Artificial Toning vs Natural Toning

"Monster-toned" coins bring big bucks. The big bucks motivate coin doctors to artificially tone coins to sell to the unsuspecting.

Do you know how to spot artificial toning (AT) or what to look for to confirm natural toning (NT)?

I found several "Monster-toned" coins on eBay, both active and completed auctions. Do you think these are NT or AT?

1889 Morgan

1891 Morgan

1935 Peace

 

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Are they all Artifical??? Can coins tone like like without help????

 

Here are some Franklins.

 

And State Quarters.

 

You tell me. (I'll give the answer later after others have had a chance to post their guesses.)

 

The quarters look just like the one I threw on the space heater at work the other day. The heat was cranking and the top glowing red. The Lincolns melted in about 45 seconds and the quarters looked like these in about 15 seconds

 

These are just.... weird.

 

They are all AT.

 

I agree.

 

I would say A.T.

 

They all look fake.
I'll give the Peace dollar a chance at being NT.
It looks like there is still some foreign material on it from wherever it was stored.
Also, there is some light surface marks in the brown toning on the lower right.
The toning on it does not look brushed on.

The state quarters are obviously baked.

 

All of those look like terrible/blatant AT jobs.

 

Can you point to WHY they are AT?

 

One, new clad doesn't tone like that. 2, The colors don't fade into each other.

 

All fake.

1st indicator is the color does not change in layers as does in many of these.

Also, On these, the color rides " high" on the coin, natural toning takes time and develops patterns following flowlines in the metal.

There is also color creep around the fine details such as lettering and dentils.

 

The Morgans lack depth and ones that tone remotely like that are usually end roll coins.
I don't think the toning would carry over to the reverse like that.
I'm curious as to what the reverse of the Peace dollar looks like.

The Franklins look like something was applied to it and burned off.

The quarters were baked on a cookie sheet in the oven, with a drop of this and that applied for experimental purposes.
Coins minted that recently could not tone like that in such a short time.
Just slow high heat.

 

Very good. I have you thinking.

 

Here ya go.

 

Arizona Jack will be an expert on AT next week. (The DVD is in the mail.)

 

Hmmm.....
It looks less likely from the reverse, but I still think there's a chance.
It looks like something may have been caked on the coin, at one point.
Note how it appears that something was scraped off of the area of the text "United".
I suppose it could have been stuck in a pile of sulfur.
I guess there is still an outside chance that it could be NT, but I wouldn't bet on it.