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Cleaned Coins and PCGS
madmike
Posts: 66
So Lord Marcoven's post about Blue Moon and the Cleaned Coin... (god, does that sound like the title of a children's book!)
... has brought up some questions in my mind. As an individual who buys the vast majority of my coins online, I look for PCGS coins in order to avoid things like counterfeits and coins that have been "not so obviously" cleaned. Have you experienced any issues with cleaned coins in PCGS holders?
I promise not to start a poll!
madmike
... has brought up some questions in my mind. As an individual who buys the vast majority of my coins online, I look for PCGS coins in order to avoid things like counterfeits and coins that have been "not so obviously" cleaned. Have you experienced any issues with cleaned coins in PCGS holders?
I promise not to start a poll!
madmike
0
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A lot of early coins, especially the Flowing Hair designs, allow for a light cleaning, because it was standard practice for a time for coins to be cleaned lightly. PCGS explains which coins can and can't be cleaned in their grading guide. Also, PCGS really frowns on HARSH cleaning. Technically, dipping a coin is a form of cleaning, but is an accepted practice.
Keith
Could Lord Marcoven could have purchased a cleaned coin in a PCGS holder that PCGS either didn't catch or didn't mind, and then that Lord himself didn't detect only to have someone at Blue Moon recoginze it as cleaned without removing it from the holder.
madmike
I doubt if the Lord bought a Cleaned Coin. Possible Maybe. You have to know the Company that you are Referring to and then you could Appreciate what they will do to Part you from your Coins.
Enough Said.
The 1901 $10 Liberty in my Registry set was a rather grubby looking coin in an ANACS MS63 holder. Before crossing it to PCGS, I cracked it out and removed the dirty areas with a Q-tip dipped in diluted Jeweluster. This improved the coin's appearance drastically. It crossed into a PCGS holder just fine, too. Unfortunately they only gave it an MS61- I was hoping for MS62 at the least, and I think PCGS lowballed it. Whether this had anything to do with my light cleaning of the coin or not, I don't know, (I rather doubt it) but I would rather have a pretty PCGS MS61 in this case than a dirty ANACS MS63. It's nice to know that PCGS is realistic about carefully-cleaned coins. I certainly understand the bodybagging of harshly-cleaned ones, but in many cases a careful light cleaning does a world of good and little or no harm.
I'm not sure I would be brave enough to "curate" the 1907 MS64 Barber half myself. Not only is it a more valuable coin, but it is silver rather than gold, and cleaning it would be more challenging. I plan to either use it as a stepping-stone in a trade toward an even nicer Barber half, or just live with the black on the obverse. (The reverse on it is perfect).
(PS- the areas that I cleaned on that $10 Lib. are faintly visible as lighter areas around the portrait and the eagle. I was careful not to remove any more original toning than I had to in order to get the dirty black spots off.)
Next time give Acetone a try for getting the dirt off gold coins. You can let soak
for minutes to days per the required time to remove the grime. Just rinse well
with warm water and pat dry using lint free towel.
I had a 1921 Peace Dollar that had a similar appearance to your Barber. It was graded PCGS 64, but I was able to pick it up for 62.5 cost because of the lack of eye appeal. I used MS70 on the darkly toned areas, going at it very conservatively. After about 3 very light sessions, the coin started to look 100% better. I then gave the whole coin a quick dip in JewelLuster and boy did it make a difference. The coin was not totally white, but the eye appeal was much much better. I sent it back in and it came back as a 64 again, but a 64 that will sell for 64 prices. If you take it slow and easy alot of times you can curate them back to a much nicer state. Taking it slow is the key.
Greg