A Riddle for your weekend...

How can a 25th Anniversary (2011) Silver Eagle "Early Release" coin have "blueish" toning completely covering one side?

I've seen a few in a major TPGS slab. Please take a guess.

 

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It came in a blueish velvet like box?

 

If it’s a PCGS slab, they allow coins still sealed in the original box (that were bought in the period that qualified for first strike) to be sent in at any time for the first strike designation.

Some of those 2011 sets were reported to have arrived with coins outside the capsule. Those coins could have reacted with the blue velvet while resting in the sealed box for multiple years (or very quickly if the conditions of storage were conducive to toning). Someone may have sent that sealed box in recently. PCGS graded them with First Strike labels and thus you see toned coins in those slabs.


Of course someone could have also gassed the slab, but for the 2011 set I believe the first solution is more likely.

 

Whatever the reason, pass it by.

 

This is excellent advice for those who don't like toned coins.

 

I PARTICULARLY don't like 7 year old toned coins.

 

I vote witchcraft

 

Have you found a way to tell how long it took to tone a specific coin that you are shown? I guess it may be best to avoid all toned coins but then an expert collector would need to detect if a coin was ever toned and how long ago the toning may have been removed.

 

All I NEED to know is 7 years is too short. I don't care if it was "intentional", "careless", or "helped"; I don't want ANY part of it regardless. Why? It's AT A MINIMUM damage created by incorrect handling, and I steadfastly REFUSE to encourage or reward any such thing. Call it a "categorical imperative" not to do so, if you like.

If you can't keep a 7 year old coin blast white, you DESERVE to lose money on it.

 

This was too easy, That's what happened. The coins stayed in the sealed box from the Mint with the "early" postmark. During shipping some came out of their capsules and became toned. When the Mint sealed cardboard box was opened the loose coins were toned - especially on one side. I wonder if the sulfur in the cardboard box aided the velvet to produce the color.

 

Are you Mr. White pretending to be Mr. Bellman? That noten professional chemist and numismatist believes that toning (oxidation) is damage to a coins surface. Of course he is correct!

BTW, a large majority of successful, knowledgeable, well-known, numismatists both dealers and collectors will be extremely happy to buy all the beautiful rainbow toned DAMAGED COINS they can get a hold of.

 

That's absolutely correct they will - because the numismatic market will run out of many many things before it runs out of morons. No portion of any market is as prone to falling for fads as this one is.

Very old coins should have toning, fine. But very young ones should not.

While we're chasing the fad du jour, here comes the "road rash as collectable" fad!

 

+100. lol that made my day.

 

Natural? Do. Not. Care. It's PREVENTABLE WITH REASONABLE CARE. End of inquiry. Besides, you're slicing the bologna WAAAAAAY too thin here. I have solid rolls that go back to the 1940's that are STILL fully red or white as the case may be, and they've never been dipped. Now the ones in slabs? Yeah, they tone.

 

Pure silver is very reactive, so it's not a surprise to see Silver Eagles with toning. I feel a lot of them have been "helped", but improper storing of pure silver will allow tarnish to begin.

@V. Kurt Bellman I generally agree with you about wild rainbow toning on ASE's that I see in PCGS holders.

 

Gassed and or dipped while IN the slab.

 

Looked like a lot of them were also baked/heated too.

 

A number of my very early ASEs show toning from having sat in a desk drawer for ~30 years, but I would like to ask a question that is only slightly related.

I have a number of unopened rolls, most from recent years. In fact, I would need to open these rolls just to find out what years they are since I did not take the time to make some sort of notation on them. I guess that it is unlikely that these would have toned over the past several years, but would these lose any value at all if I were to break the seals to check for any toning, and, indeed, to determine what years I actually have?

 

My opinion? They'd lose NOTHING. Who is paying a premium based on what has or hasn't been done to them? Nobody I've ever heard of.