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POLL: Have you ever AT'ed a coin?
mrpaseo
Posts: 4,753 ✭✭✭
What say you? Have you ever AT'ed a coin for any reason?
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When I was YN back in the 1960s, I bought a lot of coins from a department store coin counter. They had an inventory system when they put the coins in small white envelopes and then put those envelopes into larger envelopes and sent the coins out to the various branch stores. When they sold the coins, they sent the outside envelopes back to headquarters where they kept perpetual inventory records. The purchasers ended up with the small white envelopes.
I learned that these small, white sale envelopes contained sulfur, and if I stored coins in them for a long period of time, the coins would tone. I used this method to "fix" some copper and silver coins that I had that had been cleaned. The method worked pretty well in most cases, but like I said it took a few years. When I sold the coins to dealers years later they bought them a fair wholesale prices with no question.
So you could call it "AT" or you could call it "restored." To me it was a way to retone coins using a method that duplicated the way coins get toned in the first place.
But if you are talking about baking, frying or using chemicals on coins, I've never done that.
Sean Reynolds
"Keep in mind that most of what passes as numismatic information is no more than tested opinion at best, and marketing blather at worst. However, I try to choose my words carefully, since I know that you guys are always watching." - Joe O'Connor
The battle scars of all the good times
The first group is considered NT (naturally toned) as these coins were in an otherwise accepted form of storage by the numismatic society of collectors throughout our history, On the other hand, the most recent group of statehood quarters which brought vivid blue, yellow and fuscia bands of color (obviously the super glue fumes) , were ACCIDENTALLY TONED, but in a completely unaccepted way. WILD COLORS on coins is not to my liking when they are NEON.
However, in closing, I would like to make note that in both instances both happen to be classic signs of CHEMICAL TONING.
I never toned a coin on purpose, though I do have a cleaned and dipped out silver dollar in a Taco Bell™ napkin.
According to the Poll I am a loser. So be it....
Ken
As a YN in the 60's I had a 1909-S Lincoln Cent. I convinced myself that there was probably a VDB on the reverse if it wasn't for all that dirt. So I used a pencil eraser in search of the VDB. Of course, all I had left was a 1909-S Lincoln with a shiny pink spot on the reverse and no VDB. I showed it to the coin dealer (John) at Macy's in NY and he said I shouldn't have done that.
I put the coin on a sunny windowsill for several months. The shiny pink spot "toned" to look like the rest of the reverse. I traded the coin to the dealer at Macy's for fair value (no mention of the previous "erasure"). Interestingly enough a few months later he asked me who was the "silly" (I don't remember the exact words though I don't think he actually used the word "idiot") person that "erased" a coin (me and several friends would go there periodically and apparentely he didn't remember that it was I that "erased" the coin). I told him that I was the one that had "erased" the coin. He then asked me what I did with the coin.
I told him I traded it to him. He was actually and absolutely speechless. My intent was not to deceive him as I had shown him the coin previously. I honestly thought I "fixed" the coin and din't think about disclosure issues (I was young remember). However, from that point on I felt a "coolness" in our dealings.
Joe.
and it's starting to looke pretty cool with some blue, purple, and green. The box is old and I think it has sulfur in it. I may try
to submit the coin to a third party. It has a pretty natural look to it.
Bruce
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