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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Mark Feld, post: 1331886, member: 11467&quot;]Dear fellow numismatists, </p><p><br /></p><p>Below, with the&nbsp; permission of John Albanese, please find a preliminary draft (subject to&nbsp; further editing) of the &quot;definition&quot; to be presented to the PNG, by&nbsp; those of us on the &quot;Coin Doctoring Definition Committee&quot; .</p><p><br /></p><p>I wish&nbsp; to give special thanks to John Albanese (who headed the committee),Tom&nbsp; Bush, James Garcia and Rick Sear for their above-and-beyond&nbsp; conscientiousness, efforts and contributions.</p><p><br /></p><p>What we have&nbsp; prepared, is far from perfect, as would be anything pertaining to these&nbsp; topics. But I can honestly say that I am proud of our work.</p><p><br /></p><p>We welcome your comments and suggestions.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>PNG Definition</p><p><br /></p><p>The&nbsp; coin collecting hobby and the industry that supports it have found it&nbsp; necessary to review and revise their standards many times.&nbsp; Throughout&nbsp; each era, price increases and/or price spreads have created a demand for&nbsp; more rigorous definitions as to what the market finds acceptable, and&nbsp; what it does not.&nbsp; In recent years, the PNG has worked in concert with&nbsp; NGC, PCGS, CAC and other industry leaders, to identify and define both&nbsp; acceptable and unacceptable practices for coin preservation and&nbsp; conservation.&nbsp; Acceptable practices aim at preservation and the&nbsp; conservation of previously damaged or manipulated coin surfaces.&nbsp; The&nbsp; most recent steps in the evolutionary process of coin evaluation have&nbsp; resulted in a more rigorous codification and enforcement of standards. </p><p><br /></p><p>Additionally,&nbsp; there is a need to address practices and behaviors that are viewed as&nbsp; unacceptable, which affect the surfaces of coins in any way that&nbsp; deceptively alters the perception of the coin, in order to gain grade,&nbsp; designation or value enhancement.&nbsp; It is unethical and possibly illegal&nbsp; to use techniques and/or treatments to deceptively simulate or&nbsp; artificially enhance the qualities of coins so that they might appear to&nbsp; have higher technical grades and or more market-acceptable qualities&nbsp; than are naturally and/or otherwise present.</p><p><br /></p><p>PNG also recognizes&nbsp; that there is confusion regarding what preservation and conservation&nbsp; techniques are considered acceptable.&nbsp; We will attempt to identify,&nbsp; define and/or describe what is clearly classifiable as intended to&nbsp; deceive. </p><p><br /></p><p>1. Deceptive Surface Manipulation</p><p>Deceptive surface&nbsp; manipulations are carried out with the intention of altering the&nbsp; appearance of the subject coin, such that it may look to be of a higher&nbsp; grade than it truly is; may garner a higher grade after certification;&nbsp; may gain the attributes of a grade designation that it would not&nbsp; otherwise deserve; or may appear subjectively more attractive.&nbsp; These&nbsp; surface manipulations may irreversibly change the surface of the subject&nbsp; coin and/or may harm the surfaces of the subject coin over time.&nbsp;&nbsp; Methods of deceptive surface manipulation that are not considered&nbsp; acceptable by the PNG-</p><p>1) Mechanical disruption of surface metal&nbsp; (including, but not limited to, puncture or cut surfaces; plug or&nbsp; otherwise repair surface marks or damage; polish, whizzing or laser of&nbsp; surfaces).</p><p>2) Physical alteration of design details (including, but&nbsp; not limited to, modification of date or mintmark; engraving of missing&nbsp; or weak details to earn a grade designation; engraving of design details&nbsp; to simulate less wear; other methods to gain grade designation).</p><p>3)&nbsp; Application of exogenous materials to increase apparent mint luster,&nbsp; infer less wear, reduce evidence of prior manipulations or cleanings,&nbsp; replace missing details or earn a grade designation (including, but not&nbsp; limited to, application of solder; introduction of glue, plastic or&nbsp; other bonding agents; application of waxes, putties, powders or assorted&nbsp; grease or gels; exposure to dulling agents; addition of PVC; exposure&nbsp; to smoke or other gases).