Define a “cleaned” coin

I don't know what you've been reading or not reading. What I do know is this - there is a whole lot of bad information out there. Some of it's in books, some of it is found in online articles, and a TON of it is found on various coin forums ! So if you will, allow me to give you some good information, accurate information.

In one of your earlier posts you asked for proof that dipping is accepted and done by all. Well, what exactly would you be willing to accept as proof ? I mean who would have to tell you before you'd believe them ? What form would this proof have to come in ?

And, in your comment that I quoted above you mention this "paradigm shift in acceptance of dipping", further stating that it's something new. Meaning that in years past people did not accept dipping, that it was frowned upon and not an acceptable practice. For the record, none of this is true, none of it.

Dipping coins is one of the oldest practices there is in numismatics. It has always been accepted by the numismatic community as a whole. It has been accepted and commonly used by experts, collectors, dealers, literally everybody - not only in recent years but for hundreds of years ! And the TPGs themselves have been dipping coins for as long as the TPGs have existed !

And you want proof of this. Well, how about this -

PCGS and NGC Dipping Coins

The Professional Coin Grading Service and the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation
have confirmed that they have been dipping coins upon request. The coins are
not marked on the slab as cleaned.

References: Numismatic News, 8 Aug 1995, p. 1; Coin World, 18 Sep 1995,
p. 1, 7.

Now granted, that only goes back 23 years. But you have to remember that PCGS and NGC have only existed since 1986 and 1987 respectively. But there's proof, documented proof in both of the leading numismatic publications that dipping is and was not only accepted but practiced by the leading TPGs that you can go and look up and see with your eyes, should you wish to do so. And if you want older proof, get your hands on copies on the 1st edition ANA grading standards book, it was published in 1977 and it talks about dipping coins being acceptable and used by the best in the business. So that takes us back 40 years.

Can you go back further ? Sure, as I said, dipping coins goes back hundreds of years. You can find references to it and discussions about it in books that were printed in the 1800s. And it has ALWAYS been accepted. It is most definitely, absolutely not, something new. There is no new paradigm shift.

On a different note, it is accepted as fact by the world's leading numismatic experts that 80% or more of all older coins, and that includes all of those in slabs, have been dipped at least once in their lifetimes. Now PCGS and NGC between them have slabbed somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 million coins. Roughly half of those are moderns, but that leaves 30 million that are classics - older coins. Which means that at least 24 million of those classic coins have been dipped - 24 million ! Does that sound like acceptance to you ?

Please understand, I am not trying to talk down to you or belittle you or anything of the sort. I'm trying to educate you, to help you learn. That is my sole purpose in writing what I write on this forum. And not just you but everyone else who cares to read the posts on this forum. I have nothing to gain, nothing to prove to anybody. All I'm trying to do is share a lifetime of knowledge accumulated over the years with others. Good and accurate information.

All of that said, are there people, individuals, who do not accept dipping coins ? People who tell others to never do it ? Of course there are. But in the greater scheme of things they are a very tiny minority. And then there are those who say - don't do it - but they are saying that because it is very easy to ruin a coin by dipping it IF you do not know what you are doing ! It's kinda like the old mantra - don't clean your coins ! People advise others of that because it's also very easy to ruin coins IF you don't know what you are doing !

But if you do know what you are doing, you can safely clean coins and not cause any harm to the coin. You can safely dip coins and not cause any harm to the coins. And the very best proof of it there is, is out there right front of everybody's faces - the proof is the coins themselves ! Almost all of them have been cleaned and or dipped.

And while we're at it - rinsing and or soaking coins in distilled water is cleaning them. Rinsing and or soaking coins in acetone is cleaning them. Rinsing and or soaking coins in xylene is cleaning them. Dipping coins is cleaning them. And all of those things can be safely done, none of those things will harm the coins IF it is done properly !

But by the same token - all of those things can harm coins if they are not done properly !

Again, knowledge is the key.

 

I never said one is not. To the contrary I specifically said ALL 4 of the things I listed are cleaning.