1955-S Wheat Cent Toning
Azurescens
Posts: 2,793 ✭✭✭✭✭
Grabbed a few junkbox items at the B&M today. Saw this little coin. I figured if it's real then it's improperly poured metals with the grainy look that's since toned, or a coin that was played with.
I see a lot more green than you guys do. Like a lime green haze on his coat but could be toning. I see more rainbow in the top purple part on the reverse and again in purple areas.
I don't want to put a details coin in an album I'm putting together.
1
Comments
Beautiful. Improper alloy mix ...woodie I think they call it. Put it in acetone to remove any "green."
Keep it airtight in the dark. Nice coin, good find.
Looks original to my eyes. The "green" is toning on the coat. I see no PVC to conserve with acetone. But, is that damage on the reverse over AM?
bob
Oh sweet nice! I love the woodgrain texture. I've never seen any this toned, or toned like this before. Super excited it's real.
There's 1 southeast scratch on AM and it looks like it intersects with another but the other is the different grain. The M is very poorly struck. Hardly even there.
You really don't see the woodgrains like this. I think it'd get decent money in a 58 slab just for originality. It's very pretty in its uniqueness. I wonder what the 15 coins around it looked like.
I grabbed this 65RD NGC also. It's dripping with luster and there's only a little mech doubling on date (looks worse in photo). Great shine to it.
1955-S was a hoarded/key coin for a few decades. It would be the last set of cents from the S mint. A few decades later they started making them again and they fell by the wayside. Luckily there's a lot of good examples out there from the original popularity.
Very interesting - most woodgrain coins I have seen have toning/tarnish from circulation. maybe this is what they look like when in minty condition?
The coolest part is that it's prettier in hand than in both my lights. I don't see many wood grain ones outside of circulated either.
I don't agree that it is an alloy problem with this date and mint.
The coin itself could be called "streaky", but not "wood grained". I think that 1955-S was extremely widely hoarded after the announcement that it would be the last Cent minted at San Francisco.
Thousands...........probably millions were scooped up and saved in various ways.
The coin itself was caught up in the same web that made the 1950-D Jeff a non circulator.
It could still be an alloy problem, but I think a lot of the coins exhibit that look due to improper storage. The woodgrain effect looks a lot different than the badly alloyed early Lincolns.
Of course, there are not a whole lot of brown 1955-S Cents around to compare.
Pete
The streaking on the cent in the OP does not look like a typical wood grain pattern... It looks like a residue streak. A residue could also account for the 'green' appearance on the image. That being said, I do not have the coin in hand, so I am just judging by the picture. Cheers, RickO
Starting to wonder if the person got tired of cleaning it halfway through? Or wasn't getting expected results?
If the deeper purples were in other places on the coin I don't know why they'd ruin it.
Cool
My YouTube Channel
I think it toned like that from sitting in someone's sock drawer for 50 years . . .
1947-P & D; 1948-D; 1949-P & S; 1950-D & S; and 1952-S.
Any help locating any of these OBW rolls would be gratefully appreciated!