This is the best pic I can get It's on a lot of them... Looks like someone threw it on a grill. Ever see this? I Know this was found in an old house while they were clearing it out for construction.
Black, the final stage of toning, the coins are damaged. They were obviously resting on something like cardboard with ridges.
some of the old Whitman folders could cause that, from the glue holding the pages together. Altho, these are a bit extreme.
It's a shame! Damn! I think it did come from those killer folders.... Because I have 64 Mercury Dimes ranging from 1916 to 1945 and none of them are doubles. All different date and mint marks. I might just keep them, but since they're damaged, and they're all common dates and mint marks, am I able to clean the black off?
They're just old dimes. Unless they're rare, I'd leave them like that. I think they look kind of cool, but that's just me. I'd like to have a silver dollar like that.
I have some coins that were damaged like that from being in Whitman folders too. They weren't nearly that bad though, but had very similar marks. Bruce