Rainbow Toning

Can someone please tell me why some folks are so fascinated with "rainbow toned" coins? I see some eBay sellers offering "Monster Rainbow Toned" Morgan dollars. I find them unattractive personally. Also, the fact that the same sellers seem to be selling them (and the fact that these are the only things that they sell) leads me to believe that they are treating these coins to artificially tone them.

What do people see in such toned coins? I'll take a nice "blast white" Morgan any day of the week.

 

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They're Beautiful! When my friends quiz me about why I collect cause that 25 dollar penny is "just a stupid penny" I show them a beautifully toned Morgan on here or a toned Dollar of my own,, speaking of which Im going to post pictures in a sec..

 

i like a blast white coin as much as the next guy. i just like certain toned coins(especially morgans)soooo much. if the item is genuine and the colors are very vibrant i think it ends up enhancing the coin quite a bit. i have seen some very beautiful pennies before. thats why coin collecting is so great. you can have your own likes and dislikes. everyone should have there own style as it pertains to collecting.

 

Love that toning, esp real toning.

Wayte Raymond Albums were especially great for that, made with sulphur in the albums.

 

As the saying goes, 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.'
Many people think original rainbow toning is gorgeous.
I, like the OP, much prefer original blast white.
Of course that means any coin that's been handled more than a little won't look that way.
(If I see a blast white XF-40 coin, I run the other way.)
But I can't afford for all my coins to be MS-63 and above, so I often have to settle for coins with dull surfaces.

 

It IS a matter of preference. If you like "blast white" go for it.

I happen to like toning. Old things tone.

A good portion of my beard is "blast white" . Wasn't that way 20 years ago. You see I'm older now - it happens. I'm not planning on Grecian Formula 16 or "dipping" anytime soon.

clembo

 

1. Many toned coins are artificially done.
2. Worse yet, they are often artificially toned to cover up a cleaning.

I'd like to see your documentation on this stat.
I'd say more like 50/50 or maybe 2:1.
That's why I go with slabs. I can't always tell when a coin has been cleaned, particularly if dipping was the process.

 

I generally agree with this.
Only problem is, most people don't have experience, and it's not easy to get with respect to AT vs. NT.

I agree that a high percentage of older coins have been cleaned in one way or another.
And dipping is the source of many of those blast white coins.
But with similar logic from our toning discussion, if the experts (TPGs) have decided certain cleaning doesn't count, does it matter?
By "certain cleaning" I mean a very light and old but detectable dipping.

In a recent publication (ANA Journal or Coin World, I can't remember which), there was an article that stated that very quick dips in a diluted solution WAS undetectable.
That makes me a bit nervous, but if the coin gets slabbed, then it must be okay, at least by the professionals.

 

Count me in the camp that thinks toning is ugly.

Honestly, I think corrosion (oops, I mean toning) is it more a case of dealers applying lipstick to a pig in order to sell otherwise unsellable coins. "No sir, that's not tarnish, it's a beautifully rainbow toned gem".

 

You need to find some new dealers dude. Do they ever tell you "well I dipped the crap out of this one but it's blast white!"?

JMHO

 

Honestly, I'd rather have a tarnish-free coin that was moderately dipped than an ugly toned coin. Harshly dipped, no way, but done right not even the TPG companies can tell the difference.

 

Well, there's toning and then there's toning....and then TONING.
If the coin underneath the toning looks like crap, it looks like crap regardless if it has the most beautiful rainbow patina or if it were blast white.

Or, if the toning is so overbearing or thick (read close to black) that it hides or detracts from the design of the coin, then you could say it's crap.

But.... a beautifully struck coin that's lustre and design are augmented by the product of time and nature's chemistry makes it a bit more lovely and special.

Just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

 

I believe that I've read the same.
In fact, I think I've read that if a coin is rare enough and valuable enough the TPGs will slab it anyway, even if the cleaning IS obvious.
And no mention of the cleaning.
I'm talking the coins with 1-5 examples and million plus price tags.

 

a little bleach and an oven will yield a decent number of MONSTER TONED MORGANs, or so I've heard.

-Steve

 

Who'd a thought that all I need to do to increase the Morgan Dollars in my collection is throw a little bleach into the oven?!?! Does the bleach interact with the silver in the oven's thermostat?

::running away before Steve sends a worm bot into my computer's bios file::

 

I love the look of a high luster MS silver coin as much as anyone. For the coin to look like it just came off the presses and be 50, 60 years old and older warms my heart and thrills me with excitment, specially if I own it.

To answer your question, for me the toning if natural will have red, blues, and shades of violet, maybe some green and yellow. Mostly its the fire red into the blue that makes me swoon with desire over the coin. Personally it reminds me of the horizone at sun rize and sun set...breath takingly beautiful. Also knowing that if its natural it would have taken many, many years, sometimes decades to form this look.

AT toning is still quite beautiful but knowing that it was produced vertually over night with chemicals and heat kind of ruins the passion slightly, but not completely.

I have some Statehood quarters BU that I have purposefully subjective to a paper that i know will tone them over time. It is facinating to see them start this process and mature through it.


Allen

 

i have no knowledge of how it is done, but i know it takes about as long to do as it takes 3 kids to play a game of Life.

-Steve