I noticed that there was very little toning on my 1958 Proof set and my 1974 Mint sets except for yellow toning on the nickels. Is this desirable? Does anybody know why they would turn yellow?
Funny, I have some silver in 2 x 2's that have turned a shade of pale yellow (with a hint of green) that I've have never seen before. I don't know why either. To make it more confusing, certain series don't seem to be affected: Rooseys have no yellow at all but SL and Washington quarters, Walkers, Franklins and silver Kennedy halves are all yellow. If anyone can shed some light on this, I'd appreciate it, too.
Yellow is the first stage of toning in the color progression. I can't explain why only the nickels are toning other than to say the storage conditions you have the coins in is more conducive to the oxidation of Cu-NI than Silver. A pale yellow patina is very common and will not increase or decrease the value of the coin 99% of the time.
I love the icey blues of the early 60's proofs get....OMG they are beauitful....steel blues. icey blues...and some dark blue purple colors too. But again mostly early 60 to 64 .....
I think it would be funny if David Hall made it mandatory to love toning. How fast would the kool-aid drinkers jump on the band wagon? When is the big announcement BTW.
And is this separate from tarnish? The Mercs, SL quarters and Walkers I have which are all yellow had tarnished long ago. The yellow appears to be a new layer (relatively speaking). Also, oddly, some of the coins, from the same series, in the same binder sheets have no yellow toning. Isn't the mylar of 2 x 2's supposed to prevent this?
Both my yellers are still in the mint packaging. I'll try to take photos, but I'm still new at it. I'm just now getting the hang of Large Cents without the worry of packaging and capturing subtle toning.
I hope this is what I have to look forward to. Of course, I may not live that long at the rate they're toning.
