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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 1697655, member: 112&quot;]First of all you need to understand something. Unlike most people I differentiate between the two terms - cleaned, and harshly cleaned. </p><p><br /></p><p>Cleaned is just fine, there are literally millions and millions of coins that have been cleaned and then slabbed as problem free by the major TPGs. Cleaned means that a coin has had dirt &amp; grime, unsightly or ugly toning, environmental contaminants, etc removed from the coin - without harming the coin. Cleaned coins are problem free coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Harshly cleaned however means that the same was done but that the coin was harmed in the process and is now a problem coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now how do you tell ? It&#039;s one of the hardest things there is to learn about coins. There is no simple or easy way, it requires experience, a lot of it. And when it comes to gold, it is even harder. Gold is different than silver or copper and sometimes even experienced collectors cannot tell that a gold coin has been harshly cleaned. </p><p><br /></p><p>But with this coin, as it is with many, you can see that it has at the least been cleaned because of all the gunk (black) left in the recesses and protected areas, while there is none to be found anywhere else on the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Could it have been harshly cleaned ? Yes, definitely. But it is hard to tell even in hand, and in pictures it is even harder. Am I saying the coin has been harshly cleaned ? No, absolutely not. I am merely saying that it is a good possibility because most folks don&#039;t know how to clean a coin properly (without harming it). Therefore, since we know with almost certainty that it has at least been cleaned, then harsh cleaning is a good possibility.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now sometimes a harsh cleaning is easy to detect because of the scratches that are often left behind. But harsh or improper cleaning can also be done without leaving behind the tell tale scratches. And that kind is much harder to detect. Sometimes it&#039;s something as simple as the color, or the amount of luster on the coin as compared to the amount of wear on the coin. Wear and luster have a distinct relationship with each other, the more wear the less luster. And when the two are not in the correct ratio for a given coin, well then you know that something is wrong. But it takes a long time to learn what all of those correct ratios are on each type of coin, and for each condition (grade). They are all different. There is just a ton to learn to be able to correctly identify a harshly cleaned coin. And for most folks it takes many years to do that.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now this may not have helped much, but trust me when I tell you that buying raw gold for anything over melt is often a dangerous proposition.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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