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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Cherd, post: 1429205, member: 24754&quot;]Clean!..Harshly!!..Properly!!...Conservation!!!....Clean!!...Clean!!...Clean!!.....ARRGGGHH! Sometimes I feel as though I belong to a hobby community that is less interested in coins and more interested in the art of determining whether something has been cleaned. It&#039;s only a big deal because we have all been brainwashed into thinking that we need to make a big deal out of it!</p><p><br /></p><p>Quartermaster is right, the focus should be more on personal preference. Look at a coin, if the coin appeals to you and you are comfortable with the price then buy it, if not then don&#039;t. It is your collection, the items in the collection should be based on what appeals to you. Of course, we would all prefer to have completely original state, zero tarnish coins that look like they just rolled out of the mint yesterday (I suppose those that like fancy rainbow toning would be an exception). But when it comes to older coins this typically just isn&#039;t possible. You can either develop an appreciation for toning in pursuit of original surfaces (&quot;original surface&quot; is debatable on multiple levels), or you can seek coins that &quot;look&quot; as ideal as possible (these would be cleaned coins). There is no right or wrong approach, it all depends on what YOU want to have.</p><p><br /></p><p>I also do not agree with grading services &quot;body bagging&quot; coins. By doing this they are forcing their biased opinions (or the biased opinions of the most vocal collectors) onto the collecting community as a whole. If someone pays good money to have a coin graded, then the coin should receive the same attention as any other. The purpose of the grading services is to provide accurate and consistent descriptions of coin condition. In the case of a cleaned coin a numerical grade should be assigned, and a description of suspected cleaning activities should be provided as details. This description should not include adverbs such as &quot;improperly&quot; because this word represents an opinion. An appropriate description could be: AU-55 Details: whizzed, artificially toned. This actually provides the potential buyer with useful, un-biased information.</p><p><br /></p><p>I feel that some of us need to put a bit more thought into how we word our advice to those seeking information with respect to cleaned coins. For instance, the statement &quot;It is always more desirable to have a coin with original surfaces&quot; is simply not correct. Maybe for you, or maybe for most, but not for all. It is more accurate to say &quot;cleaning a coin tends to decrease the value in today&#039;s market&quot;, or &quot;most current collectors prefer coins that have not been cleaned&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>The aversion to cleaned coins represents the opinions of SOME collectors. This opinion was not overly prevalant in the past, and it may not be as prevalant in the future. Stop making statements about coin cleaning as though these rules are based on natural laws. They are opinions and should be presented as such.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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