A toned 1979 Kennedy Half?

I think that statement made by David Hall is a complete cop out for their grader's lack of ability to distinguish the difference between AT & NT peace dollars. I bought a peace dollar before that had blue and red/pink toning. I put it in one of those velvet ASE boxes and the toning started turning orange, yellow, and green. The pattern of the toning was completely different than a Morgan dollar. Why? I don't know, but I do know that they most certainly do tone with all the colors that he is saying don't occur.

I am not an expert grader with all coin denominations, but I know more about identifying natural toning than the entire staff of graders at PCGS or NGC. I'm telling you, that guy that caused the huge stink in the TCCS forums completely screwed up the graders at both companies. I can identify any one of his coins, as well as a lot of other AT coins that have been put in holders from 3 other skilled "doctors". I told the vice president that I would teach their graders exactly what to look for to pinpoint these coins and tell them exactly where they were coming from if they wanted to float the ticket for me to fly there, but he seemed to think their experts were well trained in that area already. Ha! They have no idea anymore. There are 4 primary sources where the majority of really good looking AT coins are coming from, and each source has certain properties that act almost like a signature to identify the coin's origin. I would bet that 1/4 to 1/3 of NGC star designated modern coins are AT and come from one of these 4 sources.

 

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The reason the pattern is different on a Peace Dollar than a Morgan is due to the surface characteristics of the coins. Peace Dollar's have a much smoother surface than Morgan's on a microscopic level...as a result, the Morgan has much more refractive properties when an oxide layer as built up, this results in the colors. Because the Peace Dollar is much smoother, it's refractive properties are greatly diminished with the same oxide layer present.

 

Aaah...learn something new every day. Cool.

 

Here is a much more detailed and better explanation that GD made in another thread.

 

Thanks. I've often wondered why Peace dollars are seldom seen with much color, and why they were so different compared to Morgans.

 

Meanwhile, back to the toned Kennedys (the original topic).....I have purchases sets of toned Kennedys with the prettiest metallic blue...are these AT? Thanks for an answer....I've already learned a lot!

 

You would need to post pictures to even begin to make a guess.