Natural(ish) toning

It's much easier to avoid it by storing them properly to begin with. Then you don't have to worry about it

Dj, I'm assuming that your entire reason for even thinking of this idea is because you would like to see your coins develop colorful toning. Well, lemme give you a little information. Coins that are colorfully and attractively toned come about for the most part completely by accident. Maybe, as many as a tiny fraction of 1% of uncirculated coins end up with colorful and attractive toning. And maybe, as many as a tiny fraction of circulated coins of that other tiny fraction, end up colorful and attractively toned.

You beginning to get the idea here ? You have a much better chance of winning the lottery than you do of having success with your idea. Of course if you win the lottery you won't need your idea because you could then just buy all the pretty toned coins you wanted.

So here's a better idea. Just save up your money and buy coins that already have what you think is pretty toning. That idea will actually work

 

Good luck with that.

All coins tone Dj, all of them. But very few of them acquire that colorful and attractive toning that most seek out. And all toning will eventually turn very dark brown or black if allowed to progress unchecked.

 

As I said in post #4 of this thread, there are a thousand variables that play a part in how a coin tones. It is the combination of specific groups of those variables that determine the color the toning ends up being.

Think about this for a second. How many different kinds of coin albums are there ? Each of the different kinds can have a different effect on the color of toning. Then each town where a collector lives has different humidity levels, and each house in that town can have different humidity levels. Same thing with temperature. Then you have the air itself. One town may have lots of factories, another just a few and yet another none at all. Those factories, or the lack of them, ends up changing the air in that town. And each house in each different town can have a different method form cooking, heating & cooling. And each house may cook different things and in different ways. And some collectors may smoke, and some may not, and some may smoke more, or less, than another. All of these things, each one, cause different particulates to be put into the air. So with the air alone you have an almost infinite possibility of variables.

Then you all of the different methods used for coin storage - albums, 2x2s, coin flips, coin rolls, envelopes, tissue paper, coin tubes - the list goes on. And different manufacturer of each one of things makes their product in a slightly different way. So each one reacts with coins differently. Couple that with all of the different possible variables for air, temperature, humidity, light, etc. and you have a whole lot of different colors that any given coin may tone. And you only have to change 1 specific variable out of all those different ones listed above to change the color.

These are the kind of things that people don't think about because they don't realize that all of these things determine the color of toning that a coin ends up having.

So can I tell you why this coin is this color and that coin is that color ? Yeah, it's because of all the different variables. But can I tell which specific combination of variables causes which specific colors ? No, because a hundred different combinations may produce 1 color and 300 different combinations may produce another color, and 3 different combinations may produce yet another color.

Then just try to imagine what happens when a specific coin switches owners ? Everything changes then, and the toning changes with it. And if the coin changes owners more than once, yeah it all changes again.

Understand now ?

 

No, acetone will not remove toning.

The things that remove toning are commercial coin dips. And all coin dips contain acid.

 

Completely agree, at least when it comes to the technical aspects of toning - the hows and whys of it, or most of them anyway.

But when you read the book do so with the understanding that the vast majority of those in numismatics completely and totally disagree with White's opinions of toning in general and what should be done to all toned coins. In other words White tells you that all toned should be dipped and all toning removed, and that all toned coins are damaged coins.

 

Not necessarily true. A good coin doctor can get a coin to tone, in an attractive manner, in a matter of hours. And it will be completely impossible for anyone, repeat anyone, to distinguish that toning from natural toning.

And, under the right conditions, what people think of as completely natural toning can occur very quickly.

But the thing that really matters is that there is absolutely no difference at all between the physical and chemical properties of natural toning and artificial toning - none. The only difference is intent.

 

Natural toning is caused by gasses Dj, so the best artificial toning is caused by gasses as well.