question about wiping coins

yeah, i'd send it back.

and like doug said, don't clean coins, it gets rid of most if not all value in a coin.

 

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This sounds a bit like buyer's remorse although you were not the buyer. I'm going to wait to see the coins before making any judgement. The scratch the OP mentions could be a normal contact mark. It would be nice to see a photo.

 

These are beautiful coins otherwise, and as I said, I'm a beginner at collecting and was mostly buying them for the historical value. I'd just hate to know that I had damaged them further.

 

AH! i didn't read the comments. confused on what the OP said. i thought the coin was cleaned that be bought.

 

Well, to some it does, others see the metal content as value.

I don't wipe or clean my coins because to me it's like wiping the history of the coin away before it got to me.

 

Well, you'll never know the damage unless you took a magnified look at them before wiping them. If you think they're great coins still and happy with them despite the scratch and possibly tiny scratches you might have imposed onto them, then keep them. If you feel ripped off because they advertised them as uncirculated and they're not, return them and get uncirculated ones for the collection.

 

I think most would agree that the Morgan dollars are beautiful & historical. Did you know that they were not liked by many folk when the Morgan dollar was first introduced in 1878? The Morgan dollar was the result of the Bland Act and they were sometimes called Bland dollars. Several coin collectors were accustom to getting proof coins from the mint. I was told that when some first received their Morgans in the proof set, they pulled them out of their proof sets & spent them as a rebellious act. I've never found a proof Morgan in circulation but that would certainly be cool.

The S mint dollars from 1881 & 1882 are often found well struck with proof-like fields. Tens of thousands were stored in treasury vaults & then released almost 100 years later. It is interesting to visit www.NGCCOIN.COM and view the slabbed population reports for this date.

 

It would not. A scratch is not wear.

 

So a coin with a visible scratch can still be considered to be uncirculated, but then if less visible scratches (from wiping) occur the value goes down to AU?

 

No scratches take a coin from BU to AU. However, harsh cleaning, (which could be seen by tiny scratch lines), makes a coin ungradable. Its technically still BU, but a TPG will not grade it since it has been damaged. The only thing that can take a coin from BU to AU is circulation wear. So in many respects you would prefer a coin to go from BU to AU, rather than BU to damaged, since AU will probably be worth more than BU damaged.

 

Maybe for the hardcore investor/collector. To some, coin collecting means actually touching them. For myself, if it's slabbed, already graded and worth a high enough value, I'll respect the golden rule of only handling by the edges to not apply anymore possible damage, but for some coins and just for the sake of collecting them, I'll touch, especially if they're not already slabbed/graded, lower grade/value, etc.

 

Welcome to the neighborhood, Paul!

Since you are new to numismatics, you should be aware that it is very risky buying uncertified (raw) coins on the internet. There are just too many sellers who misrepresent problem coins to unsuspecting buyers, and for every "good luck story" you may hear about buying raw coins on the internet, there are dozens and dozens of "bad luck stories". As a rule, unless you know the seller personally or the seller has a "no questions asked" return policy, it is inadvisable to buy raw coins this way until you learn more about the hobby.

Chris

 

QFT

There really should be a 6 month probationary period before you are allowed to buy any coins. In that 6 months you would have to demonstrate that you have bought at least one reference book and read it, one grading book and practiced grading, and been to at least 2 coin shows and can pick out cleaned and damaged coins, and understand the affect on their value.

Not picking on you Paul, this should apply to everyone and would save new collectors tons of money and problems. I remember how exciting it was to find out these cool coins you can own, but like any collectible field knowledge=money, and to avoid losing money on purchases a couple books and knowledge like you can get here will save you thousands minimum.

Chris

 

I solved the urges to hold coins by just having some coins strictly for holding purposes. I like the feel of real silver and gold coinage. I like the sound it makes when you drop it on a hard surface. No clad coin can compare.

 

Don't panic.

Lens cloth is soft and unless you bore down on it it's unlikely to have left marks. Look with a magnifier for fine circular scratches. If you see some then you might have left them. Wiping coins is strictly forbidden. The closest you should ever come to wiping is patting with a soft towel to dry them and you shouldn't do this until you learn how.

Wear is a process of sloghing off metal until the luster is broken. Wear always starts on the high points and works down from there. If you hold the coin between the eye and a light and tilt it slowly until it's nearly on edge the high points will seem to just jump up. Look at these high points and be sure they are just as shiny as the rest of the coin. If not then the coin is AU.

Marks and scratches are normal on almost all coins and to not take a coin out of proof or uncirculated usually. The exception is large marks and gouges.

If the coins are unc and you didn't mark them then just don't do it again.

 

I total Agree.
I am new, I paid 95$ each for 2 "Scarce" Silver proof coins, two month later I found out that I could get them for 40$ or less each.

So now I just add stuff to my ebay watch list and see for how much coins I want sell for.

 

Speaking of this don't have you hate it when you buy coins online from a large bullions' trader and all the coins have been wiped. Sure it is clean but

 

I seriously doubt that you imparted any "real" damage to these commonly available Morgan Dollars that you've already overpaid for. ( I just paid $55 for an MS63 Graded Morgan vs your $69 for a raw MS60-63 Morgan.)

The way folks refer to coins you'd think the things would dissolve on your pocket but the reality is that these are metal and are very difficult to scratch with cloth much less lens cloth. If anything at all, such an action would tend to push dirt or film around on the coin which would leave "evidence" of what was done but certainly not outright scratching.

Yes, silver is a soft metal but how often are folks forgetting that these were shipped loosely in canvas bags, which are much stiffer and certainly much more abrasive than cloth, from their production mints? Then they were tossed around countless times in bank vaults and each movement caused rubbing against the canvas bag? Were these coins now "AU" or or folks simply over-reacting to the thought that you took a lens cloth to the surface of your coins?