If you want to see a bad attempt to tone a coin go to item 110091338883 and look at the photo. Make sure you enlarge it. This poor coin went through some type of flame trying to tone it. Just look at the wings and you can tell someone wiped the coin afterwards. Yey someone will by it.:desk: Just goes to show "The more people I meet the more I like my dog." At least he's honest.
Link; http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ey_W0QQcatrefZC6QQfromZR4QQsacatZ11116QQfviZ1 They didn' even get all the smoke off it :headbang:
I really Dig toning especially on Higher grade coins, I just don't know much about it and what causes it... I see the marks on the wing one of you refered to, but I also wonder; does a coin that pretty heavily toned on one side usally have it on the other too??? I would think it ifs heavy on one side the other would atleast be lightly toned...
are you sure that it is AT? I'm no expert at detecting cleaned, and AT, but if they were trying to do a job, why not do both sides?
Usually coins tone differently on both sides. This was a attempt at creating a toned coin. It appears as though it was subject to heat either from a flame of some type or another source of heat. You can see burned portions on this coin and soot. Not a good try at the owners part. As far as the other side the heat did change it somewhat.
SMULLEN, Sulfur usually is the cause. Old coin albums had it in the paper they were made of. Also the air in the enviroment can tone coins. If you have a silver coin with little value dip it in bleach and watch it turn steely grey. Place sulfer on the coin for a few days watch what happens. Iodine left on coins leaves another type of tonning. People who try cleaning their coins try to tone them somewhat after words trying to hide the effect by leaving them on outside windowsills for a few months to get them to retone a bit. Some people bake them in a low temp oven coated with oil. There are many ways to produce artifical toned coins. High humidity also affects coins, especially if you live near saltwater. That is why they reccommend buying slabbed coins at first until you can see the difference. There are many books out there "The Coin Collector's Survival Manual"," Coin Collecting for Dummies", "Coin Chemistry", "the Expert's Guide to Collecting & Investing in Rare Coins". These are but a few. Go to your local library or book store look in the index of the book for coin cleaning and coin tonning. Find the book you like and buy it. Also get yourself a copy of "Photograde Coin Grading Guide" it will help you greatly. Be wise in buying these books, look on Amazon.com first it'll same you a bunch of money. I just bought a copy of The Standard Guide of World Coins at the bookstore and paid $60 after taxes when it was listed on Amazon for $38 postage included. Hope this explains some and good luck in your collecting.
OMG!!! This is certainly a very poor attempt to tone a coin with an open flame. I get the same exact results when I pre-heat stainless steel. If the flame is left at one spot too long it turns black, just like the reverse of this coin shows. If this were done in an oven the AT would be more evenly dispersed. haha...I should buy it just to have it as an example and display it at the next ANA show.
