Cleaned or not?

On Friday, I posted pics (in Sal's Five Cent Friday Part 2 thread) of a grab bag of coins that my boyfriend brought home from the pawn shop he works at. We both thought that one of the Franklin halves and one of the Morgan's had been cleaned, but we're not experts and I'd like to hear what y'all think. I put two pics of the obverse of the Morgan because it gives two different perspectives, showing different damage. Thanks in advance for your expertise...
Oh, and just for fun, I included a page from one of my albums, showing off a couple of my loves!

 

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The improperly cleaned coin shows no luster. Luster is difficult to show in photos but the Morgan does appear to show very nice luster….. Best way I can tell you to see luster is get a brand new quarter and take it out in the sunlight. Tilt it around a bit and you can see sunlight reflecting off the radial lines in the fields of the new quarter. Those radial lines are flow lines where the metal moved when the coin was struck. They give a coin life. When a coin is improperly cleaned, the luster is disturbed or removed and the coin then looks lifeless….. Once you discover the luster, that becomes the first thing your eye will see when you view a coin.

 

Thanks @Randy Abercrombie . I think @love old coins and I learned something new this morning . Do you mean the " Cartwheel effect " ?

 

Nice collection going there.

 

The lighting in my pictures is a problem...both the Franklin and the Morgan have TONS of luster when seen in hand...hard to show in pics though. That's one of the reasons we thought they'd been cleaned.

 

Thank you!

 

Yes and no. Some coins display spectacular luster. I don’t think all show cartwheel. I would on call those that display spectacular luster cartwheel. But all coins should show luster. If they don’t then they have been manipulated.

 

If the sun comes out today, I'll take them outside and test for the cartwheel effect...thank you Randy.

 

Randy's answer is good but could be a little more specific.

Randy Abercrombie, posted: "The improperly cleaned coin shows [an impairment to all or much of its ORIGINAL MINT] no luster. "Luster is difficult to show in photos but the Morgan does appear to show very nice luster….. Best way I can tell you to see luster is get a brand new quarter and take it out in the sunlight. Tilt it around a bit and you can see sunlight reflecting off the radial lines in the fields of the new quarter. Those radial lines are flow lines where the metal moved when the coin was struck. They give a coin life. When a coin is improperly cleaned, the luster is disturbed or removed and the coin then looks lifeless….. Once you discover the luster, that becomes the first thing your eye will see when you view a coin."

IMO, the cheek of the dollar does not look original (change of color) anymore. With just an image it is hard to tell what caused it.

love old coins, posted: "The lighting in my pictures is a problem...both the Franklin and the Morgan have TONS of luster when seen in hand...hard to show in pics though. That's one of the reasons we thought they'd been cleaned.

AU coins can have TONS of original Mint luster. The coins in your page show nice "Cartwheel" so you know what it is w/o going outside.

Finally, burn this into your thinking: LUSTER is the REFLECTION of LIGHT from a SURFACE! "Mint luster" applies to coins. Cleaned or polished coins have luster; however, it is not original Mint luster.

BTW, the scratch damage on the Franklin makes it a "cull" to be valued for its silver.

 

Look at your other coins, at the "depth" a lot of those are showing. That's what you're looking for, not necessarily "acrobatics." Some will "cartwheel," some won't. But they'll all have that "depth," and won't be "flat," like a piece of cardboard. As you tilt them in the light, you'll see it. Some will just have it in spots, due to just natural weathering. Others will bounce in the light like on a trampoline. The whole deal about "cleaned," here, is the "depth" remaining. To the degree that's there, they have "life." To the degree it's gone, they're "lifeless." You're looking really for that, the degree to which the surfaces are "dead" or "alive." That's the best way I can describe it. The surfaces are a component of the grade. To the degree they're compromised, the coins are damaged, ruined. It's a delicate component, to be sure. But if there's an analogy, it's the icing on the sponge cake. And nobody likes to eat a dry sponge.

 

This is the very best analogy of an improperly cleaned coin that I have seen. And if our resident thoroughbred doesn’t mind, I may very well plagiarize this comment in the future when asked about luster.

 

Nice photographs @love old coins. Lighting from more than one source may help show the coin better.
My question is; How does your boyfriend acquire these coins? My understanding of a pawn shop is that they paid or lend money on objects based on their current value, so did the coin(s) get pawned and your boyfriend bought them for the assumed value? If so, are those values in line with current prices, i.e. grey sheet or recently sold items?
I've never dealt with a pawn shop so I'm just curious how it works and how you acquire these coins.

 

Great looking coins and nice pictures too, good luck. Like Mountain Man I have never purchased coins from a pawn shop, I'm curious to know also.

 

Me too, how does it work? Most pawn shops these days are syndicated and everything is priced by the main office. Very little bargaining to be done.

 

To get "original mint luster" you have to use a brass rotary brush...

 

"I'll have to call in my expert to look at that"

 

AFAIK, a pawn shop will "loan" you money on your possessions that you are expected to pay back within a set period of time. If you don't, they are free to sell the items to recoup their investment. They can also buy items outright and then attempt to resell them. "That's going to stay on my shelf for a long time, I can only give you $50..."

 

Thanks for your input, however disappointing it might be!

 

I know nothing about errors because I'm so new to "serious" collecting. So I have a clash, @dlts? What is that and how do you spot that on a coin?

Edit: I just read about collar clashes and I'm guessing that's what you're referring to with my Morgan? My untrained eyes didn't even pick up on that and now that you mentioned it, it's all very obvious. Thank you!