Doctored Coin Details

[Bremick]

Just for discussion, why should it be important to a typical coin
collector that the wording of a precise definition of "coin doctoring" has
recently been agreed upon? Who was this done for? I assume that the major
TPG's already were able to identify and classify most kinds of coin issues
and grade submitted coins (or not) accordingly. As a collector of raw
coins, what protections do I have now that I didn't have before? If I
already could tell if a coin had been whizzed, is it that important to know
how it was done? If I find a particular MS coin to be attractive but
probably artificially toned, is it important that I know how it was done?
How is the decision that certain types of "dipping" may be considered
"doctoring" guide me as a collector? This whole effort seems to have been
an acedemic exercise in semantics. I'm sure there are opposing views and
I'd be inteested in hearing some.

[Jerry Dennis]

I'm the first to admit that, other than the most obvious "doctoring,"
I wouldn't be able to spot a previously cleaned or dipped coin. Be
that as it may, it's quite possible that someone, somewhere, has to be
the dog to take a leak on the hydrant. They're so enamoured by their
own sense of self-importance that they have to let everyone know who
they are. And to prove it, they have to write something in their
field of "expertise."

As an example, and going a little OT here, I'm a professional
handyman, and I've been painting as part of my job for the past 20+
years. I used to watch AOL's / Huffington Post's "How to" videos. I
quit when their "expert" showed how to clean a paint brush. His way
was fine, if I was willing to pay $20 a pop for a throw-away brush.
He, obviously wasn't an expert by any stretch of the imagination, and
many other professionals (handymen and painters both) said so. So
here's this young kid telling us how to do things we've been doing for
years, and telling us wrong. It's the same with coin collecting.

In a nutshell, knowledge is power, and I'm learning how to tell a
properly "conserved" coin as opposed to an "improperly cleaned" coin.

Jerry

[Frank Provasek]

It seems the panic about "doctored" coins in slabs started about the
same time that the CAC sticker
service appeared on the scene, and one of the loudest voices claiming
that the grading services had
slabbed milliions of dollars in questionable coins had a financial
interest in CAC. We have always wondered
how a person reviewing a slabbed coin can make a better determination
of whether it's been messed with
than the 3 or 4 PCGS or NGC graders who looked at the coin before it
was slabbed.

[Bremick]

"Frank Provasek" <fr...@frankcoins.com> wrote in message
news:c51ac6c1-9307-47d2...@s9g2000vbg.googlegroups.com...

Agreed. Also, especially with raw coins, why is it so important to develop
the "perfect" industry definition for a coin issue that most collectors
would have no problem recognizing? Some collectors could be willing to
include a coin in their collection that obviously has been dipped, whizzed,
artificially-toned, or otherwise cleaned. They couldn't care less whether
its problem appears on the "doctored coin" list. If a dipped or
artificially-toned coin looks attractive, and the price is right, it's a
buy. Where more serious coin doctoring problems could arise are with
professionally altered coins. It would be more helpful to educate
collectors on detection methods than to come up with approved wording to
describe and categorize them.