I could swear this was silver several years ago

laurentyvan

Had this in a curio cabinet for several years. It went in silver and came out toned in gold and purple. Looks like a gold coin and is magnificent in hand! The other side stayed more normally toned.

TwoKopeiki

Nice cabinet you have there, Laurent

ajaan

Was it cased with the original foam? The coin is .500 silver.

laurentyvan

A small tan-colored foam insert is part of the packaging.

theboz11

I some Cooking in my curio cabinet right now

ajaan

I have some also set aside but they aren't toning much. I think once the foam is 'used up' the coins don't tone. I know someone who is using the foam from the cased nickel dollars. I wonder how this would work.

coinpictures

What I find interesting, now that I've purchased about 40 or so raw encased 1971 and 1972 silver dollars, is why some only tone on one side, whereas some tone on both sides. There is only 1 piece of foam in the case and the side of the coin that is up against the foam is usually the side that tones. Also, the 1972 Voyager silver dollars seem more prone to 2-sided toning than the 1971 British Columbia silver dollars or the 1973 dollars...

The nickel dollars hardly ever tone, or if they do it's a gold/brown toning that's pretty monochromatic, not the multicolored "splatter" toning that the silver dollars get.

Also, from what I've seen in the ones I have is that the 1972 Voyager dollars end up with the nicest toning patterns and hues overall; the 1971 and 1973 dollars aren't nearly as aesthetically pleasing in my opinion.

Also, whereas the 1972 Voyagers can get extremely vibrant and almost garish on the toning, you can also find examples where the canoe side has toned entirely to a pale blue or sea green; really quite gorgeous. I wonder what differentiates between the two types, i.e. what causes the splotches of color to start to appear over the underlying blue as opposed to remaining the blue overall.

I think I'm up to about 70 total examples of these that are toned. Once my vacation hits in October, I think I'll image the majority that have not been photographed yet, then separate them by year, and then try to form some sort of image continuum with the various pieces I have...

laurentyvan

I think I noticed you picked up an autumn colored voyageur from me recently. You'll have to tell me how you like it in hand.

laurentyvan

I have some also set aside but they aren't toning much. I think once the foam is 'used up' the coins don't tone. I know someone who is using the foam from the cased nickel dollars. I wonder how this would work.

Don, the foam doesn't enter into the toning in this case. The coin was removed from its mint box and (carefully) placed naked with the queen side down on a glass shelf within the curio cabinet. 3 years later the buzzer went off and I removed it.

Now it's possible that the original foam insert began the toning process decades ago but I believe the cabinet sure finished it off.