A chance to show my ignorance, but what the heck. I'll learn from the comments of others. It doesn't look cleaned to me, just been around the block many times. Steve
For the first part of your question: I think it has been cleaned, but maybe an older cleaning? For the second part: that is hard to tell, it's all about the chemistry of the coin and also whether that is natural or artificial. I would've assumed that the toning is from an old holder, but then I see some toning on the shield but not on the obverse which is why I think it was cleaned. I would not take my input as truth as I've not studied these enough and do not know toning the way some of the guys here do.
Does the wear pattern seem peculiar to anyone? That the reverse detail is pretty much there, but the obverse is so heavily worn? Yet the obverse denticles are all there and they are hardly visible on the reverse? Steve
At this grade, the reverses of bust halves generally have more detail than the obverse. To me this looks to be a G-4. Looks to me like it is, although it is not the rare pairing. O-101a would be my call based on the die cracks on the reverse. R.2 according to my edition. Of course, I always like to get a confirmation from someone else haha.
I agree with the O-101. Check out this website to confirm since you have the coin in hand @Profit man http://coinzip.com/bustieguide/
Not really; Bust Halves have little variance in relief on the obverse, and after a certain level of wear pretty much everything disappears at once. The surfaces are, to my mind, cleaned and retoned decades ago.
It happened really_slowly; the color progression is very advanced, yet the band of toning rather narrow. Seems to me like it might have sat obverse-out in an album for a long time.
It appears to have been cleaned however, it is hard to tell. This coin is 191 years old which means in theory it could have been cleaned years ago, but then had enough time to tone over again it give it the appearance of never having been cleaned. That would make this an old cleaning. The time a coin takes to tone depends. It depends on the chemistry of the silver/gold/alloy and also conditions that the coin has been stored under(for example if it was stored in a area of high humidity this would influence the rate at which the coin toned). This also influences the color a coin tones so this is almost impossible to say. It is a beautiful coin that has had a long an interesting history.
You guys don't know anything. First, she wasn't cleaned, she was "conserved." Second, she's MS64, that's "cabinet friction." Get on the ball, will you?
The comments about cleaning seem moot. If someone cleaned this coin, it was not very thorough. Despite a long career it looks good---leave it alone.
