Toning - I Just Don't Get It!

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

You call that toning? I would call that a hue. You should have gotten those monster toned when I had them.

 

I only like toning on the older coins, there's nothing more painful for me than to see an 1896 coin that I just got that looks like my 2009 shiny state quarter :crying: that's an instance when toning is good, it brings back some of that old "aged" look

 

look at post 4 where i also refer to it as a hue of green

 

I especially dislike some of the silver I've seen described as beautiful russet toning. To me it is partially right, they usually look something like an old potato!!

Lack

 

I don't understand toning either. It's one of the things that makes me scared I'm wasting my money when I buy coins because I don't really get it so I'm probably buying the ones no one else wants because of the nuances of toning that totally pass me by.

 

The OP is not the only one to be confused by exactly what is toning, or in my case, exactly WHAT is a naturally toned coin supposed to look like?

Case in point is this coin which I found yesterday. The picture accurately reproduces the color as it came out of the ground after approximately 100 years in the open. It s a slighly creamy silver color. No rainbows, dark tones, no color at all.

I have found many silver coins, some of them 2000 years old. About 1/2 of them come out of the ground looking bright and even shiny......I am always perplexed when I see this. Even the argument that ground burial (i.e oxygen exclusion) is what prevented them from darkening, does not hold - they probably lay out in the open for at least 5-10 years before gradually sinking into the ground.

So how is a naturally toned silver coin supposed to look like?

 

Ohhhhh, now I really don't want to get into the age old debate about toned coins! Let's just leave it at, in case there is still anyone on this forum that doesn't know already, that I LOVE TONED COPPER!!! But I will agree that it is completely up to the eye of the beholder as to whether toning is pretty or ugly.

However, let me leave you with this - how can anyone say this is NOT a pretty coin?




or this one....

 

It's a pretty coin, Charmy (and Todd captured it nicely).

Whoops, didn't see the IHC. Both are nice.

 

Toning is just a natural state of a given coin and a reflection of it's life.

 

Toning doesn't mean rainbow. It also doesn't mean lovely, wonderful, fantastic, monster or gorgeous. Toning doesn't mean ugly. It also doesn't mean overpriced, artificial, harmful, negative or nasty. Certainly, toning doesn't mean corrosion.

Toned coins come in nearly all shades and colors and the metallic content, degree of wear and ambient storage influence the resulting toning to an astounding extent. If you don't like certain coins then I would advise you not to buy them. If you don't understand them then I would advise you again not to buy them.

Study coins. Buy what you like. Enjoy the hobby. Don't be consumed by what you perceive as negative.

 

How does that rainbow effect happen? I have hundreds of British coins, and have never seen that on any of them.
I don't understand the process (ie natural) as to how it happens, and so would be more inclined to avoid coins like that. As I learn more, that opinion will probably change.

 

Toning is one of the better thing that can happen to a coin.Ngc give a star notation and as GSJMP photo of the proof pattern set one just like it sold for $$$$$$$$.00 or in that range