Identifying cleaned coins

I will agree with that. An experienced person will know what the limits are and knows just how far to go, or not go with a coin. But I have to wonder just how many coins they ruined to gain that knowledge.

 

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I've been EXTRAORDINARILY lucky. I happened upon my Eastman Kodak formula years before I even HEARD OF commercial dips. I have never even owned a single container of a commercial dip.

 

In my limited experience with both acetone and xylene and haven't had that, "OMG what a difference!" moment yet. I've been able to 'clean' come grimy, sticky coins without hurting them.
I buy a lot of circulated Walking Liberties so they are good candidate to experiment with. I've also tried some Mercury dimes that looked like they had some crude on them that might come off.

 

LOT'S! When I started the experts recommended baking soda!

You guys are lucky, coin conservation classes and Internet give you a big jump over us old farts.

 

Having some knowlage of how coins are cleaned help me.http://www.metaldetectingworld.com/cleaning_preservation_coin.shtml

 

You are so right. I've read a lot of good stuff about coin conservation on the Internet.

About 30 years ago (or was it 40?) I got a finger print on a proof coin. Back then it was considered OK to use pure grain alcohol to remove a fresh finger print. You couldn't use rubbing alcohol (denatured wood alcohol) because is had all sorts of extra crap in it that would leave deposits on the coin. So I dipped the coin in the alcohol - the finger print was removed and to this day the coin still looks great. (It was a silver proof IKE dollar).

 

But you could get pure "grain"? How? Them revenuers are out there!

 

I've seen that page/site before. It is pretty good. But they are speaking - for the most part - about coins that have been in the ground for a 100 years or even 1,000 years. The rules about cleaning a coin are very different when it comes to a coin you dig up out of the ground.

I wonder what the coin collecting world’s attitude will be about cleaning a coin 100 years from now.

Keep in mind that 100 plus years ago it was considered acceptable to put clear lacquer on a penny to keep it shiny.

 

Actually I bought a bottle of Everclear at the base liquor locker (I was in the military). It is also great when mixed with Orange Crush! At least I thought so 40 years ago.

 

I hope are are getting some good info from this thread, even though it has digressed to a mixology thread.

 

Who do these rules apply too?

 

The rules apply to everyone and every coin. Except when you don’t want them to.
Then you take your chances.
But the general rule of numismatics is never clean a coin.
Follow that rule and you can’t go wrong.

 

With experience you will develop the eye to spot most cleaned coins. But my biggest fear is not cleaned coins, it's all the fake coins being passed off.

 

That's a whole different beast to tackle. Right now I'm not buying anything worth faking. I'm still in the under $100 coins.

 

The are a lot of fake coins out there going for under $100.
Lots of fake Morgan’s and Peace dollars on Ebay. Plus lots of fake silver bullion coins out there as well and that includes Silver Eagles. If someone can make a fake coin for a buck or less, and sell it for $20 you can bet they are going to do it.
I recently saw two fake Morgan’s. They were about VF in condition. They looked and weighed right. The only thing that gave them away was that you could pick them up with a magnet.
So don’t think just because you are not going for a high priced coin you are safe.
Which reminds me, I’m going to a coin show this weekend. I need to pack my magnet.

 

I was under the impression that it wasn't worth faking lower end coins. I guess. I should do some research in that area first. There is a lcs here next weekend I'll probably go and just look around and try to spot fakes and cleaned coins.

 

Basically one needs to know how an uncleaned coin looks like in all circumstances and then you have to be able to spot the sometimes minute clues the cleaned coin shows and be able to recognize/say that that is 'not right' for an uncleaned one. Just looking at examples of cleaned coins and noting the characteristics of the ones you see is not enough. You have to have much more experience with uncleaned ones to know how they look uncleaned.

One needs to have a good grasp of how coins look like when they are minted, know the minting process, and then ask themselves if the 'error' they think they are seeing could happen at the mint. Basically if everyone knew that and applied it, we would never see roadkilled cents being identified as 'error' coins and the poster wanting to know what type of error and it's value.

 

For my part I bought Peace Dollars (low end) knowing in advance I'd get some cleaned ones in the lot. I sent them in to be graded and I received some cleaned coins and some original coins back from the grading service (1).

After having a couple of dozen examples at my disposal I began examining them to learn the differences in the surfaces - you can cover the labels and test yourself. This along with speaking with helpful dealers has allowed me to cover some good ground.

I'm very new at this but I'm getting burned with cleaned coins quite a bit less. I might be rejecting coins that aren't cleaned but I don't need to spend the money anyways - no loss.

View grading fees, bad purchases, and such as just the cost of admission and as a learning opportunity.



NOTES
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1: ANACS - because they charge about $10 per coin if you get them during a seasonal special.

 

And sometimes even the guy you are buying from may to unaware he is selling a fake.
Recently a jeweler in Canada walked into a Bank of Canada and bought a 1 oz gold bar minted by the Royal Canadian Mint. The bar was still in its package from the mint. He walks back across the street to his jewelry store, takes the bar out of the package and puts it in his roller to flatten it out. Immediately we realized something was very wrong. It turned out it was a tungsten bar with a heavy gold plate on it. Well you can just imagine what happened when he walked back across the street to the bank to inform them they had just sold him a fake. So now there is a big investigation going on. But you have to wonder just how many of those fake bars were sold to dealers for resale.
There was a guy on ebay selling one ounce bars from the Perth Mint. He offered a full guarantee and refund on the bars, unless you removed it from the package. Well just how can you tell if the bar is real or not unless you remove it from the package!!

The whole thing just makes one want to quit collecting coins and start collecting stamps!!!

So the way I cope is I don't buy any high grade, high value coins unless they have been graded and slabbed by one of the big 4 grading companies. I prefer to buy PCGS, but I send my coins into ANACS because it is a much better value.

 

If you're committed to "Buy Low, ..." why not?

I buy sheets at below face and use them to make "travel covers", such as including a "statehood" stamp from each state the train travels through. It's a cool memento! And with today's color inkjet and xerographic printers, custom-made cachets are a breeze. The toughest part is getting legible cancellations.