  SN 1954J in NGC 2403 and SN 1961V in NGC 1058 were two luminous transients
whose definitive classification as either non-terminal eruptions or supernovae
remains elusive. A critical question is whether a surviving star can be
significantly obscured by dust formed from material ejected during the
transient. We use three lines of argument to show that the candidate surviving
stars are not significantly optically extincted ($\tau \lesssim 1$) by dust
formed in the transients. First, we use SED fits to new HST optical and near-IR
photometry. Second, neither source is becoming brighter as required by
absorption from an expanding shell of ejected material. Third, the ejecta
masses implied by the H$\alpha$ luminosities are too low to produce significant
dust absorption. The latter two arguments hold independent of the dust
properties. The H$\alpha$ fluxes should also be declining with time as
$t^{-3}$, and this seems not to be observed. As a result, it seems unlikely
that recently formed dust can be responsible for the present faintness of the
sources compared to their progenitors, although this can be verified with
\textit{JWST}. This leaves three possibilities: 1) the survivors were
misidentified; 2) they are intrinsically less luminous; 3) SN 1954J and SN
1961V were true supernovae.

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena;Solar and Stellar Astrophysics