White Spots on Morgan Dollar

Photo is a close-up of a PCGS graded coin.
Not sure what these spots are since the area around them is toned. Any thoughts will be appreciated.
Not sure what these spots are since the area around them is toned. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

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Comments
bob
<< <i>dip residue prior to this toning?
bob >>
Possibly, or just an honest contaminant of some sort.
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<< <i>I have no idea what caused that.... although I would doubt it was dip residue.... too even and similar between the two spots. Very strange. Would like to be able to do an SEM scan of that... perhaps if you have access to a laboratory, someone will do it for you and identify the surface contaminants - could give a clue. Cheers, RickO >>
SEM would likely not be the best choice to determine the chemical makeup of the white areas; it is better suited to physical examination. I would opt for ESCA/XPS which can tell you the chemical composition of the surface contaminants. When I had it done here on a spotted silver eagle, his sample holder was too small to hold the whole coin so we had to cut it up. I wouldn't want to do that to this Morgan.
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