Questionable color on a Morgan

I recently picked up this 1879 Morgan, I kinda like the toning and the price seemed ok, it was graded PCGS 0 for questionable color (91). Do you think the color is questionable and what do you think would happen if I sent it to NGC, would it still come back questionable color?

 

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The areas that catch my eye on the obverse are the circular halo areas around the stars. Usually with true toning, the lighter areas are shaped like the stars, not circular. The date and some internal parts of letters, and the hair curls look off also. On the reverse, the letters at the bottom look Ok to me, but the letters at the top and surrounding letters there look unusual. A lot of halo areas around the devices.

Now, that said , I do not know what they actually saw. there could be small circular spots of no toning in the area where an artificial treatment couldn't get past a speck of dust, etc. Or maybe the toning didn't look like the others of this year they have seen. I think it is a guessing game a lot of the time. It appears that any heavy or unusual toning has an uphill fight. This could be a NT coin that had unusual storage conditions. JMHO.

Jim

 

It's really hard to say. If I had to take a best guess, I'd say it's been baked.

 

So, what do you guys look for when looking at toned coins? I still like this coin tho.

I know desertgem mentioned some things, is there anything else? I can try to get some better pics but I have found that my picture taking skills are horrendous!!! I simply can not get a picture that looks correct from an in hand coin!

 

I will point you to this thread that I wrote last year. It should give you an idea of what to look for and what to expect to pay.

http://www.cointalk.com/forum/t39837/

Put simply, look for a coin with eye appeal. Your coin has toning, but it is not eye appealing IMO. The color scheme and pattern are not consistent with what you typically find on a bag toned or album toned Morgan, which is probably the reason why PCGS bagged it for AT. NGC would certainly bag this coin as well.

 

I usually find there is a difference. Doctored coins make it look like the toning is layered on the coin, true toning "gets down into" the coin. In other words true toning doesn't cover up natural luster.

 

if u want it slabbed send it to ncs they will dip it ull get rid of the color and get a white coin

 

The yellowish color could be a sign of previous cleaning.

 

My first thought was dipped and re-toned (AT). The more I look at this coin, the more perplexed I get. It is a very strange coin.

 

xtrmbrdr,

It will take experience over time to accurately spot AT pieces. Get your hands on as many examples as possible (before purchasing).

This site gives a pretty good explanation on the science of dipping/toning and what to focus on when examining a coin.

http://www.ivyleaguecoin.com/originalalteredsurfaces.html

http://www.ivyleaguecoin.com/scienceoftoning.html

Here is a gallery of what I would call "original" toned coins to look at from the same site.

http://www.ivyleaguecoin.com/gallery.html

 

Thanks for all the links, very interesting, and I bookmarked them. I went back and looked at another Morgan I have and I can see the difference with the haloing around the stars and lettering.



I also have a two others, the Peace and the dime, that I call critters that are ugly as sin, if I can pick them up cheap enough I add them to my ugly coin box. These two graded pretty high which amazed me. I liken the dime to a woody cent.