Can coins be doctored in their OGP?
SanctionII
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While at last week's Santa Clara show I saw some 1968-70 proof sets in OGP and some 1971-74 Silver IKEs in OGP that were being sold for just under $100.00 each since the coins in the OGP were wildly toned with rainbow neon colors. I immediately thought AT, however I looked at a couple of sets and inspected the seams where the two halves of the OGP hard clear plastic came together. Not a trace of the havles being split open and reconnected.
Assuming the OGP had not been tampered with, how could some one artificially tone the coins while they are inside the OGP? Heat? Fumes?, etc. I am curious about whether this can be done and how?
Assuming the OGP had not been tampered with, how could some one artificially tone the coins while they are inside the OGP? Heat? Fumes?, etc. I am curious about whether this can be done and how?
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I first saw it with an Ike when I bought a brown box proof and brought it home. When I took the plastic holder out of the brown box I noticed that someone had put a thin band of tape around the entire seam. I immediately thought it had been opened and messed with. i had bought it because it was the only Brown box Ike I had ever seen that wasn't hazed over. I removed the tape and found that the plastic holder was still sealed and intact and realized that someone had taped it and made it more or less airtight and that was the probable reason it didn't haze over. I was still suspicious though thinking that it might have been opened so I used a tiny screw driver and tried to pry open the seam. I was able to open it on one end without damaging it. I stopped before opening it completely.
Another time I had a proof set with a deep cameo Kennedy. I wanted to remove the Kennedy and I was able to carefully pry one corner open without damaging the plastic holder. I opened it enough to pull out the cardboard insert and then took out the Kennedy and put the insert back and reclosed it.
The plastic holders in both these cases are now easy to pry apart in the area that I opened them, but if someone really wanted to, a small microdot of superglue would probably reseal them.
Also though, remember that the plastic holders aren't airtight. If placed in some kind of container with some gas in it, toning could occur because of the lack of an airtight seal. I suppose someone could even put them in a bell jar with a vacuum attached and pull a vacuum and then break the vacuum with some sort of gas that would then more or less be injected into the holder (because the vacuum would pull out the air from inside the plastic holder and then when the vacuum was broken it would suck in whatever was in the air around the holder).
Another possibility is from sulfurous chemicals from the inserts around the coins being released naturally due to temperature and/or humidity fluctuations during storage causing natural toning.
enough number that they shouldn't be that difficult to locate if you really wanted them.
The '68 is the toughest.
These will cases distort at a pretty low temperature so the typical means to AT wouldn't
work with them but low temperature means would be possible.
I've seen enough toned and tarnished sets from this era to believe that all or most of
them are occurring "naturally". Often, even the prettiest are available at no premium.