Are coins sitting out to tone considered natural or artificial?

I agree with part of what you're saying, but I disagree with other parts. For example, if someone places a liquid or powders on a coin to force it to tone, yes, it often does look like the colors have been painted on. But it looks that way because that's exactly what was done. Only it wasn't paint, it was concentrated chemicals.

What I disagree with is when people use terminology like "elevated chromatics". I disagree with it, or perhaps don't like it would be more accurate, because there's too many people who have no idea what that even means ! But in this context it's really pretty simple, all it really means is you have greatly accelerated the rate at which the colors change. So why not simply say that - then everybody would know what ya mean !

Of course there are also those who say that "elevated chromatics" also means that you have changed the order in which certain colors of toning appear on a coin. They choose to believe that colors will only and always appear in a certain given order. So if the colors you see on a coin are out of that specific order, then coin HAD TO HAVE BEEN artificially toned. Well to that I say - nonsense ! - because it simply isn't true !

There are plenty of cases, plenty of examples, where coins that have completely natural, 100% natural, toning, where the colors do not appear in this supposedly given order. And that occurs for a very simple reason, and a very common reason. It's because storage methods, and or storage locations, for that particular coin changed !

If during the first part of a coin's life is spent in one location and using a particular storage method, then the colors of toning that appear on that are caused specifically because of those two things. Each location, each different town, each different part of the country, even each different home, has its own unique contaminants in the air. And those unique contaminants result in particular colors resulting on the coin. And different storage methods cause differences in the colors as well.

But sell the coin, send it to somebody who lives in a different part of the country, and they use different storage methods than the previous owner, the toning that occurs then is going to be completely different, different colors, that what occurred at the first location. And in a completely different order of occurrence !

This is only natural, and what's more it is to be expected ! Because different causes result in different things happening when it comes to toning ! And to ad to that, the original colors of the toning that occurred at the first owner's home will also change - because toning is always progressive, it is always changing. So your "elevation chromatics" are going to change - it is a given and inevitable ! Which is why I say it is complete nonsense that toning colors are going to occur in a given order.

 

Pretty much everything you're describing isn't uncommon. A rinse in this a rinse in that, changing locations, changing storage methods - all of it and more has an effect on toning. There are literally thousands of variables involved with toning. Absolutely everything in one's home, from floor to ceiling and wall to wall has an effect, or lack of effect on toning. That's because everything in one's home puts various and often different contaminants into the air. And of course the same thing happens with each individual location.

Every coin there is begins toning the very moment it is minted. And from then on, literally everything begins changing. It's difficult to see at first because it is only slight. Nonetheless it is there, it has occurred, because that's the very nature of metals - they begin to corrode (tone) from the instant they are created. But there are almost always differences in how that corrosion (toning) progresses.

For example, buy a roll or bag of coins direct from the mint, place them in an album side by side on the same page, leave them there for years, stored the same way in the same location. Look at them a decade or two or three later, and the coins on that same page in the album are not all going to look the same. There will be differences between them. Some may have toned a great deal, and some may be attractive, while others are as ugly as a mud fence. And still yet others may have only toned slightly. And those results are pretty common - and that's with everything being the same.

Change things up, and of course changes are going to occur.

 

Problem is, while that may happen sometimes, the vast majority of the time it most definitely does not happen at all.

When I see terminology like that it always makes me think of people who come up with fancy sounding words, (often to do nothing more than impress others), to explain something that is much more easily explained in plain language - that anybody understands.

Now is that always true ? No, of course it isn't. But we all know that it does happen.

Sometimes it is nothing more than a person with a strong scientific background using the terminology of their chosen field. And when speaking to others in that field, yeah, everybody understand what it means, and what it doesn't. But when they are talking to others not in that field, a typical response is - would you mind saying that in plain English ?

 

You're not missing anything. But your sentence - "I was getting really confused as I read some of the other definitions in this thread" - does a good job of touching on why I said what I did in the comment of mine that you quoted. I've been reading about the term elevation chromatics for good long time, and I suspect you have as well. And over the years I have heard probably a dozen or more different definitions and explanations about what it means. And that's why I made the comment you quoted - because it seems to be there's one heck of a lot of people who don't know what it means. But if they used plain language to define that term, then everyone would know what it means.

I don't disagree with the definition provided in post #45, to the contrary I agree completely with that definition.

What I strongly disagree with and I guess is my primary point, is that "elevation chromatics" can't be used to distinguish AT from NT. That's because there are millions of coins that have completely natural toning, but do not have elevation chromatics ! And by the same token there are coins out there that do have elevation chromatics that were artificially toned. Some coins that are submitted to concentrated gasses in a sealed box, sometimes end up having elevated chromatics as well. And when that is done to coins, there isn't anything else I could call them but AT !

edited to correct a typo - changed can to can't