I have a Franklin half and it's got what looks like a permanent marker mark on the head of Franklin's bust. I tried removing it with a couple acetone baths (first about 18 hours, second 5 minutes), but it doesn't come off. Could it possibly be some sort of patina? Anything else? Thanks in advance.
If you look closely you will see other specks of dark black in and around the legends in places. That black is the remains of dark heavy toning. In all likelihood at one time that coin was toned completely black, and then somebody dipped it in an effort to remove the black. But as often happens, some of the black did not come off. Since then the coin has re-toned to its current color.
I'm assuming it devalues the coin (?); there are also partial full bell lines, for whatever that's worth. Also, it's hard to get the lighting right and in person, the coin looks much lighter in color, and the black spot stands out a bit more due to that contrast.
The coin has little value to begin with. It is a common coin, it appears to be circulated, it has an old fingerprint, as well as unattractive toning. Those things alone pretty much dictate minimal value.
I'm going to disagree with Doug's previously dipped and re-toned theory and go with something that is much more simple and, in my opinion, much more likely. My guess is that the coin simply has crud on its surfaces from how it was stored.
On a completely separate note, as a hypothetical, if a coin was toned brown like the Franklin as seen in-person, but was shown as being whitish silver in color (perhaps due to heavy camera lighting) like a "regular" silver coin, is that false advertising by the seller for me to initiate a return?
I find it hard to imagine how anybody could make that coin look white in pictures but I suppose with today's technology it might be possible. As to your question, false advertising doesn't really come into it. The only thing that matters is if you are happy with the coin or not, that all by itself is reason enough to return it. Assuming of course that the seller has a return policy, and that his return conditions can be met. For example, he may have a time limit, or he may require that the coin not be removed from the original holder. So if you cannot meet his return conditions, then returning the coin may not be possible.
