A couple of days ago, someone asked me to show an example of "white gold." Here is the best I could do using photographs as opposed to showing you in person. The coin on the left, which is an 1842-C half eagle, is a piece of "white gold." The one on the right, which an 1860-D half eagle, is natural. The 1842-C was dipped, probably long ago, to make it brighter. The 1860-D is natural. Some collectors really distain "white gold." They refuse to touch it because they say it has lost "its soul." For me, it depends. The 1842-C half eagle is the more common large date variety, but it's still a very scarce coin. The 1860-D half eagle is a bit more common. The 1842-C still has a lot of luster and sharpness and is graded AU-58. The 1860-D is also an AU, but it's graded MS-62. To me really depends upon how the coin looks and the price. Unless you are ready to wait years and break the bank when you find it, sometimes "white gold" is for you. One word of caution, don't buy "white gold" thinking that it will CAC; it never will. There are things far worse than "white gold" in my opinion. These are the gold coins that have really been messed with. They look like brass, and I don't have any of those to show you because I refuse to buy them. I will close now and trie to field you comments or questions, if you have any.
Thanks, John, very informative. I am a “color” guy” and always prefer coins with nice toning and/or original color. I hope you don’t mind me posting one of my favorite Liberty head gold coins?
I agree. I like crusty original gold. But sometimes rarity overrides this. Especially in finding early southern good with eye appeal. Between bad production quality poor planchets hard use and attrition you take anything that’s appealing
I agree. I would also be willing to accept some minor issues (a skillful repair, ex jewelry, maybe a light cleaning, etc.) on pre-1834 gold, as long as the coin retains good eye appeal.
John I gotta admit, this was a first for me. I've never heard of calling a dipped gold coin "white gold". I get the reference, I've just never run across it before, and I collected a lot of gold. For me personally, dipping a gold coin, when it's one that needs dipping, doesn't hurt the coin a dang bit and typically improves its looks IMO. Dip will remove toning from gold but that's all it'll do, it cannot harm the coin if dipped too long like it can with silver, copper, or clad. Dipping gold will make it look like it did when it was freshly minted. At the same time I also get it that not everybody likes that look. I don't either at times, I like toned gold as much as the next guy, more than some. But only when I find the toning attractive. Luckily for gold collectors toning can't destroy the coin like it can and often does with copper, silver, and clad. The worst that toning can do to gold is make it ugly. In the end it's another one of those chocolate and vanilla things.
Some the coins that the purists like range from almost ugly to totally ugly. When I was looking for an 1838-C $5 gold, a dealer told me he had the "perfect piece" that was under graded. When I got it, it was a brown as copper large cent. It hardlly looked like gold at all. Needless to say I passed on it. One of the big problems these days is with gold and iodine. Coin doctors slather the stuff on a gold coin to make it look "crusty." Frankly I am not a big fan of "crusty gold." I like it as pristine as possible. This $5 gold was treated with iodine. PCGS made good on it for me.
I can see the dark reddish-brown patches, particularly at the rims and in the corners of the stars and the reverse lettering. Is this what you mean by "crusty"? It looks like the treatment left the surfaces and the crevices in the main devices and the fields largely unaffected. Am I interpreting your viewpoint correctly?
"White gold" as used today in jewelry is usually mixed with palladium or a nickel combination to make it much further away from normal gold color than shown in first post. White gold is used by almost every jeweler when they use cheaper stones that need to be "flashy" in a setting ( such as Diamonds -appear larger visually, or Tanzanite, Tsavorite, etc). Most of Costco's jewelry is quite well designed to do this, and they do label man made ones where other often do not. I think "Bright gold" vs. "Toned Gold " would be better for gold if one wishes to convey that idea. Jim
I was aware of the jewelry "white gold" when I posted this. You will have to get the people who don't like these coins to change their terminology.
I didn't mean that I disagreed at all to any of your post. I also see it as a personal choice. I have several examples of both types mentioned and generally would not expect it to a problem based on color, unless extreme or damage. Jim
White gold is the same as a bright white dipped silver coin, or pink copper, in my opinion. They've had their surfaces stripped, and I don't like the look. Sure, you can make an exception for a really rare coin, the same as you might accept some scratches or rim dings for a really rare coin. But I still don't like it. I like my gold to have that nice, deep color that can only come from an original patina:
