I am just wondering why morgans often have rings and crescents of toning that are many different colors, while peace dollars always seems to have yellow or red splotchy and dotty toning. Any reasons you know about or am I just wrong, this is what I have observed.
There were more Morgans, 100s of millions of dollars worth, that were stored in bank bags, in vaults for decades because they were not highly accepted by the public. Their toning patterns, of the ones that did tone from the storage, will be more different from the Peace dollars because of this. You should pick Q. David Bower's book A Guide Book of Morgan Silver Dollars, by Whitman publishing. It contains a complete history of the Morgan and the design from George Morgan. Very interesting read.
There are peace dollars out there with the same toning as the morgans but its 100 times harder to get a peace dollar graded with toning than a Morgan dollar. I've tried.
You might take a look at this thread, the first couple of posts with the photos and then to post 19 http://www.cointalk.com/t126215/ I took high magnification photos of the surfaces of Morgan and Peace BU examples , mainly to show lustre differences based on the surface flow lines and results of the type of die polishing to produce them. I am convinced there was a difference in the techniques used for polishing the dies of Peace compared to the Morgans, The gap in productions allowed for differences of opinions at the mint that resulted in the lustre and also the toning characteristics. The flow lines on the peace seem to overlap and produce a lesser lustre and also a "flatter" toning characteristic. Whereas the sharper and more separated peaks of the Morgan flow lines produced a stronger reflection and cartwheel effect , and also sharper angles for thin film action to produce the sometimes vivid toning on Morgans. IMO. Jim
The Peace Dollars were subject to an acid bath during the annealing process to prevent the surfaces from tarnishing. The 1921 Morgans also had this done, which is why they are hard to find in rainbow colors too.
Bingo! As we discussed in another thread, toning appearance highly dependent on luster -- which is a product of many things (planchet and die preparation, the physical characteristics of the die itself (low relief versus high relief, and die deterioration).
