Very unusual in-roll toning on my 20 pfennig

neildrobertson

I recently purchased this 1874-G German Empire 20 Pfennig coin. It's a nice Gem UNC. It has some crusty, thick toning on the obverse from, what I assume is, being at the end of a roll. The reverse side has much lighter toning.

The reverse toning is very interesting because you can actually read portions of the lettering from the coin that was behind it in the roll. If you look at 8-9 o'clock on the reverse edge, you can see a reverse ghost of "1874" from the coin stacked behind it. I suspect that the high points of the coin behind it created a tighter gap that limited air flow and slowed toning down in that area.

It's not a die clash because the lettering is in the toning only, and the alignment doesn't make sense either.

Does anyone else have examples of this type of toning?

Sapyx

I do not know if it was standard German Imperial banking practice to use "rolls" of coins, but I would agree this coin was in some kind of roll-like "coin stack" for a prolonged period.

And no, I've never seen design-transfer toning patterns on a coin before, German or otherwise. Which makes me wonder whether unusual circumstances were at play here. Perhaps this "toning" isn't natural, but as a result of a fire?

neildrobertson

@Sapyx said:
I do not know if it was standard German Imperial banking practice to use "rolls" of coins, but I would agree this coin was in some kind of roll-like "coin stack" for a prolonged period.

And no, I've never seen design-transfer toning patterns on a coin before, German or otherwise. Which makes me wonder whether unusual circumstances were at play here. Perhaps this "toning" isn't natural, but as a result of a fire?

It was in a roll. The rest of the roll was auctioned by the auction house in the same auction last month.

I looked at the coin some more and I think it is the result of a die clash. The clash wasn't strong enough to leave clear marks around the edges, but I'm now noticing the area where the "0" in 20 would clash. That part is untoned and has some relief. It appears to me that the difference in surface morphology in the clashed areas led to less toning.

Rexford

Agree with die clash. The alignment does actually make sense, doesn’t it? Since these were struck in medallic alignment