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Coin Toning Question
Please take a look @ eBay seller "tonecoin2003". 3pages of toned coins, all
look smiliar !! out of 500+ feedback, the neutrals & complaints point to artificial toning !! [1] are these artificialy toned ? [2] how is this done ? [3] how do you detect artificial toning ? [4] are there any publications on the subject ?? TIA Tony -- Tony Hawley, PO BOX 15174, Portland,Oregon 97293-5174, E-mail : , eBay ID: ynotan1, RCC - ID: ynotan, ANA # R-192172 |
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On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 13:00:37 GMT, "ynotan" is alleged to
have written: Please take a look @ eBay seller "tonecoin2003". 3pages of toned coins, all look smiliar !! out of 500+ feedback, the neutrals & complaints point to artificial toning !! [1] are these artificialy toned ? [2] how is this done ? [3] how do you detect artificial toning ? [4] are there any publications on the subject ?? TIA Tony Google the group for tonecoin2003. He's been a topic here before. 1) Beyond doubt. 2) http://www.coinsite.com/content/orig...c/p0000080.htm 3) You just have to get used to what natural toning can look like. Yeah, I know that's not much help. I may not be able to describe AT, but i know it when i see it...usually. 4) I seem to remember one book out on collecting toned coins, but I've slept since then. Rick Tomaska is the author, maybe? Bruce |
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On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 13:00:37 GMT, "ynotan" wrote:
[1] are these artificialy toned ? [2] how is this done ? [3] how do you detect artificial toning ? [4] are there any publications on the subject ?? I post this periodically: What follows is a distillation of many people's opinions and observations, including my own. Additions and corrections are welcomed. This document is copyrighted -- please don't republish elsewhere. HMTL version available he http://rg.ancients.info/guide. Toning: real, artificial, in between? -- periodic post - - - IN A NUTSHELL: Toning can add natural beauty, and value, to a coin. Or it can be the result of tampering by a coin doctor. There are ways to tell. - - - Among coin collectors, toning is almost as controversial as market grading. Some like toning, some don't, some toning is real, some is not. As a general rule, toned coins tend to be preferred more by advanced collectors than beginning collectors, while coins that look the same way they looked when they came from the Mint tend to be preferred more by newcomers. "People buy the color, experience, life of the coin, not just the technical grade," says Bob Campbell, former ANA president and coin dealer who sells toned coins. "Beginning collectors like blazing white coins. More advanced collectors like beautifully toned coins." There are exceptions to this, of course, with some advanced collectors preferring their silver coins blast white. Both toned and untoned coins have their attractions, though the attraction of a beautifully toned coin is undeniable. A beautifully toned coin is a coin that has aged well. The magnificent aging of silver, in particular, is analogous to the magnificent aging of deciduous leaves every year, in the right climates, before they turn brown, the brilliant yellows and reds of the fall's foliage. This doesn't always happen with either leaves or silver. You need the right environment. When it does happen, it pleases the eye. Color is simply more appealing than gray. The appreciation of toning is often a sensibility that comes with time, similar to appreciating the relatively small differences in uncirculated grades, say between a 64 and a 66. When you first start out, a coin with toning looks old or unnatural. Then you begin to appreciate the sometimes marvelous ways that time can paint a beautiful picture on coins. Toning is just the numismatic way of saying tarnish. Ironically, like rust on iron, toning on silver and bronze is a form of corrosion. What happens with silver and bronze is similar to what happens with iron, only it's a slower process with bronze and an even slower process with silver. Like rust, the toning on coins gets thicker over time. Not all toning is beautiful. With some coins toning can indeed be brilliantly and spectacularly colorful. With other coins toning can only subtly enhance eye appeal. With still other coins, toning can be dark, streaky, splotchy, spotty, uneven, or otherwise ugly, making the coin look like an algae-stained remnant from the Blue Lagoon. Because such toning when extreme is considered environmental damage, the top grading services won't grade these coins. Toning is an alteration of the chemical makeup and color of a coin's surface. It takes place naturally over time as the metal reacts with chemicals in its environment, typically to various sulfur-based compounds. Or it can be induced artificially, and more quickly. Natural toning takes place more quickly in a warmer and more humid environment. Not all coins tone. If sealed in an air-tight environment, the surfaces of a coin will deplete sulfur and other chemicals around it and stop toning after that. Intercept Shield coin holders are designed to intercept and neutralize sulfur and other contaminants and thus prevent