I bid on this on eBay after seeing a member of a Facebook coin group list it. But the administrator of the group busted him. He bought the coin on Oct. 9th... blast white. Then gassed it and relisted it as Monster toned. I wondered when I saw the reverse if it had been gassed, but didn't look into it. I think my bid was $51 before he pulled the auction after being called out and banned from the group. Crazy how folks do this! Makes me wonder how often it is done.
Actually to make a valid post here I had wondered about gassing coins. My only try was to seal a silver coin in a jar with some egg yellow to see if I could produce some H2S gas and tone it...didn't work.
A fool (def. - anyone who thinks ALL color is worth spending money on) and his money are soon parted. Anyone who thinks gassing coins is not a frequent thing, think again. MOST colored coins with toning on both sides are gassed. Remember the name Gavin Corsair. He's a con man.
You wonder how often? Every day of your life by hundreds, if not thousands of con men - THAT'S how often. Aside from a VERY few well-known exceptions that are well-understood, the ENTIRE REST of the toner market is one huge scam and con.
I saw that coin pop up and thought it was suspect as well. The obverse actually seems plausible but the reverse doesn’t. Plus I’ve never seen a PF 70 (or MS 70) toner. It’s good that someone found the original slab! By the way, if anyone followed the USNAF slab controversy on the other forums, this may have been the same guy. Before it was deleted, the account that had that nickel posted on Instagram also had a USNAF slab. This now makes me lean towards the USNAF sample slabs being fake as well.
I was able to find some of those Gavin Corsair USNAF photos via a google image search. @Burton Strauss III
There's still a couple of threads on CCF regarding the USNAF slabs that were popping up by the (seemingly) dozens. Someone even joined as USNAFguy. Boy did he dig a hole...
It’s possible. Here are some of the original threads about the USNAF slabs: https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=325350 https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1003263/usnaf-slab-fraud/p1
Another excellent reason not to collect toned coins, IMHO. I’m sure that there are honest sellers who are skilled enough not to put ATs out there, but, from my perspective, they are being buried by jerks.
I wouldn’t go that far. This is reason to be more careful with modern toners and to be skeptical of odd looking slabs (even if they are straight graded).