How can you tell if a coin has been cleaned?

[Quimster]

Hello everyone. How can you tell if a coin has been cleaned? I have an old Mercury dime that looks very dull but still has what looks like orginal shine when put under a light at different angles but does not compair to other dimes in my collection with the same wear. It is tarnished just below the rim but doesn't look unnatural. This is the same on both sides. If any silver piece was cleaned how long would it take to tarnish again and would it tarnish in this fashion from the outside rim in? The only reason I don't believe it to be a cleaned dime is because it has darker areas on random parts of the obverse and reverse in areas that are harder to touch, between letter and numbers etc...

If anyone has any pictures that you can post in a reply of what a cleaned silver piece retarnishing looks like that would be so very helpful. Finally what percentage decrease would a cleaned coin have as compaired to a non cleaned coin of the same grading. Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.

Thanks again, Jesse

 

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[nhbenz]

Hi Jesse, I'm not a coin guy, but I thought I'd post a link incase it helps: http://www.coppercoins.com/faqsearch.php?thiscat=cleaning coins