Forget about opinions, fact is they all could be AT or they all could be NT - or anyplace in between those extremes. And nobody can ever tell you for sure anyway.
I think they were all placed in a bizarre environment or treated with the intent of making them tarnish/tone... However, if only one was to come back AT, it would probably be #5 IMHO.
Well, they all appear to be in PCGS holders...so I will imagine the answer you are going for is "none." Apparently PCGS decided they were market acceptable. Personally, I am always suspicious of ASEs being toned so wildly because they aren't that old (even the first year is only 28 years old). Plus, sometimes there is so little difference between NT and AT it's basically semantics. I wouldn't put any of them in my collection.
If these coins are not yours, or the photos are not yours, give credit as to the real owner. I get the impression people post photos of coins they want to buy and use the members to boost their confidence. That is not entirely bad, but not giving credit is bad.
Sorry, I always mention where I got the pics, but in this case had I provided links for every coin, then this thread would have become useless - easy to click on the link and see which is AT. They are all ebay pictures. Not interested in buying any of those coins and don't need members to boost my confidence. Just thought it'd be interesting to practice as I am sure I'm not the only one here having a hard time telling AT from NT.
You seem to have missed the point I was making - NOBODY can tell AT from NT with any degree of certainty. All anybody can do is guess. And that is why Larry asked you - in whose opinion ?
You're right...I clearly had a "brain moment" there. However, I have seen coins with toning that looks similar all slabbed by PCGS...so my guess is they are all graded. However, you are completely correct so my previous statement is invalid.
5 and 3 stand out to me, and if forced to guess I would say 3. Doug is right, there is no real "proof". I dislike the terms AT and NT. AT can look like NT, and with toning, if it looks like NT it IS NT. "Forced toning" is really what many people mean by AT, and it can be done poorly or pretty well. The reason I do not like 3 is the uniform one color. Very hard to find a NT coin like that. Way too many people, when they force toning, do it too quickly with the result being way too uniform coloring and shade. NT usually has little microcosms of activity, leading to variablity. This doesn't happen when forced too quickly. I like your post OP, I beleive its a terrific educational tool. Thanks!
I agree with you in that matter, but TPG's guess seem to be well respected by buyers willing to pay huge money for toned graded coins. I was looking to find out which coin members think is AT (their own opinion) and what members think TPG's opinion was.
I'm with Camaro on this one. I picked #3, but I'm always leery about an ASE that is toned, especially with vivid colors.
I picked 3 too but with the possible exception of 4 they all look a bit questionable. Me I always doubt the color on coins so modern unless they were in extreme environment conditions
I would agree with medoraman on 3 and 5. 3 has an ugly coloration that I've seen on a fair number of AT coins before, and 5 has very abrupt color shifts with no transitions.
For what it's worth, coins can tone very quickly, especially ASEs. I once bought a roll of them, put them all in AirTites, and then put them all in a Tupperware container and put it away in a drawer. Within a month they had all started to tone purple. Within a year the toning was advanced, and rather attractive to my eye. So yes, it happens. And all quite naturally.
I think it also depends on where you live. I've heard Florida is ideal for coins toning quickly I'd think somewhere hot and dry like Arizona they'd tone very slow
Anywhere raw silver can tone very quickly. There was an estate I bought some coins from, (mainly for below spot), since the man stored the coins so poorly. I bet you 80% of the silver coins I literally sold to a scrap dealer for melting they were so far gone. Anyway, in that group were half a roll of 1987 ASE's. This was in 1990, and those ASE's were BLACK, the toning had progressed in three years all through the colors to terminal matte black corrosion. That is how fast toning can progress even unintentionally if stored in poor environments. The whole thing made me sick, trying to save Peace dollars and other silver coins stored so poorly. I actually asked my local coin shop if they sold coin dip by the gallon. I saved some, but not very many unfortunately.