</p><p>4) Abrasive cleaning such as, but not limited to, the use of erasers or cleaning pads.</p><p>5)&nbsp; Copper/bronze coins are made from the most reactive of coinage metals.&nbsp;&nbsp; They are far more vulnerable to the production of artificial color,&nbsp; typically resulting in, but not limited to, various hues of red, blue&nbsp; and purple.&nbsp; Some conservation techniques safe for coinage produced in&nbsp; nickel, silver and gold consistently produce unacceptable results on&nbsp; copper/bronze.&nbsp; Artificial color may be achieved by exposure to agents&nbsp; that may or may not be acceptable for use on other coinage metals&nbsp; (including, but not limited to, arsenic; thiourea-based compounds;&nbsp; dilute acids; ammonia; chlorine and caustic solutions). </p><p><br /></p><p>6)&nbsp; Artificial toning is the intentional, and/or inappropriate, accelerated&nbsp; acquisition of surface patina, primarily used to mask impairments on&nbsp; surfaces and/or to increase subjective eye appeal and/or grade.&nbsp;&nbsp; Artificial toning is always prohibited, and may result from intentional&nbsp; or inappropriate exposure to various substances or effects (including,&nbsp; but not limited to, direct heat; electrical current; immersion in&nbsp; certain liquids including bleach and/or others; exposure to gases;&nbsp; intentional or inappropriate storage conditions).&nbsp; It may be facilitated&nbsp; through the introduction of various compounds or catalysts including,&nbsp; but not limited to, sulfur, antimony, phosphorous, iodine, various&nbsp; alkanes, caustic compounds and acids.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Conservation</p><p>Conservation&nbsp; of coinage may include, but is not limited to, the removal of loosely&nbsp; adhered surface contaminants or incidental oils or grease; removal of&nbsp; prior, intentionally applied coatings; and the removal of harmful&nbsp; surface contaminants, with subsequent stabilization of the underlying&nbsp; metal.&nbsp; The goals of such conservation steps are to stabilize the&nbsp; surface of any treated coin, as well as to bring the coin within current&nbsp; market standards of acceptability.&nbsp; Methods of conservation that are&nbsp; considered acceptable by the PNG-</p><p>1) Low intensity, short term ultrasonic bath.</p><p>2) Use of rose thorn or similar device to remove carbon or particles without exposure of underlying raw metal.</p><p>3) Immersion in non-reactive solvent (water; acetone; alcohol; surfactants and other non-reactive organic compounds).</p><p><br /></p><p>2a. Conservation (with historical exemption)</p><p>Conservation&nbsp; of coinage may include, but is not limited to, the removal of loosely&nbsp; adhered surface contaminants or incidental oils or grease; removal of&nbsp; prior, intentionally applied coatings; and the removal of harmful&nbsp; surface contaminants, with subsequent stabilization of the underlying&nbsp; metal.&nbsp; Additionally, the historically accepted procedure of dipping&nbsp; coins in dilute acids to remove unattractive toning may in some cases be&nbsp; considered conservation.&nbsp; The goals of such conservation steps are to&nbsp; stabilize the surface of any treated coin, as well as to bring the coin&nbsp; within current market standards of acceptability.&nbsp; Methods of&nbsp; conservation that are considered acceptable by the PNG-</p><p>1) Low intensity, short term ultrasonic bath.</p><p>2) Use of rose thorn or similar device to remove carbon or particles without exposure of underlying raw metal.</p><p>3) Immersion in non-reactive solvent (water; acetone; alcohol; surfactants and other non-reactive organic compounds).</p><p><br /></p><p>3. Historical Exemption</p><p>Additionally,&nbsp; the historically accepted procedure of dipping coins in dilute acids to&nbsp; remove unattractive toning may in some cases be considered&nbsp; conservation.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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