Is there any way to tell the difference between a coin that was cleaned and a coin that was in a collector's control? Curious as I see this once in a while.
No easy way. You need to look at a lot of coins and ask questions. Over time, you'll pick it up. Same goes for grading. Sorry, but I don't know any short cuts. There are the obvious harshly cleaned coppers, polished silver and hairlines that are easy to spot, but chemists can be pretty good with some artificial toning. That's where experience comes in.
I get a nice Lincoln like that once in a while, but how much can they be worth if they are not perfect? 5 cents? There's really no market for AU Memorial cents. They are keepers because they are nice, but I am skeptical on value. My old LCS used to give out MS Lincoln memorials in his change. I still have them. So, they weren't worth anything to him, because he was using them as pennies and he had rolls of them. Some of them are prob 65-66 grade.
I have rolls of these things. Put them aside roll hunting almost 10 years ago. Don't know why except that they looked marvelous!
A few days ago, I was walking through a hallway and found a beuatiful 1980 d cent, not worth much but they are fun to own, which is the main purpose of purchaing coins in the first place (in my opinion). Also, just think about it, all of the coin collectors of 2100 or 2200 are going to be thanking us for this =)
