This question is motivated by something I saw in a current thread. I prefer blast white coins but wouldn't mind a toner or two...not willing to pay a premium though!...so will someone spill???
You don't. You AT (artificially tone) white coins in a few hours to produce significant toning. Typically, they fool few, if any, who have experience.
Don't listen to these guys Silver soul. A few hours is pushing it, but 14 hours will show you amazing results. Here is how you do it: First, get the nicest, highest grade silver coins you can afford. They need to have just blazing cartwheel luster. The more luster, the more they will tone. I suggest Walking liberty half dollars, or Carson City minted Morgan dollars. Those work the best due to the environment they were minted in. Get some motor oil (used is fine). With a wire brush, gently rub the motor oil on the coin where you want the toning to appear. Turn your broiler to high. Put the coins on a wire rack and place under the broiler for 7 hours. Remove from oven and place them in a bowl of water, just deep to enough to cover the coin. Place the bowl in the freezer for another 7 hours. Remove them from the freezer to de-thaw. Season to taste and serve. Recommended serving size: $2.50 face value per person. In Soviet Russia, the coins AT you.
A lot of people have the idea that natural toning takes a long, long time to occur, many think of it in terms of decades. And yes, depending on conditions, it can take decades, sometimes. But toning is a matter of degree, so it depends on how you define whether a coin is toned or not. The truth of the matter is that toning, natural toning, begins to happen the moment that a coin is ejected from the coin press. If you look at a coin that was minted a week ago, that coin is toned. Now some reading this are probably skeptical about that last sentence, they are saying - no way, a coin doesn't tone in a week. But it does, it absolutely does. Think about it for a minute. Do you think a coin just sits around for the first few years of its life and only then does it begin to tone ? Do you think somebody throws a switch or something to start the process ? No, of course not. The toning begins the very instant that the coin leaves the dies. And depending upon the conditions and what happens to that coin after it leaves the dies, that toning will vary. But it will nonetheless be there on every coin. Some will be toned more than others and some will be toned less. Now just to give you an idea of just how fast toning can occur, I'm going to show you some pictures. The first picture is a coin that was dipped in Tarn-X, straight Tarn-X no dilution, for about 2 seconds and then rinsed. And only the bottom half of the coin was dipped. The picture was taken almost immediately. As you can see, all traces of toning were removed. The coin was then set on my windowsill, just set there out in the open. Now here is a picture that was taken 3 days later. Quite a bit of difference isn't there, and in only 3 days. Now the lighter area over by the date, that area was rubbed with a pencil eraser. That's why it's still lighter and did not tone as fast as the left side did. But even that area by the date toned in just 3 days. But it didn't take 3 days for all of that toning to happen. It started happening immediately. I merely waited 3 days for the change to be more readily visible. Now here is the same coin after 43 days. Again a huge change in a relatively short period of time. It didn't take decades, it didn't take years, it took 43 days for that toning to happen. And it all happened completely and totally naturally. All I did was to leave the coin sitting there, undisturbed, on my window sill. Now no, I am not saying that each and every coin will do exactly the same thing. They can't do exactly the same thing because every condition, every situation, is different. This is a coin that I subjected to the harshest coin dip that I could think of as part of a little experiment. Some will remember it because I've posted these pics before. But the effects of the toning, and the speed at which it happened are a pretty good illustration of what I'm talking about. Now if that toning is what can happen naturally, in that short of a time period. Then imagine how fast a coin can be toned if you are trying to tone it using artificial methods. Yes, it can be done in only a few hours. Heck, it can be done in minutes. Now the question asked by the OP was how could you NT a coin in a few hours. And as TomB pointed out, it can't. But a coin can be AT'd in a few hours. The second, unasked part of the question is - can that AT toning be done in such a way so as to make the toning appear, and be accepted, as being natural toning ? The answer to that question is a definite yes - it can be done. It has been done, and more than just a few times. And if you don't want to believe that, well then you are just fooling yourself. Can the average Joe do it ? Sure, if someone tells him how.
Well...first and foremost, I surely enjoy your posts. 1) I'm thinking of adding Tarn-X and distilled water to my coin supplies. (Oh....and maybe some motor oil). 2) I will consider an 1881S Morgan or 41-47 Walker for my attempt. One will become my 'pocket piece'. 3) I don't necessarily have to turn on the broiler as long ( excessive waste of gas or electricity).. hopefully a couple of hours will suffice. 4) Now I know I will never buy a toner at a premium cuz the AT/NT difference could be indistinguishable! Thanks for all the replies to date.
While i never tried it on coins, when i worked at TCA we used induction hardening to spot harden certain areas of gun parts while leaving the majority of the peice soft and springy. This process often caused the treated area to tone/color beautifuly. I believe there is a person on ebay that is doing just this to morgan and other silver coins with fantastic results. This process is pure AT however. You could only call it natural if it was hit by lightning. (if a penny struck by lightning is worth 6 cents is a morgan dollar worth $6?)
It's really very simple. Just take an 8lb. hammer and hit it a few times on both sides. That is what it will be worth after screwing with it. Chris
When I first opened this thread, I immediately had visions of being banned again. BTW Doug, that might be one of your best posts, great example!
Forget the Tarn-X, and the motor oil. As I said, Tarn-X is about as harsh as it gets. And it should never be used on coins. Tarn-X ruins coins. The only reason I used it was because of the experiment I was doing. And that experiment had nothing to do with toning. You see those black stripes on the coin in the first pic ? The experiment was an attempt to find out if those black stripes went all the way through the coin, or if they were just on the surface of the coin. I merely used those pictures because they provided a good illustration of what I was talking about.
If you want to do what Gbroke said, I strongly suggest you buy MS67-70 coins to do this. Leaning to the 69 and 70 coins. If you get to the older stuff such as seated coins, I would suggest you do MS66 and 67 coins for the toning process. I would suggest you buy them slabbed, crack 'em and tone 'em. Put them on ebay. 1.Crack 'em 2.Tone 'em. 3.List 'em 4.???? 5.Profit
It does seems odd to expect someone else who knows how to do it, would tell the world. If a person can't figure out that it is not the motor oil itself , but the sulfur and acid compounds added to motor oil during combustion operation, then AT is a magic art. Most AT operations use liquids, and NT involves the same chemical reactions, but in humid air. The outcome toning has a different appearance. As has been said , many know how to do it close enough so it isn't detectable, but it can't be done in a kitchen with ingredients from Walmart. But with the TPG companies determining so many are not market acceptable, I imagine they are having a harder time.
