I'm rather put off here, I received as a christmas present an 1876-S Seated Half. It's in absolutely great shape, except for one thing. When I looked at it I noticed it had been cleaned. Now, I'm not put off on getting a cleaned coin, but the story that came with it.
My dad's eyesight is going, and really, he doesn't know much about coin collecting anyhow, but he wouldn't have seen the tooling on the coin, but the person who sold it to him was obviously doing the "Oh, I can easily get this for it cause its X or Y grade. But I'll come down to..." and this made me super angry. I mean, I love the coin, even cleaned, and I know I won't have my dad forever, so I'll never get rid of it. But it just kills me that people are so out for money that they misrepresent the things being sold, and this goes for ANYTHING, not just coins.
But this brings me to my question as it got me thinking on how things are valued, the coin in question is in beautiful shape, Full Liberty, little wear on the lady and the eagle, sharp detail on the talons and scrolls, the only thing they could have been cleaning is toning and left buffing marks. So how much does cleaning affect the value of a coin? Especially a high grade? (Like I said, I'll never get rid of this coin simply for its sentimental value) But say I have two coins, same coin both MS+ but one is cleaned, what would the difference in value be?
Sorry if this isn't the proper forum, I couldn't decide which would be more appropriate, feel free to move it if need be. Also, hope you all had good holidays!
My dad's eyesight is going, and really, he doesn't know much about coin collecting anyhow, but he wouldn't have seen the tooling on the coin, but the person who sold it to him was obviously doing the "Oh, I can easily get this for it cause its X or Y grade. But I'll come down to..." and this made me super angry. I mean, I love the coin, even cleaned, and I know I won't have my dad forever, so I'll never get rid of it. But it just kills me that people are so out for money that they misrepresent the things being sold, and this goes for ANYTHING, not just coins.
But this brings me to my question as it got me thinking on how things are valued, the coin in question is in beautiful shape, Full Liberty, little wear on the lady and the eagle, sharp detail on the talons and scrolls, the only thing they could have been cleaning is toning and left buffing marks. So how much does cleaning affect the value of a coin? Especially a high grade? (Like I said, I'll never get rid of this coin simply for its sentimental value) But say I have two coins, same coin both MS+ but one is cleaned, what would the difference in value be?
Sorry if this isn't the proper forum, I couldn't decide which would be more appropriate, feel free to move it if need be. Also, hope you all had good holidays!