I bought a roll of wheat pennies from ebay. got this 1916 in there - tell me what you think. Is this toning, or something else. I think it something else, but i wanted your opinions'.
update: i took it out to look at the reverse, and when i put it back, i rubbed off some of the stuff on Lincolns face. so i took my finger again and kept rubbing it - well, its still shiny, but now its not as colorful.
The logic is as follows - the coin is close to 100 yrs old. It has also seen a good deal of circulation as evidenced by the amount of wear on the coin. But yet the coin shows red color instead the normal brown that a circulated cent of that age would show. Any copper coin that has circulated that much is going to be brown - not red. Therefore the coin has been cleaned allowing the red to be visible. Then you have the colorful toning. While these colors can be found on cents, typically it is on uncirculated or nearly so coins. It does not readily develop on coins that are well circulated because those coins are already brown in color. Add the two up and you have my original guestimate.
Cleaned, cleaned and possibly cleaned. Looks like one I put on a window ledge after cleaning. Left it there for a few months. Looks just like that.
