We've all seen the grade designations Red, Red/Brown, and Brown for copper coins. I also collect Kennedy Half Dollars and Ikes, and when it comes to the copper clad issues, I find brilliant red edges to be much more desirable (to me). Do most collectors of copper clad coins consider edge color/toning? Too bad there's no convention for describing clad coinage edges.
They are typically brown or red brown. I never thought much about it until recently and always just wanted some red.
When I see a stack of clad coins it's always the sparkling red edges that catch me eye first I could live with that, many holdered coin edges are difficult to evaluate.
I think it was RS Yeoman who back around 1967 said that someday collectors would look for the shiny red edges. He wasn't wrong nearly as long as I've been wrong now.
I really don’t buy clad coins based on the color of the edge. I buy the coin from its obverse and reverse.
Often times we don't have much choice. Unless it's a loose coin, whatever holder it is in limits edge visibility. Online offerings only have obverse/reverse photos too, so we buy based on what we can see. That being said, if I were to buy, say an MS67 clad Ike and it arrived with a brown edge, it's getting returned.
