Rainbow Toned walking Libertys

Hello!
Here is my first and most interested post- handful of Walking Liberty coins with various progressions of (rainbow toning) which all are verified good silver mints and appear (to my research) to be genuine toning NOT artificially induced with their vivid colorations. Will you please inspect and lend insight to what you think ?

Which have the most/least value? All good curiousity, won't hurt my feelings

 

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Here's a few close ups, I know reflections on acrylic isn't the best image... Sorry friends!

 

I don't think those are likely to pass as natural toning (NT), but I'm not a modern toner enthusiast, so I may well be wrong.

If I had those, and had someone willing to offer $70 each for them, I'd take their money and run -- to buy 90% or other low-premium silver. I don't trust the toning premium to hold steady in the long term (as artificial toning gets more sophisticated), and if silver goes up, the premium isn't likely to keep pace.

Welcome to CoinTalk!

 

I want to learn how to HODL.

 

Hi @Sustaina_shaeyman welcome to coin talk.

First I'd like to mention those are called "Silver Eagles" or "Silver American Eagles", not walking libertys.

In my opinion they look artificially toned to me, it's not following any of the natural pattern of how toning works, like really dark at the edge of the coin where they tone first. If i'd seen any one of the top 3 in the first picture, I might go along with it, but the bottom one, #4, looks really artificial, and if I can question one, and they all have the same color, then I feel I should question them all. the sharp blue color, as well as a dark brown color is usually indicative of a chemical rapid toning. it should progress through a rainbow of colors normally depending on the thickness of the toning, when it's done quickly, there isn't much variation.

that said, they have their appeal to some people and people willing to pay for them. if you are holding them for silver, then hold them for silver and wait for the price to go higher and sell them as silver.

if you are selling them as toners, you should do that and the market will decide the value in the selling price. they list them for $70 or $80, they usually sell for $35-$45 though an untoned silver eagle sell for the same $35-$45 on ebay, and if graded and straight graded you could probably get even more than $70 for each if the slab gives no indication of questionable color.

Here's a set of legit toners, even info on how they got toned and the reason for the pattern on some of them.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/co...ed-coins/rainbow-pci-silver-eagles/album/1750

even those pictured, toned faster than natural occurring due to storage conditions, but not that fast, to where it all colored evenly or as close to evenly as possible, they all display the rainbow or the earliest colors to appear from toning.
it should go, light gold, amber, russet, burgundy, cobalt, lt blue, cyan, then greens, yellows, oranges, reds, purples, blues again, then greens, that's the progression as the toning film gets thicker over time, your hints at the previous colors, but Hits hard on cobalt it's just not following the progression in my opinion, at least not at a steady rate over a long period of time like a few years but has the appearance it's happened over a very short period of time, like a few hours.

Anyways, just my 2 cents, good luck.

 

Those look very artificially toned. You would be lucky to only get silver price for them.

 

All of those silver eagles scream AT to me. I wouldn't pay more than melt value for them.

 

99.9%-AT

0.001%-NT

 

+1

 

To add to the above, the coins look like they have been in circulation. They are not sharp at all in my opinion. They are just the Bullion Grade, correct?

 

+2

 

AT all the way.

 

Blech!

But to each his/her own.

If you can get $70/ea., take it and run, then buy some nice ones for $50 or so.

 

they are bullion SAEs for sure. Been my experience with seeing artificial toning, they will tone and dip and tone and dip until they get the right effect they want and stop at that point. there's a lot of trial and error until they are happy with the color, it usually kills the luster and makes the coin look flat.

 

Sell the 4 for 280 and buy 9 Silver Maples for that 280. You'll more than double your silver.

 

I'd sell. Not a fan of toning.

I had a 12 oz. ASE design 0.999 silver with severe rainbow toning. I bought the coin new in '95 and for most of its life it was wrapped in a rag from a cotton undershirt in my office desk. Certainly it wasn't artificially toned although I'd call it accidentally toned.

 

That toning I actually find appealing and if I saw it on ebay, I would bid on it. Thanks for sharing!

 

This is what I don't understand. Everybody knocks the heck out of Mike Mezack on TV and sellers on Etsy, but it's okay for people on CT to get away with the same thing.

 

Thanks. Ultimately sold it on coinbook for 349 after it had lanquished for a couple months. With that in mind, I'd feel lucky getting $50 for a toned one oz ASE.

 

@cpm9ball - not exactly sure what you mean, but individual sellers may have a more difficult time getting top dollar for stuff like this, whereas MM has an entire TV audience.

What I meant was if he has a buyer at $70, jump on it. I have a preference for NT's, but bullion is bullion, and when the toning is AT, I think that limits the market to bullion buyers who want to pay closer to spot (don't care about toning NT or AT), and those who go nuts for this type of stuff.

@Jim-P - great on getting the $349. You can get "normal ASE's" in the $50 range still. Just have to know where to look.