What would you grade this bust half?

Mark Feld · Nov 28, 2011

GDJMSP said: ↑

The are many ways that a coin be harshly cleaned. When a coin has been over-dipped and sent in to a TPG it is not labeled as having been over-dipped. It is often labeled as having been harshly or improperly cleaned. Over-dipping a coin is merely one of the forms of harsh cleaning.

PCGS uses one or the other of two designations for it -

92|N-2 Cleaned – surface damage due to a harsh, abrasive cleaning

94|N-4 Altered Surface - Whizzed, harsh cleaning, thumbed over
(using a pasty substance to cover defects or alter the appearance).

NGC typically just says - Improperly Cleaned for all forms of harsh cleaning, including over-dipping.

I am of the same opinion. Over-dipping is merely one of the many forms of harshly/improperly cleaning a coin.

With this coin, what I have already said indicates to me the the coin has been over-dipped - thus harshly cleaned. The heavy black in the protected areas like the eye, around the date, in the holes above the date, in the eagle's eye, the wing feathers, the U in UNUM, around the E in STATES, the overall speckled appearance of the surfaces - all of these things indicate the coin was once completely covered with heavy black toning.

Now the heavy black toning all by itself would destroy all or nearly all of any luster the coin may have had. And based on the amount of remaining detail on the coin it should have some luster, even in the fields. Especially inside the letters and recesses, and some protected areas. But there is none, in either set of pictures, with the exception of maybe a tiny bit around a couple of stars. So either the heavy toning, or else the dipping of the coin removed that luster, because wear sure didn't. There isn't enough wear to have removed all that luster.

But if you look at the fields you can see small, shallow depressions here and there - depressions caused by minor corrosion. Exactly what heavy black toning is expected to do to a coin. But almost all of those are clean, they show as being grey with no trace of black. And typically the only way those depressions get cleaned out like that is when the coin is over-dipped.

Then you have the area at 9 o'clock, between the wing and UNITED. As I said, when you look at the pictures full size this area to me looks to have been scraped with something in effort to remove something. If you look close you can even see some tiny scratches inside that area.

Combine all of that and you have, in my opinion, a coin that has been harshly cleaned.
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Thanks for that detailed and informative reply, Doug. Is it fair to say that you equate "over dipping" with "harshly cleaned"?

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GDJMSP · Nov 28, 2011

Mark Feld said: ↑

Thanks for that detailed and informative reply, Doug. Is it fair to say that you equate "over dipping" with "harshly cleaned"?
Click to expand...

Thought I was pretty clear on that. Yes, over-dipping is one of the many forms of harsh cleaning.

It is what the TPGs call it, it is even what the ANA calls it. So do I.

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What would you grade this bust half?

Mark Feld Rare coin dealer

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What would you grade this bust half?

Mark Feld Rare coin dealer

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