2003 9:51AM

Looks unnatural to me too. It could be due to a number of reasons includig having been tampered with or just plain poor photography. This is not a rare coin. There are sure to be more that come along that do look natural and take away that risk.

1040taxman · December 25, 2003 9:57AM

JJ69: The fact that it's not certified by a reputable grading could be reason enough to stay away from it.I'm not comfortable with the color.

JJ69 · December 25, 2003 10:43AM

Thanks for the replies.
It does look un natural,plus there appears to be a fair amount of little scratches on the reverse.
In fact,I tried dipping an unsalvagable common date wheat a couple weeks ago in:
pickle juice
acetone,then
jewel luster -
And the resulting color looks to be about the same as that one,minus the scratches.
I'm not only trying to train my eyes,but also have a roll of these not so rare but more collectable
than average coins,so I'm trying to gauge the market for them,which seems to be from $2 to
$6 or so for a F/VF ungraded brown,if ebay can be any guide.
I will most likely sell 40 of them and keep 10 or so.

ksteelheader · December 25, 2003 10:47AM

Its NOT cleaned. The planchlets in those days were not the best!!!,....Ken

nwcs · December 25, 2003 10:51AM

I think so and I think you could get a better deal.

Jamericon · December 25, 2003 11:10AM

I do not think that it is cleaned. I have seen a few coins of that year which have that color- it was common for those planchets during that time. In fact, the coin looks RD. Any abberations could be a poor picture.

nankraut · December 25, 2003 3:19PM

IMHO, there's no way a 94 yr old copper coin could have a color like this unless it has been "messed with"

Mrpawn · December 25, 2003 4:01PM

My first impression is that the photographer did a bit too much "correcting" of the photo.

Next is the gouge and other scratches

merz2 · December 26, 2003 12:00AM

I'd be willing to bet the pic was messed with rather than the coin itself.I think if you had it in hand,it would look a whole lot different.The Luster is there.That isn't a bad price either.

JJ69 · December 26, 2003 3:05AM

<< <i>I'd be willing to bet the pic was messed with rather than the coin itself.I think if you had it in hand,it would look a whole lot different.The Luster is there.That isn't a bad price either. >>

I asked the seller himself,and he simply stated that the 'coin is uncirculated'.
I'm almost willing to give him the benifit of doubt - Especially since I'm not looking to purchase it,but I'll
have to stick to my original conclusion that that coin is the victim of a botched cleaning job.
If he did digitally recolorize it,I'd say he did a pretty poor job.
I would suspect that when most people alter a pic to make a coin look better for an auction,they increase
the saturation to make faded colors/luster look fuller - Not completely change its color.
It looks neither red nor brown or anywhere in between,more like a wholly un natural orangish gold.

But I agree that with the coin in hand,one could possibly come to a different conclusion.

nwcs · December 26, 2003 4:24AM

Still, you can get a lot better coin for the money. Even a PCGS 65RD, which will cost a bit more, will be much nicer and protected from most potential problems. If you go raw, you should be able to cherry pick a 64 or 65 for around $10 at a show.

Russ · December 26, 2003 4:31AM

<< <i>The fact that it's not certified by a reputable grading could be reason enough to stay away from it. >>

In many cases, that would be true. Not so with this one, though. It's a cheap coin in or out of a slab so, unless it's an ubergrade, there's no real incentive to submit it.

Russ, NCNE

JRocco · December 26, 2003 6:21AM

I agree with Russ. I would not slab that coin.

Cleaned coin ?

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