toning. Metals Numismatic metals tone in different ways. Silver coins as a whole tone more beautifully than those made of other metals. Silver, exposed to the right environmental influences -- to small amounts of hydrogen sulfur in the air or larger amounts in albums, envelopes, canvass bags, paper rolls, leather wallets or purses, rubber bands, and some glues and paints -- can naturally turn subtle or sometimes brilliant shades of yellow, magenta, turquoise, and other colors before eventually turning black. The toning on silver is typically silver sulfide. Though toning is most often caused by sulfur, the word toning is sometimes used to describe other coloration on the surface of a coin, even stains or dirt. Silver can react with other substances such as chlorides in soil, producing silver chloride or "horn silver," which typically appears as an unattractive black, gray, purple, or brown stain. The word oxidation is sometimes used in relation to toning, though the word originally referred to a reaction with oxygen and is probably still best used in this context. The toning of silver coins is partly a factor of the other metals the silver is alloyed with, particularly copper. Ninety percent silver coins (most circulating U.S. coins) tone differently than sterling silver (British coins), triple nine-fine silver (American Silver Eagles), ancient silver coins, and most world silver coins. Silver coins can turn green from the copper they're typically alloyed with, the green resulting from copper carbonate or copper chloride. Copper is the most chemically reactive numismatic metal used in the U.S., and it and its alloys -- bronze and brass -- usually turn from red to a dark and fairly unattractive brown. But copper can turn green as well (called verdigris). Sometimes copper and its alloys can pick up multiple subtle and attractive shades of red, brown, green, and yellow. Some lovers of early cents love the look of toned copper. "Old copper, like beauty, appears to possess a certain intrinsic quality or charm which for many people is irresistible," said Dr. William Sheldon in his book Penny Whimsy. But the marketplace as a whole prefers red. Early copper coins are more valuable if naturally red and untoned than red-brown, which in turn are more valuable than brown. Toning on copper and its alloys is often called patina, though all toning is a type of patina, or coating. The toning on copper typically consists of copper sulfate or copper chloride but may also consist of copper acetate or copper carbonate. "Bronze disease," which appears as a powdery green or blue-green on ancient bronze coins and consists of copper chloride and hydrochloric acid, can eat away a coin's surface. Gold, the least chemically reactive metal, generally stays the way it is over even thousands of years, unless it's heated or exposed to sea water. But the copper or silver that gold is typically alloyed with can tone, turning the color an attractive deep orange or "orange peal." Ancient gold coins, when unearthed, can be covered with encrustations (dirt, grease, organic matter, salts, etc.) just like other coins. Gold coins uncovered from ship wrecks can have minutely pitted surfaces from the corrosive effects of salt water. Such coins can look like cast counterfeits. Some gold coins over time pick up subtle light brown or orange-brown streaks or spots (called carbon spots or copper spots), which may have been caused by incompletely mixed copper in the alloy, by airborne contaminants, or by someone having breathed on the coin. Unless carbon spots are particularly conspicuous and offputting, they doesn't affect the value of gold coins. Toned gold coins with a "cloudy" affect are usually artificially toned. Nickel generally tones only slightly, typically becoming hazy gray though sometimes light golden or pale blue. Nickel coins can also pick up color as a result of PVC contamination. Wild rainbow toning on nickel is usually artificial. Aluminum (aluminium to the Brits and most of the rest of the world) typically tones a dull, unattractive gray. The color of the toning on any coin is a factor of how advanced and thick the film of toning is. Early toning on silver coins is yellow, with the colors progressing to magenta (purplish red) to cyan (greenish blue) to black. The color results from "thin film refraction" or "thin film interference," the refracting of different wavelengths of light waves through the film. This is the same color effect that appears with soap bubbles and when a thin layer of oil lays on top of a puddle of water. Different coins tone in different ways. Morgan dollars tone more beautifully than Peace dollars because the planchets of the latter were given a more concentrated acid bath at the Mint. Walking Liberty half dollars tend to acquire unbalanced toning as a result of their asymmetrical design. Many commemorative halves from the 1930s have "tab toning" resulting from their original cardboard holders. Many unattractively toned coins are "dipped" in a thiourea solution, such as E-Z-Est Coin Cleaner, to remove the toning. If done properly, a white dipped coin can be attractive. If overdipped, a high-grade coin loses its luster and takes on an unattractive flat, lifeless look. If a coin isn't rinsed properly after dipping, it can pick up unattractive spotting