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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;E Pluribus Unum, post: 2717472, member: 74265&quot;]I was about to post this very same thread as <b>odinsruleq8</b> did, so I thought it would be a good time to jump in.&nbsp; Although I have been collecting for almost four decades now, I really don&#039;t know very much.&nbsp; I guess you could say that I am a &quot;numismatic loner&quot; as none of my family or friends collect coins (except my deceased father who introduced to coin collecting when I was a child).&nbsp; I am familiar with all type coins, key dates, metal composition and factual things of that sort; however, now that slabbed coins have been readily available online (eBay), I have relied on the grading companies to know whether or not a coin has been cleaned.&nbsp; I don&#039;t intend to turn my reply into a novel, but I wanted to provide a little background so you may have a better understanding of my perspective.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have a Dansco album for Washington quarters that has been collecting dust for years now, so I decided to put it to use.&nbsp; I have almost completed the set with BU coins that I have broken out of slabs.&nbsp; As you may know, many of the Washingtons from the 1930s are very expensive in nice grades, and in some cases I have spent too much money for a coin that is going into this album.&nbsp; But what choice do I have?</p><p><br /></p><p>It seems raw coins are easier to find and are less expensive, but, unless a coin was scrubbed clean with steel-wool, I would have a hard time determining whether a coin has been cleaned (especially buying online).&nbsp; It seems like the only way to tell if a coin has been cleaned is to have had the experience of examining thousands of coins - something I will never have.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have read and appreciated the article cited above by <b>tmoneyeagles</b>, and the examples illustrated appear to be relatively easy to recognize.&nbsp; But, when I search eBay for third party graded Morgan dollars, there are a plethora of slabs designated &quot;cleaned.&quot;&nbsp; Upon studying the photos, I found some that are obvious to me.&nbsp; However, there are too many where I could not tell.&nbsp; I was hoping to start collecting another series of coins by purchasing them raw (for the most part).&nbsp; Since I saw this post, I am wondering how others here at the forum have been become versed in assessing raw coins.&nbsp; Am I the loner here or do many others depend on third party graders as well?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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