How to tell if an old coin has been cleaned?
I posted this earlier but it disappeared, so I will try again.
I’ve been doing some learning on telling if a coin has been cleaned… and I do know this.
High Grade coins will have a "cartwheel", cleaning removes this cartwheel.
If a coin has been retoned, usually the toning lacks contrast and is very evenly distributed.
However I still find a lack of understanding on this.
If a coin has been cleaned say 60 years ago, usually it will retone back to normal as far as toning goes.
But on a lower grade coins, say F or VF, there is scratches on the coins from circulation, and there are scratches from cleaning.
So if a VF coin was cleaned 60 years ago, retoned back to normal, how can one tell scratches from cleaning and scratches from normal wear like circulation?
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been, Cleaned, Coin, tell
