Grey old US coins?????

cosmicdebris

One US coin I really like is the Bust halves. But a lot of the ones in nicer shape have what I would call a light gun metal grey color which I really do not like. ( They looked cleaned ) Where does this color come from?

Example:

PutTogether

Thats not cleaned. Thats silver's natural reaction to air. Over time, it will turn gray. In the older coins, I prefer gray ones to the super bright shiny ones some times. The shiny ones look almost fake.

Dennis88

I don't know really, but I like it...

Dennis

JrGMan2004

My Icon is how I like my oldies coins to look...

MrEureka

But a lot of the ones in nicer shape have what I would call a light gun metal grey color which I really do not like.

My understanding is that the color can be removed with Ajax.

airplanenut

I think that color comes from a washed out, poor quality scan.

The grey coins are some of the most beautiful around... i LOVE them

291fifth

That coin looks cleaned to me. Because it is very old the slab services tend to be more lenient.

ealandg

My experience with older US coins, which is what I mainly collect is that grey is good. Most of these early coins were dipped. Back in the day, that was an ENCOURAGED thing to do, not merely acceptable. This one does have the look of one that may have been cleaned long ago and retoned.

This was such a common occurence that the grading services usually slab 'em when the cleaning is old. The exceptions would be something that was harshly cleaned or recently dipped.

cosmicdebris

This is the color I would want to see:

Baley

awesome coin, Bill (the 1830) , a draped bust half with that luster and color would be very expensive!

the first coin (the 1805/4, a fairly scarce coin by the way) looks, what I call, "warshed off"

meaning soap and water but not anything abrasive (and causing hairlines) like gritty silver polish or steel wool.

IMO, such warshed off grey is preferable to abrasively cleaned, but not as desireable as fully original:

ealandg

I have a coin from this era that is darker than normal. I have always wondered if it was dipped (I tend to think so) and retoned... It is VERY dark.

cosmicdebris

I know that 1830 is awesome and way out of my budget right now. My taste are way too expnsive for my own good