Trying to determine if this is doctored\fake toning...

It is very ugly artificial toning. Give it a wide berth.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

So i've spent some time looking at hi res photos today as @medoraman suggested for my homework...been helpful for sure...then I come across this...

I'd like to see if anyone can guess what this graded...i realize its not a full pic of the coin, but the grade it received will not require you to have the missing parts...

 

Nice, you can see the impression of the reverse.

 

I think both Indian and Washington are AT.

The 1863 Indian probably wouldn't be brown like a normal copper Indian or Lincoln though. From 1859 until the first half of 1864 Indian cents were made of copper-nickel (88% copper and 12% nickel).

From the second half of 1864 until the end of production Indian's were made of 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc.

 

@torontokuba nice eye, but that's not what got picked on in the grade...any guess as to what the grade was?

 

@robec thanks for pointing that out, it was a question I had after looking today. Medoraman mentioned in his original reply that a coin this old would always be brown, but that's not turning out to be the case. I wonder if what was meant was any coin *with disturbed or circulated surfaces* would always be brown. Nonetheless I've seen a good sampling of these in AU holders with good luster too them, like the one above from my more recent reply, although that's not an AU sample.

Now I will say this...almost every one I've looked at today, where the TPG actually did notate the color (i.e. RD, BN, RD-BN), have all been noted as BN even though they look RD or RD-BN. They've not had the color to them notated in the grade, but when they did notate the color...again it was always BN...so maybe that's what was meant with the statement that they would almost always bee brown.

who knows...been a good learning day for me though.

 

I'm pretty sure that neither PCGS nor NGC attributes a color (RD, RB or BN) with the copper-nickel Indian's. If a seller does this they are in error.

 

@phankins11 Now I'm wondering if it wasn't a details grade. Was there mention of the die crack?

 

@torontokuba it did get a details grade, but not because of the die crack....

Here's the link....lol
http://coins.ha.com/itm/indian-cent...age-39-233-712-numisme/a/210022-22006.s#Photo

Can you detect the detail they're talking about?

@robec good point...i didn't actually take note of the dates with the color distinction on them, just looked through a large list of IHCs from all years...good to know and thanks for sharing that info.

 

@phankins11 I see the L and I guess they saw the cleaning in-hand. All 4 diamonds are visible, so, the UNC part is not a surprise.

 

Only think I can think of is that someone took a toothpick or thorn or something to the L or maybe dabbed it with something and you can see it in hand like you're saying. Still seems nuts to me...

 

No, they're not saying the L is cleaned, it's just a detail of the coin they mentioned, the cleaned part refers to the whole coin surface. Maybe dipped?

 

Btw, you are right that an 1862 will be more of a nickel type of toning. Still, it should be normal old nickle looking versus the crazy colors of the OP coin. A scrubbed AU coin should never exhibit wild toning unless forced AT.

 

The Indian has been cleaned and that quarter I too agree with you medoraman about the price. But some how people will pay that kind of price for the color toned like that and not sure why.