Naturally toning a coin over time - cleaned vs. natural surface?

SpectrumLuster

With all opinions about "intent to tone = artificial" put to the side, I would like to place a few coins of mine into albums so they can tone nicely over the next couple of decades. My intent is to (hopefully) increase the demand and value for said coins while giving myself a fun new objective in collecting more coins.

My question is: would toning be more prominent and uniform on a coin that's been lightly cleaned (not necessarily whizzed or 'dipped', but rather with acetone) or would toning still occur on a coin in MS63 or better that's still had some form of handling with a small amount of body oil on the surface?

ambro51

One of the main reasons the Morgans toned up so well is that they were fully untouched coins. The silver surface was chemically clean....and that allowed what happened so often..well, to happen. If you want to reproduce that, you need a chemically clean coin to retone. Either an acid dip (!!!) or a dip in potassium cyanide solution...they are the only usual solvents for the compounds you want to remove to allow retoning. I dipped an ugly white morgan in the cyanide a few years ago and wrapped it in a taco bell napkin and it has gone from blast white to gold toned with blue rims. The chemically clean surface allowed it to do that.

of course, if anyone has a different theory or explanation, ya wont hurt my feelings.

smokincoin

"cyanide"

keyman64

<< <i>"cyanide" >>

Don't let him serve you a drink if he's mad at you!

cucamongacoin

Try to get some of the '50s mint set cardboard mint set holders. I put some untoned coins in a 1952 holder in 1999, and by 2009, all but the nickels ( I used silver warnicks), had toned up very nicely. I used Mercs also, these came out beautifully. I left the original 1952 cents in, and these were basically unchanged. One of the Franklins subsequently graded MS65FBL at PCGS, and I still have it. I believe different date holders will tone the coins differently. '52 and '58 usually come very nice, '56, '57, '53, '55, '54 less so. In my opinion, these were absolutely NT and a fun experiment. I may have dipped the silver coins before putting them in the holder, but don't recall.

mirabela

A dipped coin usually responds better to the 'album treatment'. Acetone won't do anything for you. I'm not sure if this works with any other denominations, but I've albumed a few Jeffersons after swabbing them with MS70 (which is basically a heavy-duty detergent that strips off the 'skin' of oxides) and they've bloomed into impressive target rainbows after only a few years. They don't all do it, but sometimes you get lucky.

mrpotatoheadd

<< <i>One of the main reasons the Morgans toned up so well is that they were fully untouched coins. The silver surface was chemically clean.... >>

I've worked for several companies who manufactured stamped metal products and would have a hard time believing coins could be considered "chemically clean" after their trip through the manufacturing process.

ambro51

much more so than when the first people get hold of them....

the fresh silver surface without any contaminants is a welcoming mat for contaminants.