I doubt acetone would do much of anything to them. Acetone on its' own won't make them become "cleaned," unless they looked like it did afterward....
I have a hard time imagining a circumstance via which "natural" toning will begin to propagate just at the edges of the devices.
Little of both, I think - weak strike settings to prolong the lives of overused dies.
Yowzer. Ambitious coin. :) The obverse die is so far past its' expiration date that if it were food the vendor would get taken to court for...
Price guides are published by people with a vested interest in high coin prices. Some are more, um, optimistic than others.
I'm no fan of thumbnails, but I don't get the overwrought aggression some seem to feel against them. Then again, I center-click stuff to open it...
Not at all. You'll be an idiot if you post thumbnails the next time, though. :P
1896 was a good year for Morgan Proofs. Images courtesy of Heritage: [ATTACH] [ATTACH] Even the lesser ones would not show "shiny" on the...
"Generate consistent seignorage" is all they need. Nobody in Congress has a clue what they're capable of generating, and they must be meeting...
The slabs are completely irrelevant once you've cracked them. They're raw coins again, and no way to ever prove they were in a slab. Not to a...
It's easy. When you upload a pic, you're given the choice between "thumbnail" and "full image." Just choose the latter; you've been choosing...
He didn't note the original images were scans, which cannot show luster.
You got it. The "middleman" commerce arrangement is far more advantageous to the Mint, especially with Congress breathing down their backs looking...
OK, A somewhat-circulated coin which has been brushed, and probably polished, in an attempt to deceive a potential buyer that it's of higher grade...
It is decided that a die originally intended for one branch mint is to be used at another, and the original mint mark is more or less polished...
Not a chance, in my opinion. Unless somebody comes up with good evidence that it's a fake, though, this one has to get into a TPG slab. Nobody...
The 1879-CC is rather beat up, damaged and although a nice collectible year, probably wouldn't bring you as much as $150 if graded. The 1884-S is...
I contemplated that possibility, but the only possible common factor between the two coins presented - aside they both seem like ZLincoln...
First time I've seen it; my reflex thought is the sharp edge of the rim gutter on the die (it's sharper than most Business strikes indicate; note...
In my humble opinion, this one's more appropriate: [ATTACH] It ceased being about numismatics or coin collecting long ago. Now it's just...
Separate names with a comma.
