How does toning affect the grade?

fcloud

David,

I have seen very ugly toned coins and some beauties. Does the color, range, depth, and or rainbow affect the grade of a coin when graded? Or, is it simply the amount of wear, bag marks, and/or rubs in which are considered?

Tony

homerunhall

Hi Tony...For Mint State coins the four criteria are marks, strike, luster, and eye appeal. Toning is part of the eye appeal. We used to have the following statement on the grading room wall...

"Toning adds a little and forgives a lot."

(We also use to have the saying "Any fool can undergrade" hung on the wall.)

Toning is a very personal preference issue, but most will agree that beautiful rainbow toning is a positive and mottled, splotchy brown toning is a negative. The graders definitely take toning into acount.

Proofs have the same concept (slightly different criteria), i.e. toning is part of eye appeal.

I was always a beautiful rainbow toning fan and I always had a very negative personal opinion on ugly bird doo toning. While I'm as big a fan of blast white luster as anybody, until recently I had been dismayed at the market's seemingly myopic preference for pure white (no matter how dipped-out looking) coins. I am tickled at the resurgence of interest in beautiful rainbow toned coins and the very strong recent auction prices for the rainbow beauties.

David