I coin dealer told me that he thinks the toning on this coin is natural toning caused by being stored in cardboard. However, some of the other coins sold by the seller have the exact same type of toning on the coin. I don't want to remove attractive toning from the coin but I also don't want to leave something on the coin that might potentially damage the coin. What do you think?
It looks natural to me. I'd be a little concerned about the fingerprint on the obverse, though. If it's not etched in yet, maybe try a soak in acetone.
Put in a 2x2. The toning looks copacetic but there ain't nothing you can do about that paw(finger) print on the obverse. That's here to stay.
Would acetone affect the toning? If the acetone doesn't work would paint thinner be effective and would it affect the toning?
Acetone won't affect the toning, no. It's a neutral solvent and will remove surface contaminants, but not oxides or sulfides of silver.
I just tried using acetone on the coin and it did seem to help. After repeatedly dabbing the coin with a q-tip there might be a little bit left but it doesn't seem as noticeable. I also used it on another coin that I got from the same seller that also has a finger print on it which happens to be in around the same area. This other coin does not have toning on it but the appearance other than the die cracks looks almost identical. It seems a little fishy to me that the finger prints and appearance look almost the same on the coins as if the seller was trying to hide something. Anyway, thanks for the tip.
Are those the longest die cracks I have ever seen going almost all around your coin on both sides? Or scratches? @brinssig Thanks in advance.
The toning looks nice and natural to me. I love these 1921 Morgans as they are famous for awesome die cracks. Your's has some nice ones on it. On the other matter, acetone will remove some fingerprints, depending on how long they have been there. Myself, I wouldn't worry about it. Throw it back in what you're storing it in and see what it looks like in another year.
You should try and lift both finger print to see if they match!!and if they did, then you could let the seller know QUIT touch the coins!! I bet he was eating Doritos when he touched them! You should look at vam! There a lot of 1921!
It's really not fishy at all, it's pretty common in fact. Think of it like this, at some point both coins were owned by the same person, somebody who took no care to hold a coin by the edges. And when they picked a coin up to look at it, they'd usually pick it up at the same place on each coin. Thus fingerprints in the same place. You also have to understand that for you to be able to see fingerprints on a coin at all, like you can on that coin, they've already had to be there a long time. So odds are it wasn't your dealer who got the fingerprints on the coins - it was somebody else who owned them, probably a long time ago.
Looks like this VAM http://ec2-13-58-222-16.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com/wiki/1921-P_VAM-55A @Dave Waterstraat
Looks like natural toning to me. Love the die cracks on both sides. That fingerprint on the obverse is nasty.
I'm thinking you are right about the finger prints. The toning, though, I suspect was probably deliberately induced on the coin since there were several other coins sold by the same seller that have toning that look similar or identical to my coin. None of the toning seemed to come off when I used the acetone so it doesn't seem to be something artificial that was applied to the coin that would harm the coin so I am going to leave the coin as it is.
I've seen that toning on an awful lot of coins, including some of my own. It's likely that a previous owner kept all those coins in the same kind of album or holder, and it produced the same kind of toning on all of them. It might have been intentional, but it certainly didn't have to be.