Dark 1922 Peace dollar

Can anyone point me to a reason why this coin would be so dark. It's beautiful in my opinion, but what made it become so dark?

 

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Exposure to something containing sulfur, most likely. Silver loves to react with sulfur, and the product, silver sulfide, is black. In very thin layers, it produces rainbow colors.

The most likely candidate is paper. Most paper contains sulfur as residue from the manufacturing process. It looks like this coin is darkest on its high points, where the paper would have been touching it.

 

It's a common date and was probably stored in an envelope.

 

Often referred to as "tarnish", it is toning, probably through contact with sulfur. To "correct" this, you could try a quick dip if you had some eZest or similar. Other than that, if you wanted to try it, lemon juice sometimes works well. Wait and see what other people might suggest. Although it is a common coin, I can understand you don't want to go to the hassle of trying to sell it, but would want it to look nice. The only thing to REALLY avoid is any kind of polishing material and any sort of rubbing or scraping the surface. PS - I always liked Peace dollars even as a kid.

 

I looked at that coin again. I know you said you like it and that's fine. If I owned it, I'd give it a quick dip and a good rinse to try and get rid of that toning.

 

I don’t think that is just normal toning, something else has happened to that coin. It’s not a rare coin so if you like it don’t touch it but dipping won’t drop the value and might work.

 

It's normal toning but it has been affected by sulfur. My quess is it was stored in paper, an envelope most likely.

 

Ok. I may leave it like it is. I think its cool looking and still worth its weight.

 

If nothing else, you could give it a long rinse in hot running water in the sink followed by an overnight soak in acetone (glass covered container). Might brighten up the silvery parts.

 

Take heart. I've seen worse . . . .

I OWN worse . . . .

For some reason, Peace Dollars seem to be more susceptible to this kind of "aging" . . . .

Z

 

Peace Dollars saw more circulation due to the depression.

 

theres only a dozen in existence where the **** did you find that!

 

that is a high relief dollar

 

Then I must have them all. I have at least 30 of this date. Extremely common as it's a low relief.

 

You're confused about high and low relief Peace dollars. Read the discussion of high-relief 1922 Peace dollars more carefully. All 1921 Peace dollars were high relief, and all but a handful of 1922 Peace dollars were low relief.

Welcome to CoinTalk!

 

Which example were you talking about? The OP's blurry 1922 or the one I posted?

I am curious at to the diagnostic to determine that.

EDIT: Definitely not the one I posted . . . .

Z