Is this how rainbow toning is made?

tjc2120

YouTube video about anodizing silver

I only found one thread about anodizing- no discussion though.

PS
I have no intention to doctor coins - just trying to better understand and recognize AT, esp for copper.

blu62vette

Do some searches here and you will find some great answers. I am not a knowledgeable one to answer these questions but there are some board members who really can.

blu62vette

Here are some links for you:

myths about toning

toning 101

history of toning

Justacommeman

That was like watching a Dharma Initiative video on Lost----that dude creeped me out

Sunnywood

Yep, that is a way to induce artificial toning. The games never stop !! And I have seen some coins recently (uncertified) that I believe to have been AT'd in this fashion. It's rather like creating faux aging on furniture with darkened varnish and other techniques, an attempt to replicate the handiwork of nature with deliberately accelerated reactions. The deliberate use of chemicals, heat and current to create toning on an accelerated basis is just as bad as the use of chemicals to artifically whiten coins by dipping/stripping the toning off.

I prize my naturally and beautifully toned coins, but I would not collect any coin that I knew to be toned artificially. Unfortunately, the counterfeiters of color are persistent with these games, however, and it can be difficult to tell the genuine article apart from the fakes.

Theoretically, one could identify this technique by analyzing the toning layer, which in this case will be 100% sulfides, rather than a sulfide/oxide blend that would form slowly and naturally. To the eye, however, the colors produced by thin-film interference effect will be the same. There are still hallmarks of originality to look for that will not be present on an AT'd coin - at least not yet.

Sunnywood

truthteller

The major problem with artificial toning is that the process continues after a coin has been graded by a TPG. Coin doctors often get rid of the product within days of receiving the coin back from grading, and often the resulting process will continue for months, especially in humid conditions. On many occasions, the coin is purchased by an end user and put away for a lengthy period of time, only for the buyer to discover the change in color months later.

Silver sulfide thin film interference produces colors on the surface of the coin. Silver oxide is the "hard white" toning that appears on the surface of an aged, unmolested silver coin. Often times, a freshly minted silver proof coin will develop a white haze. That is a silver oxide reaction with the ambient air.



TRUTH

ricko

That is just one of many ways.... and one of the more crude methods I might add. Cheers, RickO

tjc2120

<< <i>That is just one of many ways.... and one of the more crude methods I might add. Cheers, RickO >>



Can you list some of the more sophisticated ways? I'll look them up and learn about them - esp for copper.

Thanks

InternetJunky

<< <i>That was like watching a Dharma Initiative video on Lost----that dude creeped me out >>



Actually to me he sounded like Javier Bardem from the movie "No Country For Old Men".

Cladiator

Boy I've seen my fair share of coins on eBay that looked just like that silver bar.