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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Insider, post: 2876129, member: 24314&quot;]medoraman, posted:&nbsp; &quot;Smoothing can be a natural part of the cleaning process. It depends on severity and that severity can kind of tell you intent as well.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 128, 255)">While this may be the way &quot;modern&quot; collectors look at it, &quot;Smoothing&quot; is a flowery term (similar to &quot;environmentally damaged&quot; = CORRODED) that was cooked up by someone <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie47" alt=":greedy:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie47" alt=":greedy:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie47" alt=":greedy:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> long after I became a professional numismatist to indicate that the surface of a coin was mechanically altered!&nbsp; Long ago, when this practice was totally unacceptable <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie85" alt=":smuggrin:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />, it was considered to be a fraudulent alteration that greatly diminished the coin&#039;s value. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie7" alt=":p" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> Cleaning is not the same as scraping metal from/on a surface to fill holes and remove raised chunks of corrosion.&nbsp; </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 128, 255)"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 128, 255)">Thanks for reading just one <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie30" alt=":bucktooth:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> man&#039;s opinion that will not change the &quot;market acceptability&quot; of these</span><b><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0)"> altered coins</span></b>.&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie3" alt=":(" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;To clean off encrustations, you use a metal tool to peel them off. This will naturally tend to smooth down the metal on the coin. However, if a coin has a rough surface, some will intentionally smooth the fields of the coin, to make it look better. Best way I know to detect it is to look at small field areas that would be very difficult to smooth. Those areas should look just like the large flat areas. If they are much rougher, then chances are the coin was smoothed.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 128, 255)">Excellent info</span>!</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Detraction of smoothing is not bad. Most ancient collectors accept it unless blatant. Tooling, however, (adding details to a coin), is NEVER acceptable and greatly diminishes a coins value.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 128, 255)"><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie11" alt=":rolleyes:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> Many <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie30" alt=":bucktooth:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> such as myself consider tooling and smoothing to be <b>similar unacceptable alterations</b>.&nbsp; When you can detect it or are told about the alteration, a collector can make an informed decision on the purchase.</span>&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>PS&nbsp; I&#039;ve been told if you know what the genuine surface of a coin of any age should look like, just about anything done to a coin&#039;s surface is detectable using florescent light and a stereo microscope at 7X to 10X.&nbsp; One day I&#039;ll need to try it.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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