68 years of toning, gone. Poof!

Last night I had my first real coin disaster moment. The coin's toning wasn't terrible- there were some nice hues and original crust there, but it was also very yellow/brown and pretty splotchy. Really subdued luster. I thought I'd give it a very quick dip and see what she looked like under there.

Well, disaster time. George slipped out of my tweezers. I wasn't about to grab it with my fingers even with gloves on, so he stayed in there way longer than I wanted him to.

Yes, the toning was destroyed forever. I expected to see an awful, dead coin. What came out was surprisingly attractive:



I'll usually take original toning over blast white any day of the week, and I don't think the world needs any more blast white Washington quarters, but I think I got lucky on this particular coin. I'm bummed that I'll never know what "halfway there" would have looked like, but I'd never have expected this new coin was hiding under there. The difference in eye appeal is night and day.

Disclaimer: Before anyone grabs their torch and pitchfork, I did list this coin on eBay for $10 BIN for some time awhile back to give someone else the opportunity to take it as it was. No one did. I'll definitely be buying new tweezers with grippier rubber.

 

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I like it,
But then I'm one that does not like toning.

 

I always liked the black "crust" toning. Though i do understand how this one is unattractive, especially near "In God We Trust". All in all, not the worst thing to happen, right? Especially on a 10 dollar coin. Nice and lustrous.

 

Literally night and day. I like it much more now.

 

how many dips did it take?

 

I actually liked the toned coin better. So much character gone forever. I do like toned coins. Now it will be labeled "cleaned".

 

I am like @Clawcoins. A blast white coin is a thing of beauty to me... Mostly because I can see it with my fading eyesight. But yes, I would say that was quite a fortunate accident!

 

Did you use straight EZ-zest? I always do a dilution of 10x to slow-down the process so I can control the amount of toning removal.

 

Not the worst, though as someone who values originality/toning, if this had been a classic coin and my goal were the same (improve eye appeal/luster while retaining original skin) I’d have been seriously angry with myself. Luckily it was a common quarter and the luster is still great, but I posted to share as this is the danger of “conservation.”

One. One way too long dip while I scrambled to pick it up off a flat surface with the tweezers while saying “Nooooooo!”

I thought it was all right. The toning reminded me of the look of yellow (not attractive gold) once-white ash trays. I was hoping to lose the yellow, keep the crust and reveal some nicer color. Definitely wasn’t after the end-result and it’s a bummer but that’s the risk. The coin would still straight grade as a 64 or 65 in my opinion, though.

 

Not enough luster lost to appear cleaned. I have coins certified by PCGS with green CAC stickers that have been dipped.

 

OMG! That's why I never fool around with that poison.

FWIW, the luster was retained, and it's still imminently collectable. On the toning lost, cheer up, @CircCam. In another half-century, give or take, it'll all be back.

 

I did, this time. I know better but with three kids and work it’s really rare I have the peace and quiet to sit there and take my time so I tried another (uglier) toned 1948 George as a test coin and did a one second dip, noted how much it took off and figured I’d do the same for this one. Then he slipped and my plans were foiled.

Edit- It may be obvious but in case any new collectors see this: I should add that it also could have easily revealed more imperfections, scratches in the fields, etc. that were hidden by the toning. Just happened to be a really clean coin under there.

 

Never ever ever ever ever ever dip it again. You will probably kill it

 

Agreed for sure, I can’t believe it survived. Must have been a serious layer of carmelized smoke and someone who cooked with a lot of olive oil or something.

 

Sorry, but now I wouldn’t even pay $5. It just looks like any other boring silver coin.

 

I happen to agree, but hopefully it'll find a home with someone who likes this look.

It'll be in a dealer's inventory in a few days and I'll have ten bucks extra in my pocket for some crusty original something or other labeled "dark" that no one else wants.

 

Don't worry. Looks fantastic compared to all those boring silver black blochy-icky toned coins out there. Wish I had it in my collection.

 

Shoot me your address in a PM, I’d rather give it to someone who likes it than hand it over to the dealer for a few bucks.... after taking better pictures I’d call it a 63 so they’d probably just give me melt for it. ‘Tis yours if you want it!

 

That was getting close enough to terminal toning, you probably increased its life for a long time before it was just a melter.

 

Why would anyone melt a mint state silver Washington? Especially with silver prices in the toilet.