I picked this up a long time ago raw and can't even remember why I sent it into NGC. I picked it up because the detail on the coin is really good for 1925 S peace. It's so hard to find detail on the eagle and on the hair for that year from that mint. My question though how do you think the coin was cleaned to make it look the way that it does. The fields almost look mirror like. Is it polished? Do you think its retoned or is it a byproduct of the cleaning process that the person used? I really am just wanting to understand the affects of cleaning more. Usually they look washed out or you can really see the tone around the detail in the corners and crevices. Or you see a ton of hairlines which I really don't see on this one. I need to put it under a scope.
I'd check with a loupe - 5x and then 20-30x. If you don't see prominent hairlines, my guess would be that it has been dipped excessively, permanently altering the surface. It then may have retoned somewhat. I'm curious what others might add. I'm still learning here.
From your photos I do not see any lines so I’m leaning on dipping incorrectly. If this coin was over dipped it would be a shame.
When I look at it under a loop I haven't been able to pick up hairlines. Will an overdip make the surfaces look mirrorish? I need to pull the coin out again and look at it some more.
Not if done correctly. Over dipping and an incomplete rinse will both cause the coin to dull but a proper dip and a through rinse wii cause the coin to retain its mint luster.
I'm thinking dipping as well, simply because I don't know what else it could be. But it's really hard to tell from the image. For what it's worth, it looks a lot better than the harshly cleaned one in the image I attached. I've gotten back coins from the third-party graders that I've strongly disagreed with on grade. But I've never gotten one back where they claimed it was cleaned when I thought it wasn't cleaned. One would hope they wouldn't mess that up. But it is a human. And sometimes humans have bad days. For the money we spend on grading, we really deserve some explanations.
You can really see the scrub lines on that coin. Such a shame as a correct dip and rinse would have made a nice improvement.
I'm getting ready to test out a theory. I have a Morgan that was exceptionally toned. I did not artificially tone it but it came back, "questionable color" details UNC. Mind you, it's a low value 1884O Morgan, but it is beautiful and UNC.. So I just briefly dipped it, like 2 seconds in Ezest. It's still very nice and now with just a hint of toning. Looks even better. Did not kill any luster. I'll resubmit to ANACS where it first got it's first dis. The journey continues.... Why you might ask? Because I can.
Here is the original, sellers photos. She looks awesome now. I have not taken photos of my finished product. I'm not good at photos. Ask anyone here.
She looks much better and more natural now, just a glimmer of toning. I'll send it back to ANACS for regrading now and repost the new graded then. We might all be dead before results come back. Not wasting one of my PCGS annual subscriptions on this one.
