Trying to decide whether or not to submit my two body bagged coins to ANACS for "Details" grading. The 1834 half dime came back from NGC "IMPROPERLY CLEANED". (It looks XF.) The 1871 two cent came back from NGC "IMPROPERLY CLEANED". (It looks AU.) What do you think?
Somehow I missed what kind of coins those are. If even worth grading, then maybe. If normal, low value coins, why bother. If you want to just try it for the fun of it, place those coins on a window ledge in your kitchen. if your family does a normal amount of cooking, the gasses in the air will slowly return the coins to a little more natural looking and then try to have them slabbed.
If you have an open mind and a little bit of risk-taker in you, you can try to "unclean" the coins. Carry them around in your pocket for about 6 months with some other coins. What you want to do is wear them down by about a half to one grade. Coins are made for this type of handling. As they wear, a small amount of metal will be removed. This is the cleaned part. In the end, you should/could end up with an "uncleaned" XF turned VF and AU turned XF. If the coins are valuable, experiment on some others first. But often, an uncleaned XF is worth more than a cleaned AU, so it might be worth the effort.
If my grading is correct AND I deduct one full grade, I figure the Half Dime going for about $75 and the Two Cent going for $100.
They are not frequently faked, and you already wasted money trying to get them slabbed, why waste more?
