Help with weird spots on front element

[nkrustev]

Hi guys,
I recently bought a lens and it has some strange spots and scratches on the front element. It seems like some problem with the coating. Is it fungus or something else?
On the picture it seems a lot worse than it is.
Can anyone tell me what it is? Is there a way to fix it? Is it a problem (a have taken a few pictures with it and it seems fine)?
Thank you.

[J. Patric Dahlen]

It looks like the coating has been badly "cleaned" away. The front element can probably be polished and recoated. It doesn't look like fungus. If you can feel the scratches, then they are deeper than the coating.

[Rick A]

Sheesh--looks like someone tried to clean the front element with a brillo pad.

[nkrustev]

You cannot feel the scratches. The picture looks real bad but when you hold it is almost hard to notice the spots/scratches. The patern does not seem to be hand made (by bad cleaning). It is a combination of netlike scratches and round spots.
Do you think I can/should try to remove the coating with a soft abrasive?
How bad do you think this affects the value of the lens?
I will only use it for black and white.

[imagedowser]

Looks like someone wanted to soften lens ....

[Steven Tribe]

Looks like typical fungus attach in the coating. I have seen similar patterns on some mamiya TLR lenses that were badly stored (dark and damp) by a previous owner. Fungus thrives on coated lenses and etches the glass underneath. Unless the lens is very special, professional polishing and recoating will not be worthwhile. This is not a job for brave amateurs, like me!

[GPS]

Looks like typical fungus attach in the coating.
...


Absolutely right. If you can unscrew the element and get to clean it it's probably still the time to save the lens (as you don't see any effect on pictures yet.)