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Message:: [QUOTE="jfm9561, post: 2620197, member: 78247"]A "short while" was interrupted by a 5+ hour, ice storm induced power outage… In regard to the 1914-D's appearance: I have provided additional photos from a flatbed scanner and from the aforementioned HP point & click (without the flash). Clearly this illustrates how varied a coin's appearance can be based on the image capture technique that is utilized. In regard to having the coin in plain view right in front of me, it has what appears to be a very typical, soft brown color, with a barely discernable tinge of a greenish-yellow hue in places, and the vaguest remnants of mint luster on the most inaccessible surfaces, such as around the date, under Lincoln's bust, and along the edge of the back of his head. Granted, my experience is limited, but that said, during the past 18 months I have individually inspected literally thousands of Lincoln cents from 1909 to the present, and I have seen many that are toned like this. As far as I can tell, it appears to be toned in a quite common manner. In regard to the 1914-D's provenance, if anyone is interested in this sort of thing, following is the story of how I came to be in possession of this coin. I have no idea how exactly my grandfather may have obtained it (aside from the fact that it most likely came from circulation). All I know for certain is that sometime after 1960 (the copyright date on the coin album) and before 1972 (when he passed away) he put it a Whitman Lincoln Cents 1909-1940 coin album. I've provided photos of this album because if you look closely at the one that shows it open, against the edges of the pale blue paper you can see the discoloration of water damage all around the perimeter. In regard to the flood, the story is this. My parents owned a split level house that backs to a slope. Approximately 20 years ago it rained four inches in two hours, and this event flooded the basement (fortunately, rain water runoff and not sewer backup). Grandpa's coin collection was stored in cardboard boxes in the basement. I do not know the precise details of what exactly happened at that time. It appears that the collection as a whole was removed from saturated boxes and placed into different boxes; however, proper care was not taken to remove all the coins individually and properly dry them before returning them to what had already been improper storage in a damp, musty basement. The collection remained in these horrid circumstances until approximately 18 months ago when the basement once again flooded, this time due to excessive rain and a subsequent sump pump failure (again just rain water, not sewage; and the coins were on a table above the waterline). By this time my parents had moved out of state years ago, and my wife and I are now residing in the house. This being the case, the basement was filled with not only a lot of junk my parents had collected during their lives, but also many things from both sides of the extended family, and which my parents took the opportunity to leave behind when they moved. I knew there was a mold/mildew/moisture problem, but for years I had put off dealing with it. The second flood forced me to take action. Literally everything came out of the basement, including Grandpa's long neglected coin collection. I have since spent the past 18 months actively learning about coins. Unfortunately, there were many coins from Grandpa's collection that did not fare as well as the Lincoln cents in the Whitman album. Quarters, half-dollars, dimes and nickels were all in albums that had apparently been saturated much worse than the Lincoln cents. I have properly stored the other denominations, but haven't pursued investigating them beyond that. Primarily, I'm just interested in Lincoln Cents. In regard to the photos of the Whitman's Lincoln Cents coin album, I specifically tried to depict how bad the plastic inserts are. I don't think it shows well in the pictures. They are tinged a beige color and have dust, debris and a cloudy scum coating them. These plastic inserts are what was holding the coins in the albums that had apparently been compromised by floodwater. The 1914-D, coming out of a water damaged coin album, went straight into a Dawn dish-soap bath, followed by a cold water rinse, and was then padded dry with an old towel that is very soft. I suppose there are die hard "no cleaning" extremists who might find this to be an offensive treatment. To that I say: it's my coin, and it's going to remain in my collection. It is now stored in a Guardhouse coin capsule, and I prefer not to include tiny bits of dirt and grime with it in that capacity. In a nutshell, this 1914-D spent at least four decades improperly stored in cardboard boxes in multiple basements (going back to Grandma's house), and went through two floods. This being the case, IMHO, it has toned rather nicely, all things considered.<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> [ATTACH]574632[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]574633[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]574634[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]574635[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]574636[/ATTACH][ATTACH]574637[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]574638[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]574639[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]

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