1766 Russian gold 2 roubles, PCGS thought it was cleaned

So I've had this coin for a while and just dug it out today. I had purchased it in a PCGS holder, it was marked as genuine but cleaned. I cracked it out as soon as I got it home, as I always do with slabs.
Now, I am wondering why exactly they felt it was cleaned. There are adjustment marks visible on the central design areas, as is typical for these coins. The same can be seen on another example that was auctioned a while back which PCGS gave a numerical grade: http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/18404/lot/1023/
Am I missing something here?

 

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no clue, but interesting coin

 

nice coin.

 

No offense meant, but impossible for us to give you an educated reply from those (out of focus) images.

I like the design though!

 

Yea I was taking pictures with an iphone through a plastic sleeve. I will try to take legitimate pictures sometime soon, because I'm really curious about this.

 

I absolutely adore Russian coins from this era, but most are way out of my price range. This looks quite lovely to me, and I especially like the St. George and Dragon design on the reverse.

 

WOW. Do you realize how scarce it is these days? Haven't seen one for a while other than in auction catalog.

 

Numismat, they're out there on Pluto, somewhere. They purport to be grading for the market, right? Do you mean to tell me the market is going to look at those swipes on that 259 year-old coin and pass on her because they imagine someone may have rubbed her the wrong way? Where do they think that coin has been? PCGS is the nut-jobs who invented the coin-sniffer, don't forget. Some experts they are. Like it even should make a difference to the market whether those swipes are "cleaning," or not. Throw everything else out, all this lovely old lady has going for her, all because it's plausible she may have been cleaned at some point in her illustrious history. That's missing the forest for the trees, if I ever saw it.

 

Yes, this is definitely one of the "crowning jewels" in my collection
Being a native Russian speaker, I think my father and some relatives from the "old country" appreciate it even more than I do.

 

This is exactly why I love to crack nice coins out of their plastic coffins

 

what grade do you think it is ? and a possible mintage. my Krause catalog gives no mintage.

 

No idea on mintage. As far as grade, I am thinking low end MS (61-62)

 

To be honest, if even that was cleaned, it is definitely a coin I would go after if I could afford it. Personally I couldn't care less if a coin is cleaned as long as it is not terribly cleaned or the price is right. Understandably some would just offer a much lower price just because of its cleaned status.

Here is a list of past auction. Might be useful to compare it against different grades. I'm certain yours is on the higher end.

http://www.m-dv.ru/catalog/id,3891/prohod.html

I realized that some of them share a similar circular polish. This must have been on the die.

 

Nice Coin!!! It has many strong points and I can see where it at one time was cleaned but overall the coin looks very good.

 

It's hanging that guilty label on it like they're some kind of coin-detectives trying to solve a crime when they don't know diddly-squat that's the issue. Just think of all the things in a 259 year-old history that could imitate some poor fool sitting there and cleaning it. I got good eyesight, I can see the swipes. They're evidence of something having brushed up against it. That's all they are. Bid it, accordingly.

 

Very interesting coin. Russian roubles of Catherine II the Great were made from silver. Mintages were very numerous. But at the same time golden roubles were released too. Mintages weren't numerous and golden coins were used only for a card play in the imperial palace (in fact).
So now we can see the coin which Catherine the Great held in her palm maybe.

 

Yeah, but a grader 259 years later imagines she cleaned it, so it's garbage.

 

I guess that so high grade of a coin is caused by that it was used only at a card play by aristocrats.

 

Thanks for the link gx, that site will be very useful

 

That is the thing I would really like to know, what shows that it was cleaned.