Examples of toning in an old PCI holder

mothra454

At the suggestion of @U1chicago I'm posting some pics of coins in my collection that clearly have toned in their old green PCI holders. I say "clearly" because the graders labeled them as 90%+ white, but they aren't anymore! I'm interested in what people think about them, from an appeal standpoint as well as the "science" of how they toned in the holders (I know there have been several threads on this topic over the years, but instead of bumping old ones I started my own).

A little background - I bought all of these in the 2006-2007 era and didn't do anything weird to them other than put them in a box in the basement. I wish I had taken (or saved) pics of them when I first got them to see how much toning was evident then, but my flip phone took pretty awful pics. I haven't been on this forum since then, so please excuse my renewed newbie status!

Meltdown

I like the 2nd Morgan & Franklin the best for overall look. There's not much science that I'm able to explain other than the plastic inserts used back then were full of chemicals that clearly reacted to silver over time.
I've owned quite a few over the years and only have a couple left. One is a 1994 ASE labled 90% white that looks similar to your 1901 Morgan. I don't have photos of that but here is my other example.

coinbuf

That first morgan has the look of a bad dip, but the second and frankie have a more classic PCI tone to them, nice.

mothra454

@Meltdown said:
I like the 2nd Morgan & Franklin the best for overall look. There's not much science that I'm able to explain other than the plastic inserts used back then were full of chemicals that clearly reacted to silver over time.
I've owned quite a few over the years and only have a couple left. One is a 1994 ASE labled 90% white that looks similar to your 1901 Morgan. I don't have photos of that but here is my other example.

Thanks! I love your example, such great colors in the toning. I have certainly heard the plastic insert theory before, and I think you're right that it must have something to with it given the "target" pattern that usually shows up. But I don't understand why it would happen to some and not to others....

mothra454

@coinbuf said:
That first morgan has the look of a bad dip, but the second and frankie have a more classic PCI tone to them, nice.

Ouch, the dreaded "D" word! I certainly hope it wasn't, but I can't vouch for anything that was done before I got it. Whoever it was, it looks like they left a fingerprint on the obverse so maybe we can track the guy down

Jimnight

Nice toning on these coins!