Is this artificial or 'natural' toning on this Morgan? Please help

I need your opinions on this coin. I think it looks natural but I don't know very much about toning. Please tell me what you think. Opinions on grade would be appreciated also.

Thank you

 

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Going with artificial.

 

May I ask what stands out as to make it appear artificial?

 

I just don't like the obverse. The overall flow of colors looks very rugged and oversaturated. The 'burnt' spots in Liberty's hair, face and neck look suspicious compared with the rest of the coin, which appears to have toned at a slower rate.

 

The reverse appears NT, so the obverse may be too - just because it has deep rainbow toning doesn't mean it's AT. I'd have to grade it a 64, but would have to see it in hand to determine what's going on on Liberty's cheek, from the pics, looks like maybe some scratches.

 

im going to say AT for the reasons that mycohopper stated.

in either case i would want to see it in hand.

 

NT
1896 is a great date for monster toned Morgans very vivid toning on many samples, I would say they're toning is more drastic than any other year

 

With naturally toned coins, the progression is yellow, then magenta (pinkish red), then cyan (blue-green). I think this meets the criteria. That's a beautiful Morgan by the way.

 

Put me in for AT.
I like it though.

 

Thanks! I just bought it (on eBay, by the way)

 

I'm undecided about this one, I would like to see some "pull away" toning around the stars/lettering, but that's not always indicative of NT. I'm going to wait until the experts weigh in on this one.

 

1000% AT and I could tell who the seller was simply by looking at the images. If you go to say the PCGS forum and do a search for Unique & toned I am sure you will read a lot of bad information on this coin doctor. In situations where one can not accurately judge NT vs AT I always recomend buyer stick with certified examples in PCGS or NGC holder and that seriously lessons the chances you going to get a bad coin...sure it can still happen but at least experts have looked the coin over and determined that it is at least market acceptable. Other things you can do to protect yourself is reach out to experience toned coin specialist like myself, or Lehigh and ask for opinions....posting a coin here to have other folks who may be just as green as yourself in detecting AT can get you in a lot of trouble and waste $$$. Finally...where there is smoke their is fire so before bidding, do a search of the sellers current and completed items on Ebay and you will see the tell tale signs of a doctor at work.....crazy colors, all coins are raw....lots of coins that resemble each other? No toned coin seller in their right mind is going to sell genuine rainbow toned beauties raw on Ebay for pennies on the dollar. If the coin you bought were legit and say in a PCGS 64 holder I could easily sell it for $150 to $200 and no dealer is going to leave money like that on the table for $50 bucks. This seller has another handle on Ebay something like cwboy etc......

If you search for rainbow in the coin section and look at most of the raw AT garbage you will see this sellers multiple handles very clearly. I am sorry you got burned on this coin but it's a small price to pay for real coin education.

 

As an added bonus here is a gallery of unique and toned AT coin images I have put together over the years.....I made it public on my photobucket account so you should be able to access. It should be an eye opening experience for anyone who thinks banded rainbow toning can't be copied. The coins while not perfect can and do foll a lot of numismatists. I have tried for years to get this seller booted from Ebay but to no avail as Ebay is fine with rules violations as long as they profit from them.

http://s231.photobucket.com/albums/ee194/Kryptonitecomics/AT/

 

I went to PCGS boards and searched for 'unique & toned' in all areas and nothing came up. I have not sent payment yet, do you think I should try to cancel the transaction or is this coin still worth the price that I will pay for it???

 

It is not worth the price and I would be surprised if the coin as actually UNC. I will try to find some threads and link them here....could be Unique_N_Toned or several variations....

 

Very cool pictures of AT'd coins! Thanks for that!

 

I knew who it was as soon as I saw the pics too. Shane's post (#12) is dead on correct.

 

I told the seller after further thought that it was artificial and he cancelled the sale no questions asked. Thanks guys!

 

You tell stories. those are not Artificially toned. They all look typical of what happens naturally when various naturally occurring elements come in contact with silver.

 

I hope your kidding? The coins I linked were created by a coin doctor pure and simple and should be avoided at all costs by knowledgable collectors as by buying these coins it creates incentive for the doctors to continue to practice their craft and ruin more coins.