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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;clembo, post: 492602, member: 8033&quot;]**********WARNING!!!**********</p><p>This may be offensive to the numismatically squeemish.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ok folks,</p><p><br /></p><p>I see enough threads about cleaning coins. How to do it, how not to do it, should I do it.</p><p>Well, for most the answer is a resounding just LEAVE THEM AS THEY ARE.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, I thought a bit more about this and what I see &quot;walk in&quot; at the coin shop. For those that DON&#039;T work in a coin shop it would scare you at times. Fairly recent purchases by my boss were a complete set of Standing Liberty Quarters (including the 1916 AND 1918/17S and a complete set of Indian Cents.</p><p>I hate to say but well over 50% of these coins had taken a harsh cleaning in the past including ALL of the key dates. The keys were sent to ANACS for grading and authentication. The few &quot;better&quot; coins that escaped cleaning were sent to NGC.</p><p><br /></p><p>This information in mind it&#039;s time for the clembo version of let&#039;s pretend. Ready?</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s a few scans. Let&#039;s pretend the Lincoln is a 1909S-VDB and the Mercury is 1916-D.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x275/clembo1872/scan0001-20.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x275/clembo1872/scan0001-20.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x275/clembo1872/scan0001-20.jpg</a></p><p><a href="http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x275/clembo1872/scan0002-24.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x275/clembo1872/scan0002-24.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x275/clembo1872/scan0002-24.jpg</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Hmmm....</p><p>Decent examples for the rarity and look original. The SVDB is a bit spotty and the 16-D DOES have a sizeable rim ding. Still nice coins and worth some bucks.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>NOW (once again pretending) these are key dates let&#039;s assume these were inherited and a total novice or absolute non-collector wants to sell them. I have seen coins brought in looking like this.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x275/clembo1872/scan0003-21.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x275/clembo1872/scan0003-21.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x275/clembo1872/scan0003-21.jpg</a></p><p><a href="http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x275/clembo1872/scan0004-16.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x275/clembo1872/scan0004-16.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x275/clembo1872/scan0004-16.jpg</a></p><p><br /></p><p>EGADS!!! Then you might hear &quot;I&#039;ve been working on cleaning these up for a few days now&quot;. GASP!!! Yes, we&#039;ll buy them at maybe 20% bid because someone will want a cheap &quot;hole filler&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>Bottom line here is it REALLY does happen folks and it&#039;s a great reason to steer away from cleaning coins. If you&#039;re going to do it read up. Practice on &quot;worthless&quot; coins but just try to stay away from it.</p><p><br /></p><p>I sacrificed two commons to make a point here. The scans were taken within minutes of one another. First came the originals. Then I dipped them in silver jewelry cleaner. Had to take a Qtip to the Lincoln and is that nasty or what?</p><p><br /></p><p>The dime isn&#039;t so bad. Still worth melt - I&#039;ll spend the Lincoln. I trashed two coins for the benefit of my friends at Coin Talk.</p><p>When you get over your horror pass it along to someone that needs to know this.</p><p><br /></p><p>clembo[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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