# What is a "cleaned" coin? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 1, 2018, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-cleaned-coin/823820 "2018-11-01T04:21:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2018, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-cleaned-coin/823820/21 "2018-11-02T16:57:41Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > I kind of agree and I used to be an amateur coin collector when I was young. > > My personal theory why collectors don’t like it is that it undermines the system. The whole point of these high coin grades is that someone has had to take care and preserve that coin from damage for a long long time. Because of this it is rare. Coin collectors want these to be very rare. > > Keep in mind every hobby or skill enjoys the benefit of stratification to some degree. If any old schmuck could pick up a guitar and play like Jimmy Hendrix in a few weeks, then playing a guitar well wouldn’t be special. > > What if tomorrow some magical solution was developed and you could just pour it on any mistreated corroded coin and the result would be a wonderful looking high grade coin with no side effects at all? Then everyone could have high grade coins and the system of grading would collapse. There is nothing special anymore. > > Cleaning a coin is sort of like that. Even if you do a really good job cleaning a coin so that a regular person off the street would give it a high grade, the experts will be able to detect it and downgrade it. They don’t want to let in “shortcuts.” They want to keep the special coins special. I don’t think it’s that difficult to see a cleaned coin. It’s not inside knowledge. I suppose if you could return the original surface to a coin, those businesses would adapt. Whatever was “special” would migrate to another concern. Grading in all hobbies has become very precise. I don’t expect that to go away. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-cleaned-coin/823820/22 "2018-11-02T19:29:21Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > The whole thing against cleaning (defined short and fast as doing anything other than removing loose surface dirt) started long ago but from having read through publications going back to the 1800s it doesn’t seem to have become a real thing until the 1960s and later. Most put it down as preference but there is a reasoning as well. As collecting got bigger and more money involved it becomes real tough to detect a doctored coin (one where someone had artificially added details once worn away thus raising the grade and possible value) or outright fake (where someone has added or removed a mintmark) once a coin has been cleaned. If I’m shelling out Big Bucks I don’t want something tampered with in any way because chances are that when I sell it someone is going to hammer the offer because of it. > > Dip; yes. Q-tip ----- bad. so a pencil eraser to copper pennies would be ok? ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-cleaned-coin/823820/23 "2018-11-04T02:00:26Z")
> [@simster](#): > > so a pencil eraser to copper pennies would be ok? Well ------ since you were young and didn’t have access to a sandblaster and bench-grinder I’ll forgive you. 😉 > [@drad\_dog](#): > > With pro grading you have to put the uncirculated grades in a precise definition because of the money involved. It’s like that in comics too. And like with comics its not just in the uncirculated (we say Mint State or MS) grades but depending on the rarity it can be well down the circulated grades as well. Calling on a slightly old price sheet and the old reliable 1909-S VDB Good - $660 VG - $725 Fine - $850 VF - $900 XF - $1000 AU (almost unc) - $1100 MS60 - $1500 MS63 - $1600 MS65 - $2750 Yeah - the big pay-off is being able to jump that 65 grade but if I can whiz even in the circs I am picking up a cool hundred or more. Not bad for say 15 minutes work if you can do it and if you can do it well enough to get away with it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-cleaned-coin/823820.md?page=1)