How much are you willing to pay for a dipped key-date coin?

I have an opportunity to pick up a very nice raw 1934s Peace Dollar just shy of an MS grade....For the sake of argument I'll call this an AU58. The coin has had a light dipping which has taken away any cartwheel luster but still shines fairly well. There are no noticeable contact marks from the cleaning but after staring at this coin for enough time it became apparent that it has in fact been dipped.

My question is this: How much do you subtract from book value if you were to buy a 'lightly' cleaned key-date coin?

Dropping a grade level seems to be the standard, but doesn't that depend on the severity of the cleaning?
Does anyone follow their own set of 'cleaned' rules like:
'Lightly cleaned' = -4
'Moderately cleaned' = -8
'Harshly cleaned' = -12

With a coin like the 34s that has some pretty healthy leaps in cost between grades would a lightly cleaned AU58 drop to a EF price??

I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Personally, I would never knowingly buy a cleaned or dipped coin. I'd rather buy a lesser grade uncleaned coin for the same money so I'm not the one stuck with a garbage coin. IMO, it's like a game of hot potato. LOL

In that market, there's no set "deduction". It all depends on how harsh the cleaning is and how much a buyer is willing to pay for a compromised coin.

 

I just refuse to purchase anything that I can tell has been cleaned. Now not being and expert I may have some coins that have been lightly cleaned, but if I can tell they have been cleaned I just move on.

 

It depends on the coin and the collection it is going into. While I do not mind a cleaned coin in my bust half album(a variety of grades) I am not sure I would want a flat dipped AU coin surrounded by very lusterous coins. Don't have that problem with my large cents album. I don't know peace dollars, but I do have a few cleaned coins in my collection. I agree to keep them to a minimum, but sometimes it just can't be helped.

 

With AU/BU Peace Dollars, sometimes it's hard to discern whether the coin has been cleaned, most peace dollars don't have the same frosty finish that a MS morgan dollar displays. A lightly dipped specimen may even retain some luster. I'd have to see the coin, and how it fits it with the other coins in my collection. I probably don't have as advanced an eye as some of the experts on this forum, but if the coin was substantially discounted, still had good eye appeal, and I could barely tell it had been cleaned, I'd probably bite.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys. This coin does still have a luster but it's a little more of a flat or uniform luster.....all in all it still has good eye appeal in my opinion. I know that a good handful of my raw coins have been cleaned at one point or another- but I try to make sure I pay accordingly and believe it or not I have yet to be bothered by that fact that they are cleaned. If it interests me then I'll buy it.....but- with that being said.....these coins are typically under a $100 and this coin isn't. I'm enjoying all of your insights....please keep them coming.

 

If anything, dipping is a form of cleaning. Not vice versa. In the OP you made it sound like dipping is considered cleaning. However, the top TPG's still grade dipped coins. However, coins cleaned by rubbing are not!

 

+1

 

So far I haven't had to buy a raw coin to complete a set that's been cleaned.
Do I have cleaned coins in my collection?
With essentially 100% confidence my answer is "Yes".
BUT
These cleaned coins have been slabbed by respected TPG's.
They know the coins have been cleaned.
BUT
Because of several factors they have felt the coins could still be slabbed.
1. The coins are old (in the neighborhood of 200? years).
2. The cleaning was done long ago (in the neighborhood of 150? years).
3. The cleaning was NOT harsh (but probably was abrasive vs. being dipped).

If this (light) level of cleaning is NOT acceptable for these older coins most would end up ungraded in "Genuine" slabs.
How old is "old"?
How light is "light"?
These are fuzzy criteria that vary:
- from TPG to TPG
- from year to year
- from grader to grader

Therefore my answer to the OP's title question is at this time I will NOT buy a cleaned coin unless it is fully graded and encapsulated by a respected TPG.
Definitions:
- respected TPG = PCGS and NGC
- fully graded = not a DETAILS grade

 

Up to 50% all day long, every day ...Depends on the strike. I also buy Certified, damaged, scratched, cleaned, altered surface, eviromnental, corroded, etc etc - Dump your your worthless Lincolns here!

 

Thanks all.

No disrespect taken- by no means am I qualified to judge the circumtances or series of events that contribute to the state of some of the coins that I have or have seen. It's mostly subjective anyhow..... as is the relationship between dipping and cleaning. To me a dipped coin is a cleaned coin.....even with the potential to be fully graded.

Thanks to all of your feedback I am no longer on the fence and will not be buying the coin in question.

 

you are wrong again. he is better off asking you then he ever will be buying slabs especially if he doesnt know whats in them and i dont care whose slab they are pcgs or ngc

 

do you want ot buy coins from india? it will be a sight for your sore eyes.

 

My thoughts on this are that you seem to change it from "Dipped" to "Cleaned" back to "Dipped" ect.

Those are two different things. Most of us buy Dipped coins all the time, how many dippings it's gone through and how it was dipped are important but Cleaning is another story altogether.

 

Forgot to mention Lincolns all day long but then again .... What can you expect from a simpering, devil-eared freak whose father was a computer and his mother an encyclopedia.