Word to the wise about your coin collection.

Today has been too much. So many of our customers send in whizzed, polished, etc. raw coins that it makes me puke! I'm talking all grades and values but mostly in the AU/Unc range that they paid dearly for.

Examples: A Coronet Large cent that looked MS-64 or 65 red until I took it out of the flip. AU-58 Whizzed! I would rather have this coin in my collection/teaching set than a straight graded AU or MS brown example. However, one day this collector is going to sell his coins. No telling how long he has owned it but if he purchased it as MS Red long ago he will have lost a pile of money. If you only collect raw coins, you had better have someone knowledgeable look at them! I don't mean the small town coin club "expert" either. This coin would fool many dealers. The only hint that it is "micro whizzed" is the coin looks too good to be true!

1911-S MS RB. I know the dealer who cleaned it w/acetone before sending it in BUT I know he did not realize the coin was micro whizzed decades ago an now looks perfectly OK as a MS-62 or 63 except for the blotched job he did cleaning it. No hairlines but now looks artificial color. I guarantee this coin would pass as a "detailed" Unc if not examined closely. It's going out as Unc details, whizzed. If it is ever cracked out...

Do yourself a favor. Have some of your best raw "gems" checked. You might be shocked at what you learn.

 

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I know that I have learned for the most part to not buy raw coins on the internet. I've wasted money sending some in to be graded and, to be honest, should have known better. I'm sure many of us have learned lesson the hard way. However, some refuse to believe the TPG's opinion. For the coins I've sent to PCGS, one look at the True View images convinced me that my assumptions were wrong and the coins were cleaned.

 

Is a 10X loupe sufficient enough to detect 'Micro Whizzing'?

 

The only whiz I'm confident I can identify is the kind that follows a few beers

 

Or is it that the luster just doesn't look right?

 

This is the best commercial for buying certified coins that I have recently read. Buying raw coins always has, and will always have its inherent risks.

 

That's what scares me about ANY cleaning PERIOD! It's fine today to do this and that but ten years down the road it's strictly TABOO! Years ago coating a coin with shellack or Varnish was an acceptable thing to do. Now even a Kid 6 years old knows better. I think I'll hold off on ANY cleaning unless I find it encrusted with dirt or something that needs to come off like tar or varnish, otherwise my coins will remain original as I got them. Once Cleaned with anything it can't be undone.

 

Probably not. My 7x does not detect it much of the time.

Yes and no. Depends on the quality of the alteration. In the 1950's and 1960's I heard that whizzing was a major problem in the market. It was still around in the early 1970's when I first learned about it as a clerk at the ANA's Authentication Service in DC. At this time, the ANA's definition of whizzing INCLUDED CHEMICAL CLEANING ! Surface alterations occur in degrees and after examining coins under a microscope that were actually whizzed as we know it today, we decided that what separated whizzing from any other sort of alteration done with a wheel was the presence of a tiny, upturned ridge at one side of the relief. As the point of the spear, we were able to determine/modify/change much of the crap that went before we started to closely examine coins with a stereo Microscope and florescent light (as used by Mint technicians at the Treasury Dept). Whizzing ceased to be a problem; however, in the 1980's copper Lincoln and Indian cents appeared with an altered surface we named "micro whizzing." These coins looked great and were deceptive enough to flood the marked and get into the slabs of both major TPGS's! Don't worry, after a while the graders got informed and "micro whizzing" rarely gets past any TPGS. Unfortunately, there is no way for me to post a useful image but just as an informed collector can detect a whizzed coin from a foot away, micro whizzed coins do not look original when you learn what they look like.

I agree unless a person is an experienced, knowledgeable, dealer or collector. I don't buy slabs UNLESS I want the coin in a teaching set. Unfortunately, over the decades, "gradeflation" created a problem. Many of the Proof coins I bought in the 1980's for my Grading Set that reside in PCGS/NGC PR-64 and PR-65 slabs are now grade as high as PR-67!

 

Coins (that are good candidates for conservation) are PROPERLY CLEANED EVERY SECOND of the day and you or anyone else would not be able to tell.

 

Yes but the point being made was - What is considered proper conservation/cleaning today may not be considered as proper sometime in the future.

 

That's because the point being made shows the poster possibly did not understand the meaning of "proper" cleaning and confused it with a "surface alteration." Nevertheless, what he posted is true - customs change.

If you cannot detect that a coin is properly cleaned today using your eyes or 10X magnification, because there is absolutely no evidence, the same will be true in the future. That is not the same as tooling its design, coating it with lacquer, or cleaning it with baking soda - all once acceptable. IMHO, over 70% of "original," problem-free, straight graded VINTAGE coins in the market today have been cleaned at some time.

 

What about the cheese kind?

 

I haven't had that in years....lol

 

Obviously many don't see or WANT to see what the future MAY bring. As I said once cleaned always cleaned. as in Whizzed, some may accept it as "better", I personally don't.

 

One of the "tells" of cleaning of early copper business strikes are "all the pretty colors"...

This one caries a slab stating "VF DETAILS DAMAGED...

 

I’ve had little issues buying raw coins on the internet. I’ve bought several hundred, had a few come back cleaned and a QC here and there. I was mostly cherry picking and picked just about everybody, big, small and the author.

 

Southernman189, posted: "As I said once cleaned always cleaned."


You can lead a...

Did you read this Numismatic Conservation Service?

 

I guess I don't have a problem with "proper" conservation (cleaning) as long as it doesn't alter the metal surface of the coin. As many have mentioned before, it wasn't taboo to clean coins years ago. Over time most of these "cleaned" coins have toned, masking the fact that at one time they were cleaned. Fortunately, humans aren't like coins. Although some have altered surfaces.

 

I'm sure some know, but the slabbed 1796 S-85 I posted above as cleaned is also a struck counterfeit; maybe something else to consider about your coin collection...

 

I'm not an expert of anything except what my fingernails look like at 40X ; BUT I'll venture a guess that just about anything that is done to a metal surface
can be considered an alteration. What do you think