I have seen several graders stipulate on the plastic case a BU rating with a note of cleaned below the grade. Ummm ! What is a brilliant uncirculated, AU50/AU58 or MS ? If you were to purchase this coin, does the BU value apply or does the cleaning note alter the price ? Dave
The question is; If it is already graded BU, is the cleaned statement included in the BU designation ? Dave
My interpretation of a BU grade with CLEANED on the label is even though the coin was cleaned, it still meets the criteria for a BU grade. I think if I saw a label like that, I would pass for something better.
This is a good example of part of the problem I had with the idea of the TPGs slabbing problem coins ever since it was first proposed, and why I was so against the idea. The problem being that there are just too many people that don't understand what it all means. First of all Dave, no coin in a Genuine or Details slab, in other words no problem coin, has any grade - no grade at all. Problem coins cannot be graded, because they have a problem. Secondly, the two things you see printed on the Genuine or Details slab, and they can vary somewhat, such as #1 - MS Details, Unc Details, AU Details, XF Details, VG Details, etc, etc. Or it might say Genuine AU, or Genuine Unc, Genuine XF, etc, etc. Or it may just say Genuine with no number or letter designation at all; and #2 - the problem designation such as Cleaned, Altered Surfaces, Questionable Color, etc, etc, etc - those two things have nothing to do with each other. They are completely separate things. What #1 means is this. The words Genuine or Details tell you that it is a problem coin, but if it were not a problem coin that it would be graded MS something, or AU something, or whatever, because that is the amount of detail left on the coin due to wear or the lack of wear when the Unc designation is used. But it is a problem coin, so the coin has no grade at all. That's what those two individual words are telling you. #2 is nothing more than a description of what the problem itself is. Cleaned means the coin has been harshly cleaned. Altered Surfaces means just that, the coin has altered surfaces. Or questionable color or tooled or scratched or whatever. It is just a descriptive word to tell you the problem is. And in all cases any problem designation at all reduces the value of the coin. The amount of the value reduction can vary greatly. The reduction may be as great as 80%, or it may be as little as 20%. But as a general rule of thumb the value reduction is going to fall somewhere between those two percentages.
