Textile Toning on Walking Liberty Halves

ChangeInHistory

How often do you come across textile toning on a WLH? I would imagine they were transferred and stored in canvas bank bags like other coins of the period, but I don't see them with this type of toning. Any thoughts, observations, or other examples would be great to see.

Walkerguy21D

I don’t recall ever seeing them. Of course I haven’t seen every walker ever minted, but I’ve seen my share 😊

I’m guessing their stays in original mint bags were very brief in general, at least for most of the early and middle dates. The mintages for those were relatively low. They were workhorses and dumped into circulation soon after minting. The MS pops bear this out. Even the high mintage earlier dates have populations of a few hundred coins, with 1917p being the most common, but still not enough to warrant that any bags of this date were stored away.

Some middle and late dates were saved in roll quantities, but I’ve never heard of any original bags surfacing years after minting.

Morgan dollars, on the other hand, were minted in vast quantities, “just because “, and sat unused in storage for decades in bank and treasury vaults. This provided the opportunity to acquire bag toning.

TomB

I can't recall seeing many. Perhaps your coin was not stored in a US Mint bag, but rather was in some other sort of bag or textile that was stored improperly. I write this because your coin, especially the reverse, is spotted as if it were kept in a damp basement. Who knows, maybe it was left in someones jeans pocket for years in a musty garage?

davewesen

almost looks like a big thumb print

Walkerfan

That doesn’t look like textile toning to me.

Walkerfan

@davewesen said:
almost looks like a big thumb print

Yes, it looks like some sort of prints (thumb, finger or palm, etc.).

Top50SetBuilder

This coin was dipped and then not properly rinsed

MFeld

@TomB said:
I can't recall seeing many. Perhaps your coin was not stored in a US Mint bag, but rather was in some other sort of bag or textile that was stored improperly. I write this because your coin, especially the reverse, is spotted as if it were kept in a damp basement. Who knows, maybe it was left in someones jeans pocket for years in a musty garage?

Tom, would you mind if I use part of your post for an upcoming auction lot description?

“This lovely, spotted textile-toned example looks as if it was either stored improperly in a damp basement or left in someone’s jeans pocket for years in a musty garage. Needless to say, based on its appearance, we expect highly spirited bidding”.

😉

crazyhounddog

Whatever cause that is not very attractive.

Walkerfan

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U1chicago

I had one that showed some textile but the color wasn't anything special.
The photos are hard to see but you can somewhat make out the textile.

TomB

Go for it, Mark!

@MFeld said:

@TomB said:
I can't recall seeing many. Perhaps your coin was not stored in a US Mint bag, but rather was in some other sort of bag or textile that was stored improperly. I write this because your coin, especially the reverse, is spotted as if it were kept in a damp basement. Who knows, maybe it was left in someones jeans pocket for years in a musty garage?

Tom, would you mind if I use part of your post for an upcoming auction lot description?

“This lovely, spotted textile-toned example looks as if it was either stored improperly in a damp basement or left in someone’s jeans pocket for years in a musty garage. Needless to say, based on its appearance, we expect highly spirited bidding”.

😉

ChangeInHistory

@crazyhounddog said:
Whatever cause that is not very attractive.

She's not going to win any beauty contest, just unusual to see.