Few questions about toning. 1.) would you consiter putting a coin in an envelope that you know is high sulfur for the purpose of toning natural or artificial? There would be nothing added to it and the same amount of time waited as the original envelope toned coins, so there would be nothing added to speed the process other than the intentful placing of the coin. 2.) either way, i want to try it with a few low value silver dimes i've CRHed (i dont want to ruin them so they'd be worn down ones) 3.) when did they stop using the high sulfur envelopes? Because i'll have to buy a classic one off ebay but i dont want to spend a high price on one pointlessly old but i want it to be one of the highest content years. 4.) is there any modern company that specializes in this or would that make it too unnatural? i heard there's also the manilla envelope method but do they have to be specific ones?
By the way, i do not plan on selling the coins for a profit, i just want to try it for myself and keep it as a cool looking memory but not a completely artificial one.
I guess it would be natural toning because back in the old days many dealers and collectors stored/carried their coin that way-in little flap top envelopes. they were still doing it when I was a kid. that's probably how many of the older toned coins you see today came to be.
The only difference there is between natural toning and artificial toning is intent. Circulated coins, while they will tone to a limited degree, will not tone anywhere near as much or as quickly as uncirculated coins. And the more circulated they are, meaning the lower the grade, the less they will tone. There's a couple of reasons for that. 1 - circulated coins are already toned, and existing toning helps prevent additional toning.. But they are typically toned grey, which is far and away the most common color of toning for silver. 2 - luster plays a large part in the toning process. So the less luster a coin has the slower and less colorful the toning will be. And by definition the lower the grade the less the amount of luster a coin has. While the manufacturing methods of paper have changed somewhat over the years most paper is still made with sulphur, and sulphur is one of the components in paper that helps cause toning. So it doesn't really matter if you get old or new coin envelopes, the result will be basically the same. But you do have to realize that the storage medium, whether it be paper envelopes, coin albums, 2x2s, coin flips, or even modern hard plastic coin holders, is a small part of the toning process. There are literally a thousand other variables that all play a part in the toning of the coins. And quite often one, several, or even many, of those other variables will have a greater impact on the resulting toning of coins.
Oh, thanks for all the information! so, are you saying a coin envelope is what i'd need? Or would a mailing envelope work?
Like this; http://www.amazon.com/Coin-Envelope...ffice-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1371157200&sr=1-43 Or this; http://www.ebay.com/itm/17-VERY-OLD...251?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53f9ca6beb
i remember reading a post somewhere that the napkins at Taco Bell would tone coins nicely wrapped up in them, never tried it though
Although the search function in the blue menu bar above takes some time and correct spelling, it will give you way more information. The technical, chemical and philosophical discussions of toning have been discussed multitude times by many knowledgeable members. The old high sulfur content paper has to have proper surrounding environment to be effective and the time period is usually in years or decades. Even back then we didn't unknowingly put a mint lustrous coin in such an envelope and take it out a week later with toning. Some of mine so stored took over 30 years.
I didn't know collectors still fell for that distinction. Most of them I know don't. They think state of mind is irrelevant. I do, too, now that I think of it.
Well that depends, but you can bet that most of them will be dark grey with some being black. Depending on how long you leave them in those envelopes of course. And once they turn black, well, that's the end of that coin.