Speaking of wild toning...

shylock

...as we often do here, has anyone seen this 1888 Liberty Nickel in person?

IrishMike

No, but I put it on my wish list yesterday, what a fantastic coin.

LanLord

I'm not sure I agree with the technical merit of the grade, but the colors are exquisite, a bit of pastel rainbow dancing on her surface.

edited cuz I can't spell technical

dragon

Wow! I have never seen color like that before on a Liberty nickel, a spectacular coin for sure.

Dragon

wingedliberty

WOW!, nice coin!!

Brian.

stman

That coin is sweet looking. I like it.

supercoin

Hmm... my beholding eye doesn't really like it. Looks kind of flat, for one thing.

Why don't any of these tone like you can sometimes find Jefferson and Buffalo nickels -- with lustrous concentric rings of blue, yellow, and rose?

IrishMike

They do tone in circles and the toning on these libs is gorgeous.

IrishMike

Link to the reverse, the circles are gold, blue and pink, the dealer I purchased this one from has a twin 1892.

Reverse

Russ

Holy crap! Mike, does that actually look like that in real life? Is that real? WOW!

Russ, NCNE

nucklehead

Both Shylocks and Irish Mikes coins look awesome.Thumbs up!

IrishMike

Russ, the color is more subtle than the pict shows, but nevertheless it's a keeper. There is something about the metal content in libs that lends itself to the gold, blue and pink toning.

stman

Irishmike, I really like that coin you showed. I will be looking for one in proof soon. Yours is a beauty.

IrishMike

Speaking of nicely toned proofs, here is one for sale from Pinnacle.

Placid

The first one blows the other two away in my opinion. The blue one is nice but I notice it is photographed at a angle that suggests the color only displays like that when the coin is tilted at a angle.

stman

Irishmike, you had to post that proof didn't you. It's the exact year that I want but am going to try and come close to matching the prmorgan I have. Might not never happen but I'll try. Hope Dog97 doesn't read this as this is his year.

Edited to add: on trying to put together a a close matched set probably the nickel I won't be able to, but maybe the quarter and half I can come close. And of coarse not the penney.

IrishMike

Placid you are correct the first one is nicer and I had to snap the pic at that angle to show any toning at all.

supercoin

IrishMike, ok, now we're talkin'! I like that kind of toning, even when it's a subtle iridescent thing.

Here's an example the kind of toning (from mnmcoins recent thread -- huge photo, by the way) that I was talking about:

Toned Jefferson

Probably usually found with a bit more blue and less pink, but that's the idea.

And Buffalo nickels are often found with nice similar hues.

Liberty Nickels are the same composition as later nickels, right? So what's the problem? Flat design altering the toning pattern? Ugly coins so people just collect them as part of a type set, instead of a complete date set in an album where they tone nicely? Just not enough of them around so the odds are against finding a nicely toned one?

Or... dbldie55 collects them and hates toning, so he's been dipping them all???

IrishMike

Tad, take a peek at Sunnywoods collection at NGC, ugly coins, no way!!! Actually the Liberty is 75% copper and 25% nickel. The Jefferson and Buffalo are the same except for the war time Jefferson nickels.

supercoin

Re: ugly coins, I'm an Ike enthusiast, I certainly understand the difference in taste regarding design. 90% of collectors are wrong about Ikes, of course.

I went and looked at the Sunnywood collection, only two coins pictured (along with some very pretty numbers ). One of the coins was very similar in coloration to the one that started this thread, but has much nicer luster (from the photo anyway). The other had some crescent toning -- which was ok, but nothing to get excited about compared to other nickel series.

But regarding the nickel composition -- that was my point -- same composition, why the difference in finding nicely toned? And why the apparently much different color pattern (if this and the similar Sunnywood coin are representative examples)?

I'm still perplexed!

IrishMike

I think the point you made about album toning is right on, lots of buffs and jeffs found there way into albums, I couldn't really say that about libs, I just don't know. Perplexion often happens in the expansion of one's horizons. The blast white lustrous ones that I have seen are just well almost as just as appealing to me. I have several Ikes too, also an acquired taste I feel.