A few days ago i posted a topic about a peace dollar, and found out a lot about cleaning. So I have one more question about dipped dull coins......how dull? Would you consider this cleaned? I'm not too sure about how to tell. Please someone post pictures of a cleaned coin, and an uncleaned coin. Thanks
Hard call from the pic. But i have seen silver coins be over dipped to the point they look like that. But i havent seem many over dipped coins as i think i have only owned one or two.
There's much more to it than that Ryan. Every single coin is different, you can take 100 cleaned coins and they will all look different. Learning to recognize a cleaned coin is a lot like grading, you can read all the books, you can look at all the pictures - but sooner or later you have to look at actual coins in your hand. It requires experience, plain and simple. If you want to see pics of cleaned coins there are plenty of them here - just do a search for that one word - cleaned. You'll see them.
i have an idea. buy some culls and clean them. since they're only worth their melt value you wont be hurting them BUT cleaning them will allow you to see what cleaned coins look like and how they will vary from coin to coin. at least then you'll have some experience with cleaned coins and might help you learn what to look for in the future.
So do what I told you - use the search function using the key word "cleaned". Then read the posts and look at the pictures. Yeah, it will take time and it requires some work. But that's what it takes to acquire knowledge.
So I did, and all I saw was the shiny ones with those hairline scratches. I see a lot of thepeace dollars that are dull, like the picture i posted, what about those kind of dull? Like that?
Ryan - I'm not trying to give you a hard time, but there are 20 pages of threads - that's threads not posts - on the subject. It would take 2 or 3 days to read them all. But if you do your questions will be answered. I'm not trying to avoid your question, but it would take a book to answer it. And if you read all those threads you will have read the equivalent of a book and have the answers, or at least most of them.
An even cheaper way is to just use pocket change. It isn't silver but the effect is similar. Dip them, scrub them, use a pencil eraser, toothbrush, thumb, soap, household cleaners, olive oil, etc. Then compare them to new coins of the same type.
i thought silver would be a better choice but regular change would work but the results may vary somewhat. i guess it'd be good enough to give you a good idea on what to look for. dont forget toothpaste, brasso, metal polish and other abrasives.
I have seen both. I have seen coins where when they cleaned them the hairlines went from rim to rim. I have also seen them where they hairlines are multiple tiny lines all across the surface.
I believe technically they are the same, but to me a scratch is deep and obvious. Hairlines are very thin lines across the surface of the coin and may not be noticeable with the naked eye. Actually to me I think pictures make the hairlines more obvious - not always, but I think true pictures will show them. When looking at a coin through a glass you may have to look at various angles to make them out.
