Standing Liberty Quarter - Corrosion and Toothpick Method and Value

So I got a Standing Liberty quarter in the mail and noticed it has black dirt along the reverse reliefs, and I decided - tell me if this was a bad idea - to pick out the black dirt with a toothpick. This can go either way in my experience: it can simply remove the dirt, or it can remove the dirt and reveal very tiny pitting (often just one very tiny pit noticeable with a 5x loupe). This pit is tiny, again. So does this pit mean the coin is a details coin if everything else is essentially flawless on an XF coin? This tiny pit may look almost indistinguishable from a nick from another coin at times, as it's so small.

Some people might argue to leave the coin as is, but the black gunk these coins collect is not attractive and is clearly not good for the coins in the long run. So the question stands: is this a details coin? My view is that's insane if the rest of the coin looks like say a solid XF. There are nicks or scratches that can be worse. Maybe some OGs have an answer for this.

 

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Well... I will catch flak for this.... I am an old school collector and if you own the coin then I believe it to be perfectly acceptable to do something as minor as this if it helps you to enjoy the coin. But yeah, I am afraid the label folks will tell you that a pitted surface, even a very minor pitted surface would result in a details grade. If you aren't submitting it, then who cares?

 

Yeah, my understanding is that some are opposed to cleaning up dirt with a toothpick, but there are times when it simply removes a source of corrosion. And I agree - it's crazy that a very tiny pit that can only be seen with a loupe would give it a details grade. My hunch is that some graders might actually straight grade it if the pit is so small that it could be just another nick on the coin. Also, it truly can be difficult to distinguish a pit from a contact mark, because I can picture a genuine contact mark looking almost like one very tiny pit that cannot be seen with the naked eye.