Lets stir the Pot ?
cuzzx
Posts: 138
Toned coins,
NT & AT coins.
Toning is just the numismatic way of saying tarnish. Ironically, like rust on iron, toning on silver and bronze is a form of corrosion. What happens with silver and bronze is similar to what happens with iron, only it's a slower process with bronze and an even slower process with silver. Like rust, the toning on coins gets thicker over time.
The way I see it is most toned coins are Artificial Toned because we put them in cardboard holders knowing that they will or might tone.Toning is an alteration of the chemical makeup and color of a coin's surface. It takes place naturally over time as the metal reacts with chemicals in its environment, typically to various sulfur-based compounds. Or it can be induced artificially, and more quickly. Natural toning takes place more quickly in a warmer and more humid environment.
Numismatic metals tone in different ways. Silver coins as a whole tone more beautifully than those made of other metals. Silver, exposed to the right environmental influences -- to small amounts of hydrogen sulfur in the air or larger amounts in albums, envelopes, canvas bags, paper rolls, leather wallets or purses, rubber bands, and some glues and paints -- can naturally turn subtle or sometimes brilliant shades of yellow, magenta, turquoise, and other colors before eventually turning black. The toning on silver is typically silver sulfide
Nickel generally tones only slightly, typically becoming hazy gray though sometimes light golden or pale blue. Nickel coins can also pick up color as a result of PVC contamination from being stored in soft vinyl flips. On nickel, wild rainbow toning, in which multiple colors progress from one to another, is usually artificial.
Different coin types tone in different ways. Morgan dollars tone more beautifully than Peace dollars because the planchets of the latter were given a more concentrated acid bath at the Mint. Walking Liberty half dollars tend to acquire unbalanced toning as a result of their asymmetrical design. Many commemorative halves from the 1930s have "tab toning" resulting from their original cardboard holders.
Because attractively toned silver coins are desirable to many collectors, they usually carry a premium and sometimes a huge premium. This is particularly true with coins that have "monster toning" (wild toning), "target toning" or "bullet toning" (colors that change from the coin's periphery in toward to the center), "rainbow toning" (multiple colors), or "iridescent toning" (shimmering, with the color pattern varying with the viewing angle). Such coins are even graded higher by the grading services, which "market grade" according to a coin's overall eye appeal.
This motivates some people to artificially tone, or doctor, coins. Other times coin doctors artificially tone a coin to hide hairlines from a prior cleaning, scratches, contact marks, or even repair work.
The difference between natural toning and artificial toning isn't always clear-cut. Most toning results from human intervention (which is one definition of "artificial"), from placing a coin in contact with a man-made material such as a U.S. Mint canvas bag, an old Wayte Raymond coin album, or a traditional felt-lined coin cabinet.
Most people, however, regard toning as artificial when there's a deliberate attempt to impart it over a short time, such as baking a coin in an oven (alone or in a potato), blasting it with a blow torch, placing it in a covered bowl with crushed match heads (these coins smell!), blowing cigarette or cigar smoke on it, thumbing it with nose grease, or soaking or painting it with bleach, acid, or a sulfur-containing chemical. The gray area involves deliberately toning a coin with longer-acting techniques such as setting it for several months on a window sill in the sun, placing it on a block of oak wood in the sun, wrapping it in tissue paper, or sealing it in an ordinary high-sulfur envelope.
So what I'm saying is all toned coins are Artificially Tone be it one way or the other, be it slow or fast.
NT & AT coins.
Toning is just the numismatic way of saying tarnish. Ironically, like rust on iron, toning on silver and bronze is a form of corrosion. What happens with silver and bronze is similar to what happens with iron, only it's a slower process with bronze and an even slower process with silver. Like rust, the toning on coins gets thicker over time.
The way I see it is most toned coins are Artificial Toned because we put them in cardboard holders knowing that they will or might tone.Toning is an alteration of the chemical makeup and color of a coin's surface. It takes place naturally over time as the metal reacts with chemicals in its environment, typically to various sulfur-based compounds. Or it can be induced artificially, and more quickly. Natural toning takes place more quickly in a warmer and more humid environment.
Numismatic metals tone in different ways. Silver coins as a whole tone more beautifully than those made of other metals. Silver, exposed to the right environmental influences -- to small amounts of hydrogen sulfur in the air or larger amounts in albums, envelopes, canvas bags, paper rolls, leather wallets or purses, rubber bands, and some glues and paints -- can naturally turn subtle or sometimes brilliant shades of yellow, magenta, turquoise, and other colors before eventually turning black. The toning on silver is typically silver sulfide
Nickel generally tones only slightly, typically becoming hazy gray though sometimes light golden or pale blue. Nickel coins can also pick up color as a result of PVC contamination from being stored in soft vinyl flips. On nickel, wild rainbow toning, in which multiple colors progress from one to another, is usually artificial.
Different coin types tone in different ways. Morgan dollars tone more beautifully than Peace dollars because the planchets of the latter were given a more concentrated acid bath at the Mint. Walking Liberty half dollars tend to acquire unbalanced toning as a result of their asymmetrical design. Many commemorative halves from the 1930s have "tab toning" resulting from their original cardboard holders.
Because attractively toned silver coins are desirable to many collectors, they usually carry a premium and sometimes a huge premium. This is particularly true with coins that have "monster toning" (wild toning), "target toning" or "bullet toning" (colors that change from the coin's periphery in toward to the center), "rainbow toning" (multiple colors), or "iridescent toning" (shimmering, with the color pattern varying with the viewing angle). Such coins are even graded higher by the grading services, which "market grade" according to a coin's overall eye appeal.
This motivates some people to artificially tone, or doctor, coins. Other times coin doctors artificially tone a coin to hide hairlines from a prior cleaning, scratches, contact marks, or even repair work.
The difference between natural toning and artificial toning isn't always clear-cut. Most toning results from human intervention (which is one definition of "artificial"), from placing a coin in contact with a man-made material such as a U.S. Mint canvas bag, an old Wayte Raymond coin album, or a traditional felt-lined coin cabinet.
Most people, however, regard toning as artificial when there's a deliberate attempt to impart it over a short time, such as baking a coin in an oven (alone or in a potato), blasting it with a blow torch, placing it in a covered bowl with crushed match heads (these coins smell!), blowing cigarette or cigar smoke on it, thumbing it with nose grease, or soaking or painting it with bleach, acid, or a sulfur-containing chemical. The gray area involves deliberately toning a coin with longer-acting techniques such as setting it for several months on a window sill in the sun, placing it on a block of oak wood in the sun, wrapping it in tissue paper, or sealing it in an ordinary high-sulfur envelope.
So what I'm saying is all toned coins are Artificially Tone be it one way or the other, be it slow or fast.
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Comments
It's just... this topic has been discussed so much.
Show us a nice coin & let's discuss its merits rather than rehash old news.
I'm not trying to be difficult, just honest.
"Bongo hurtles along the rain soaked highway of life on underinflated bald retread tires."
~Wayne
Since no newly minted coin exists in a vacuum, subsequent incidents of toning over time via accepted storage and circulation methods are really just as "natural" as the coin itself.
No coin exists all white forever, at least not naturally.
"Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen