1892 Barber Dime Toned. Condition and grade?

She's really a nice looking coin with beautiful blue toning on it.

 

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I'd say xf40 with a harsh cleaning.

 

What makes you think it's been cleaned? It's listed as AU with a $79 price tag. I didn't see any swirl marks on the coin?

 

Hair lines. I think ?

 

I'm with Greg, XF-40 Harsh cleaning. The cheek has that super shiny sheen, to much wear and the colors are indicative of a re-tone. An (old) cleaned XF is at least more market acceptable than a cleaned VG, so if the price is fair I wouldn't run away from it.

Here's one of mine that suffered a more recent cleaning

 

xf40/xf45 cleaned

 

For the reasons Travel mentioned. The overall appearance and glossy look just screams cleaning.
Remember, a cleaning doesn't have to show hairlines or even swirl marks. I believe this coin has been over-dipped. If you think about it, a coin with that amount of wear would not be "shiny".

Here are some examples of various degrees of circulated Barber dimes. Notice the overall look and lack of shine or luster. Which is what you would expect from a coin that has been in circulation.






I also wanted to add that depending on lighting and how the coin is imaged, hairlines can be completely hidden.
Here is an example of the same cleaned coin taken with two different lighting positions.
It's a big difference a few small lighting adjustments can make.

 

Thanks for a great explanation and illustration, gbroke. No pun intended, it was quite illuminating!
-L

 

lol.
Glad I could shed some light on the subject!

 

Has this one been cleaned as well?

 

I would go with a yes.

 

the one above looks to be slightly cleaned at all and it seems to be in AU condition, so its a nice 1914 barber.

 

Just bought it on eBay for $24.50. Was hoping just bad pictures.

 

I think you did just fine. I am not a purist, so to me it was a fair price. The details are very nice, doesn't appear to be harshly cleaned. You paid F15 prices for it. Uncleaned would have been 3x's the amount.
Got to remember, cleaning was not only common, but an acceptable thing to do for many years.

 

The dime has been previously dipped and/or cleaned and the toning you see on it is secondary toning from likely storage in an album.

 

Yea, I was happy with it for $25. Looks better then the other barbers I own.

 

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I respectfully disagree on AU. It looks to be upper VF IMO, but is surely no more than low EF on details. [/FONT]

 

I agree now, it seems I thought wrongly about its ground, and I am dearly thankful for your correction.

 

VF-XF cleaned