or staining over time. Even properly dipped coins don't tone the same way later as coins with original surfaces, typically turning gray rather than colorful. Artificial Toning Because attractively toned silver coins are desirable to many collectors, they usually carry a premium and sometimes a huge premium. This is particularly true with coins that have "monster toning" (wild toning), "target toning" or "bullet toning" (colors that change from the coin's periphery in toward to the center), "rainbow toning" (multiple colors), or "iridescent toning" (shimmering). Such coins are even graded higher by the grading services, which "market grade" according to a coin's overall eye appeal. This motivates some people to artificially tone, or doctor, coins. Other times coin doctors artificially tone a coin to hide hairlines from a prior cleaning, scratches, contact marks, or even repair work. The difference between natural toning and artificial toning isn't always clear-cut. Most toning results from human intervention (which is one definition of "artificial"), from placing a coin in contact with a man-made material such as a U.S. Mint canvass bag, an old Wayte Raymond album, or a traditional felt-lined coin cabinet. Most people, however, regard toning as artificial when there's a deliberate attempt to impart it over a short time, such as baking a coin in an oven (alone or in a potato), blasting it with a blow torch, placing it in a covered bowl with crushed match heads (these coins smell!), blowing cigarette or cigar smoke on it, thumbing it with nose grease, or soaking or painting it with bleach, acid, or a sulfur-containing chemical. The gray area involves deliberately toning a coin with longer-acting techniques such as by setting it for several months on a window sill in the sun, placing it on a block of oak wood in the sun, wrapping it in tissue paper, or sealing it in an ordinary high-sulfur envelope. Coin collectors generally prefer modern coins to have natural, untampered surfaces (collectors of ancient coins are much more tolerant). The grading services do a good if not perfect job of detecting artificial toning (AT), which is one of the reasons many collectors buy older, higher-end coins in slabs. Even so, some collectors are afraid of toned coins, says Mark Salzberg, president of the coin-grading service NGC. "It simply doesn't make any sense," he wrote in an article titled "The Virtues of Toned Coins," which appears at the Web site Coin-Gallery Online. "It's only natural that old coins, particularly silver pieces, acquire various degrees and shades of color over time. This is one of the most charming qualities of antique coins that distinguish them from more recent issues, and I believe collectors who don't already do so should learn to appreciate the virtues of toned coins." To be fair, however, collectors have legitimate cause for being concerned about some toned coins. Not even the top grading services spot all artificially toned coins, says Bob Campbell. In his video How to Tell Artificial Toning on Coins, available for loan from the American Numismatic Association, Campbell says the following are AT tip-offs: * Circular toning spots resulting from the beading of the toning liquid that was used. * Colors that blend together out of sequence. With naturally toned coins, the progression is yellow then magenta (pinkish red) then cyan (blue-green). * Toning that appears only on the tops of the lettering and devices and not in the coin's recesses. * Wild "circus" colors -- on 90 percent silver coins, for instance, army green, bright pumpkin orange, and robin-egg blue. According to PCGS's book Coin Grading and Counterfeit Detection, the following are other indications of artificial toning: * The toning floats on the surface of the coin rather than having depth and being bonded to the metal. * The toning occurs over hairlines or other marks. * The toning exhibits bright "crayon" colors. * The toning has a yellow-brown, smoky appearance, indicating it was caused by cigarette or cigar smoke. More on Toning The Virtues of Toned Coins http://www.coin-gallery.com/cgtoning.htm eCoinPrices' Toned Coins http://www.ecoinprices.com/toned.htm Corrosion Doctors' Silver Artifacts http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Artifacts/silver.htm Tonedcoins.com http://www.tonedcoins.com -- Coin Collecting: Consumer Guide: http://rg.ancients.info/guide Glomming: Coin Connoisseurship: http://rg.ancients.info/glom Bogos: Counterfeit Coins: http://rg.ancients.info/bogos |
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On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 13:00:37 GMT, "ynotan" wrote:
Please take a look @ eBay seller "tonecoin2003". 3pages of toned coins, all look smiliar !! out of 500+ feedback, the neutrals & complaints point to artificial toning !! [1] are these artificialy toned ? [2] how is this done ? [3] how do you detect artificial toning ? [4] are there any publications on the subject ?? TIA Tony This guy has been discussed frequently over on the PCGS board. Bottom line is his raw stuff is AT (artificially toned) and he spikes his offerings occasionally with NT (naturally toned) coins in PCGS and NGC holders. -- K6AZ WEB PAGES http://www.k6az.com/web_pages.htm |
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