How fast does toning occur?

You pull a BU indian head cent out of a yellow envelope. The coin was mint red when it was put in the envelope 30 years ago, it's now toned quite nicely.

But what if you pulled the coin out 20 years ago? Would it of looked the same 10 years sooner?

So the question is, is toning a slow process, or a fast process, that just takes time for all the conditions to be met?

Does a coin tone in a matter of minutes inside the envelope once it's "just right"?

 

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How fast can you bake the potato with the coin inside?

 

Twice baked will add considerably more time.

 

Should it be a loaded potato, with all the trimmings, or only sour cream?

 

Well, that depends on what colors you are trying to achieve.
Bacon will give it those earthy tones and delicious smell.

 

Be sure to do it in the microwave, on high, for 20 minutes with the edge slightly sticking out... sit back and enjoy the fireworks

 

Tim, it all depends; there is no general quickie answer. There are so many factors beyond a generic envelope and time.

 

Books, good answer. I think in all seriousness (putting aside the loaded baked potato, with bacon, chives, and Monterey Jack cheese), environmental conditions would be the biggest variable--temperature, humidity, or lack thereof, and storage situation.

 

Agreed, so the answer is: There is no answer. It can take anywhere from weeks to decades depending on the storage envirnoment.
I'm pretty sure Tim knows this already.

 

yeah there are too many factors to consider. i know here in florida where the humidity is always very high i notice my coins tone a lot faster

 

All good answers, except the baked potatoes.

It can be an hour, decades, or never. Why do you think original fulll red has such a premium? Its because for their entire existence they have been stored correctly. One day stored incorrectly can ruin that forever.

 

Now that Tim's topic has gotten on a serious note, I'll second everything that has been said. Storage conditions are the biggest factor. I forget who did the experiment, but someone on here put some coins in an old yellow envelope and let them sit for several years (not sure how many, but it was for a while) in a desk drawer. He opened them up, and nothing had changed.
However, You could take a coin and subject it to high humidity as well as rapid temp changes and get some alteration relatively quickly. It might not be pretty, but it would be toned.

 

My weaknesses are twice baked potatoes and warm pecan pie with French vanilla ice cream melted on.

 

for a minut i thaught the ice cream was on the potato


never put a standing liberty quarter in a frying pan it tones a nice purple then instantly black

 

Twice baked??? I really gotta clean my ears. I was wondering why my re-fried potatoes won't tone the coin!

 

Home fries won't cut it either.

 

I tone coins regularly on my window sill from May to October and during the summer on an upper shelf in my garage. I'm not sure about copper but I can tone clad and silver in about a month in the window and 6-8 weks in the garage with rotating observse up to reverse up almost weekly.

I have some 2009 proof sets that i want to sell and noticed last weekend that the lincoln comem cents had all toned in the holders in climate controlled environment. No toning on any clad coins.

 

i was told on here that silver would melt very easily and then turn into a ball when droped into water a long time ago

 

Tim, how rapidly a coin tones depends on the environmental conditions it is in. In some conditions the coin can tone in seconds, and in others it is possible a coin could go for decades, possibly even centuries without toning.

As for your questio about what the coin would have looked like if you had pulled it out ten years earlier, there is no way to say. Depending on how the coin/envelope has been stored, all the toning seen today might have been there just a couple years after it was put in the envelope and then storage could have changed and no change has taken place in the last 25 year., it could and been a very slow gradual increasing and mellowing of the tone with slight changes each year, or could have been untoned until some time recently when storage conditions changed and all the toning has taken place recently. There is just no way to say what it would have looked like ten years ago unless we looked at it ten years ago.

 

This thread sounds like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. A silver coin in unopened envelope is everywhere from blast white to black until the envelope is opened.