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Message:: [QUOTE="GDJMSP, post: 170946, member: 112"]Ruben - Look closely at the Columbia commem, look at where the darker color meets the lighter color, see how it kind of blends together and there are no sharp lines defining the difference between the two colors. One just kind of runs into the other smoothly. Your explanation of the Columbia being kept in a shoe box for many years would explain the light wear spots on the high points. But she must have kept something else in there too to account for the rim dings - the coin bumping and sliding into something else. Now look at the Seated Liberty half. There is no blending here, there are just abrupt changes - in particular on the reverse. See the dark lines around each of the wings, then it just changes to light. And see how all of the recesses in the wings and the shield are dark, but the top parts are light. That's a pretty sure indication that the coin has been rubbed with a cloth, wiping the dirt off the high spots and leaving it in the low spots. Now I have circled some areas on your pics where you can see the hairline scratches left by the cloth. They show up the best in the areas where the dark meets the light. But you can see them in the light colored fields as well. This pretty much cinches it that the coin was harshly cleaned. And the hairlines don't have to all run in the same direction, they seldom do on cleaned coins. That's what you can look for.[/QUOTE]