1932 D and 1932 S Washington Quarters condition comment

I have looked at D and S 32 quarters and I have seen many that have strong hairline surface marks.
Many have been cleaned. I was just wondering if these key dates were often "shined up" in collectors collections back in the 1930's 40's 50's and 60's before cleaning coins was more generally known to collectors as something not to do.

It isn't just these two dates, many other key dates are cleaned as well in other series.

I can understand the thinking behind collectors, after they searched so long to fill that missing spot, or put out some money out at a coin shop or flea market back then, thinking nothing of giving the coins a good rub down and scrubbing so it would look nice in their sets.
Back then, with kids and novice collectors it was a matter of having one of each more than concern for condition.
But the surfaces of 32 D and 32 S are what made me think of this topic.
I wonder if some of the dies that made these coins weren't scratched before the coins were struck as I see a lot of similar hairlines on these coins that might be from the dies rather than from improper cleaning.

 

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Unfortunately, it was a common practice to clean coins back in the day. It was also acceptable to glue coins to a board and put a layer of varnish over the coins to "protect" them. Sadly, cleaning coins has and will always be a problem.

 

Die polish lines will be raised, whereas cleaning lines will be into the metal of the coin. Might be hard to tell the difference on some lines, but magnification will help.

Jim

 

I think a bigger problem is the desire to "improve" the coin to make more money. Older cleanings will begin to fade as the coin tones...but the remnants are still there. They can resurface thanks to dipping. But, The temptation is great for a lot of sellers (especially online sellers) to take a VF coin, shine it up a bit and sell it online as an AU and hope they get away with it. It's sad, but it does happen a lot. It's said because someone is getting ripped off and (to a lesser extent) a nice coin is ruined.

 

While I agree that there are many problem coins 32-D & 32-S Washingtons, I would be much more worried about authenticity than a past cleaning. A cleaned coin might lose some value, but an altered coin will be worthless.

 

That is an extremely good point...and these '32 Washington keys tend to be one of the more common coins "created." You must be very careful when purchasing them because there are a lot of fakes.

I personally am pretty harsh about avoiding cleaned or otherwise altered coins because I purchased quite a few of them in my youth and now I feel as if I need to replace them. These days, I'm not allowing myself to purchase any coin that I don't really like and want to own.

 

Thank you all for the replies and this point helps a lot.

This completely evaded my thinking, and I should know better but I am glad you mentioned it.
It would be most important to examine this in person rather than via internet images.
To narrow things down a bit, does anyone know if 1932 D and 1932 S quarters were notorious for die polish lines?
I have 2 1932 S quarters and 1 1932 D here that all were probably improperly cleaned but that may have nothing to do with die polish lines, although one without might have more appeal than one with.

A closer look will help me determine the differences on mine.
Also, I will try to post images and report what I have concluded on these three quarters in the near future.

 

Die polish lines are not very pronounced and will disappear as soon as the wear affects the fields of the coin. Once you reach the XF grades, die polish lines are no longer a concern. Unless your key date Washingtons are high grade (AU+), I think you can safely eliminate them as a source of the lines.

 

One of the problems arose when we used those blue Whitman folders to store them in. My 32S was in one and it got some ugly toning as a result. There was also an adhesive of something on the inside that wasn't good on the coins. We didn;t know better, and those folders were the most readily available at the time. And to make matters worse, some were scotch taped into the folder. Now that acidic paper and the scotch tape left awful discoloration on the coins.

So I believe today we are seeing coins that an attempt was made to restore them. I have "cooked" a few Washingtons that removed a lot of tarnish and made them look a lot better. But some cleaning is just wrong to do. Dipping uses acid to eat at the surface of the coins, then we have the people who scrub just a bit to help it out.

Just sayin'

Gary