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Message:: [QUOTE="GDJMSP, post: 765868, member: 112"]To be quite honest you look for the same things you look for on an untoned coin. It's just a lot more difficult to see for those who don't know how to recognize it. Even under toning luster still has a shimmer, an effect on the light as it plays off the surface of the coin. I guess a large part of the problem is that a lot of people don't really know how to recognize mint luster to begin with. That's why so many can be fooled by a whizzed coin, or a polished coin. To them - shiny equals luster. To others who do know what mint luster looks like on an untoned coin, they think that a toned coin has no luster because the light is not refracted in a bright cartwheel like it is on an untoned coin. So they think the coin doesn't have luster anymore. The Proof of the error in this line of thinking is that you can take a heavily toned coin that 99 out of 100 people would say has no luster - dip it and the coin is once again lustrous. Well luster cannot be restored. Once gone it is gone forever and nothing you can do will ever bring back. So the dipping does not restore the luster, it merely it makes it easier for an untrained eye to see it again. Now I know none of this really answers your question. But that's because I know of no way to put into words what I could show you in a New York second were I standing beside you looking at a coin in person. It takes experience is the best thing I can say.[/QUOTE]