Hey everyone, I’m new to the numismatic world. I’ve already learned so much from reading all your post, great stuff! It’s pretty well established that one of the biggest “sins” to coin collecting is to never clean your coins. Can someone tell me why that’s such a big deal? Before I started collecting and still looked at quarters, dimes and nickles as just 25, 10 and 5 cents, would take my big pickle jar down off my shelf pour all my coins in a colander, use hot soapy water and go to town. Out comes my coins but free on pocket lint, dirt, old goofy stuff that attaches itself to my coins in the bottom of the cup holder in my truck. Is that the kind of “cleaning” that is so bad? Or do they mean to say avoid more of a chemical type cleaning? Thank you, and have a blessed weekend!
Well to start with Brent you have to understand that there are two terms - cleaned and harshly cleaned - they mean very different things. But if it makes it easier to understand them, think of them like this - properly cleaned and harshly cleaned. One is good, the other bad. Now there are very few methods by which a coin can be properly cleaned, you can count them on 1 hand. But there are thousands of ways to harshly clean a coin. My suggestion would be to do some more reading now that you are aware of what I just said. And then perhaps you'll have a better understanding of the issue. And that is necessary before talking about it in depth. By the way, what you described above, that's harsh cleaning.
Also, collectors like the surface of a coin as original as possible, so in most cases cleaning a coin takes away its original surface or at least a good portion of it. I hope that this helps, and welcome to numismatics!
By cleaning all the coins together you are also allowing them to scratch and ding each other. That takes away from their undinged condition. Imagine cleaning cars by putting them all in a collander and swooshing them around. All the metal would get ding and scratched. Not much for someone that just glosses over what something looks like. But coin ppl are super strict on surface imperfections. Of course coins all sticky with dried soda pop would benefit from a "cleaning". It also sounds like you've grown from coins as commerce/money, to at least liking them shiny. Now you have to progress to understand how strict the surfaces have to be of *any* and I totally mean *any imperfection. Think of how cars win prestigious car shows ... or any other hobby you may be in of winning a top award.
I believe "properly cleaned" coins, at least as defined by the standards of professional grading services, will be straight-graded, and not receive any "Cleaned" designation at all. I think the preponderance of such properly cleaned coins are uncirculated / proof coins which have been sensibly dipped or circulated coins which have been very lightly cleaned with a mild paste. While, from a purist perspective, I do not necessarily agree with the practice of recognizing these coins as uncleaned, I understand the practicality of the decision to do so, and trade along those lines. My observation is that coins designated "Cleaned" generally exhibit naked-eye signs of cleaning from a limited number of angles of lighting and or / examination, but not all. These signs can sometimes be difficult for the unpracticed to pick out. As for coins designated as "Harshly Cleaned", in my experience, they generally exhibit naked-eye signs of cleaning from all angles of lighting and / or examination. Anyone who cannot identify harshly cleaned coins should get a pair of glasses, spend the time and money to take a grading course, or get out of coins altogether.
ToughCOINS, posted: I believe "properly cleaned" coins, at least as defined by the standards of professional grading services, will be straight-graded, and not receive any "Cleaned" designation at all. I think the preponderance of such properly cleaned coins are uncirculated / proof coins which have been sensibly dipped or circulated coins which have been cleaned with a mild paste. While, from a purist perspective, I do not necessarily agree with the practice of recognizing these coins as uncleaned, I understand the practicality of the decision to do so, and trade along those lines. There are very few folks who can use a mild paste of anything on a coin and not have it be detected. I will say this in your favor as you might be one of them...I have seen it done and could not detect anything that would make the coin it not "market acceptable."
Cleaning is such a sin in the coin community because it drastically lowers the value of the coin. Here is the same date coin in the same grade, but one is cleaned, the other is not. That's a $695 difference for cleaning... So yeah don't clean your coins unless they're of no real value and it is for learning. It's always good to know what a cleaned coin looks like versus an uncleaned coin. NOT cleaned Cleaned Cleaned coins usually have poor details but seem to shine "brightly". If you have a loupe, then you can also see faint lines all pointing in one direction. The coin below has very mushy detail in the hair and you can see obvious lines and scratches all pointing horizontally. Also, it looks very glossy and disgusting, which is the result of cleaning. So basically, just NEVER CLEAN COINS FOR ANYTHING OR WITH ANYTHING!!!
Heavymetal, posted: "As an attorney friend once told me ‘lawyers dwell on small details’. Ditto for coin collectors. And that's what separates the successful folks from all the others.
I too know of others who have successfully "pasted" coins but will state for clarification, I do not clean coins. An examination of my inventory, (somewhere between 200 & 300 different coins between the 3 below links) would speak volumes to that end.
toned_morgan, posted: "Cleaning is such a sin in the coin community because it drastically lowers the value of the coin... So basically, just NEVER CLEAN COINS FOR ANYTHING OR WITH ANYTHING!!!" Since many of us clean coins for a living, and the TPGS's offer this option, I'd modify your advice to add UNLESS YOU ARE EXPERIENCED AND KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. For the sake of honesty, I also need to add that even those folks have ruined a coin or hundreds.
I think I should point out for those that don't already know it, that when a TPG puts Cleaned on the slab label, that is just shorthand for Harshly Cleaned. PCGS spells it out for us - 92|N-2 Cleaned – surface damage due to a harsh, abrasive cleaning The TPGs do not care if a coin has been cleaned as long as it has been cleaned properly. And properly is defined as without doing harm to the coin, or altering its surfaces. And they spell that out too - 94|N-4 Altered Surface - Whizzed, harsh cleaning, thumbed over (using a pasty substance to cover defects or alter the appearance). And when they say "harsh, abrasive cleaning", they do not mean ONLY harsh, abrasive cleaning. They mean harsh OR abrasive. There are literally hundreds of ways to harshly clean a coin. Over-dipping a coin for example is also a form of harsh cleaning.
