I like Cleaned Coins and you should to thread

Look Ruben, if you choose to believe that dipping a coin strips away all the luster from that's fine. You go right ahead and believe it.

But that absolutely does not make it true.

 

Yes Ruben when you dip a coin a microscopic layer of silver is removed, I do not deny that. Anybody that knows anything knows that. But they also know that most of the luster will remain if you dip it properly.

The proof of that is in the millions of coins that have been dipped and still have great luster !

 

Then you are missing out Eddie. Registering at Heritage is free, cost you absolutely nothing. But the advantages (for you) of registering are of such a magnitude that they defy description. The knowledge alone that you can gain by being a registered member will be worth many, many thousands of of dollars. And it won't cost you 1 cent !

 

If they are over-dipped they will absolutely get put in Genuine/Details slabs. But if dipped properly, they will grade & slab them all day long. And they should slab them because there is absolutely nothing wrong with the coin nor will it have altered surfaces.

What people get hung up on when they think about this is the fact that a commercial coin dip strips away any toning. And since toning is part of the metal, and since that metal is stripped away, they think that the coin must have altered surfaces.

In a purely technical sense of the word, yes, dipping does alter the surfaces of the coin because it strips away the toning. But what people do not realize, do not understand is that the layer being stripped away is so thin that it defies description, that it cannot even be measured except by the most exacting scientific tools.

For example, take a coin that is toned black, dip it, and suddenly, literally in 1 second, what is revealed right before your eyes is a coin that looks to be mint fresh. The coin will be covered with luster, and even if you look at it with an electron microscope you will not be able to see that anything was ever done to the coin. You can weigh that same black coin on the scales that you use to weigh any coin, then dip it, and the weight will not change. That is how tiny, how infinitesimal, the amount of metal that was removed is. And that is why a properly dipped coin is not considered to have altered surfaces.

Just as it is with many other things in numismatics it's a matter of definitions. And in numismatics a properly dipped coin absolutely does not meet the definition of a coin with altered surfaces. There is no numismatic expert, no respected and highly regarded name in numismatics that disagrees with this.

However, dip that same coin for 1 second too long, and it will be put in a Genuine or Details slab so fast it will make your head spin. Or, if the heavy black toning has been allowed to stay on the coin for too long of a period of time so that it has reached the corrosion stage, then when it is dipped and the toning is stripped away what will be revealed will be a dull, lifeless, washed out looking coin that has no luster whatsoever. But in those cases it is the toning itself that already did the damage, not the dipping. The dipping merely reveals the damage that you could not see.

 

How about all of the coins that are, and have been, saved as a direct result of dipping them ?

You do realize don't you Ruben that any coin that is mostly covered with dark brown or black toning is going to be ruined if you do not dip it ?