Black "Morgan" Beauty with a little something on her chin

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by Coin-Dude, Jan 13, 2017.

  1. Coin-Dude

    Coin-Dude Active Member

    Found this 1896-O in a $20 bin. Caught my eye.
    What causes this unusual dark black color, and what is the raised material across her chin?
    Pics aren't great but all I have.
    Thanks for your feedback.
     

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  3. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins

    Black Bart's back in town....... devil.gif

    Almost an alliteration.
     
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  4. Cascade

    Cascade CAC Grader, Founding Member

    The black could have been from a fire. We'll never know exactly what caused it though. The raised metal on the chin area looks to be a hard cut like with a box cutter that pushed of displaced some metal upwards
     
  5. Coin-Dude

    Coin-Dude Active Member

    The thread on her chin is definitely raised metal.
    Almost like someone laid it on there and it stuck.
    I just don't see any damage underneath it.
    Wish I could give you a better picture.
    Any other ideas??
     
  6. Deacon Ray

    Deacon Ray Well-Known Member

  7. Coin-Dude

    Coin-Dude Active Member

    Here is a closer look thru a 10x loop.
     

    Attached Files:

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  8. Coin-Dude

    Coin-Dude Active Member

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  9. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins

    Neato.....looks raised. Possible die scratch. Most interesting. :)
     
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  10. messydesk

    messydesk Well-Known Member

    The black color is most likely caused by the coin being soaked in bleach. The line across the chin is probably a cut on the coin. If there is raised metal, that's kind of how cuts work. The knife raises metal next to the cut, which then wears down a bit and almost covers the cut.
     
  11. dadams

    dadams Well-Known Member

    Nice coin and a great score for 20 bucks in my opinion.

    Here is my Black "Morgan" Beauty:
    [​IMG]
     
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  12. Cascade

    Cascade CAC Grader, Founding Member

    Oh yeah, bleach and amonia. Forgot about them turning silver black. Can't say I do it often though lol
     
  13. Kentucky

    Kentucky Supporter! Supporter

    Perhaps it's a fiber from the paintbrush they used to paint it black...
     
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  14. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    When I first looked at this I was thinking bleach or ammonia, because the coin doesn't look like one that's been through a fire, and black toning doesn't look like that either - but nothing seemed to fit that could explain the raised line. I thought about the coin being cut, a cut of some kind into the die, but nothing really fits the look any of that would have. But the closeups of the raised line, that helped.

    If you look at the north end of it you can see that it's kind of flattened out, tapered, almost like it was cut at an angle. And where it meets the tip of the chin you can see where it looks like it was almost broken in half. And further down you can what looks like built up areas of carbon - the kind of thing you do see on something that has been in a fire. And there's even a bright and shiny spot or two - that looks silver looks when it's been heated.

    So what happened to this coin ? Well, I dunno for sure but maybe some collector had a workshop in his garage or someplace in his house where he made jewelry. And maybe he had some silver wire there, and a coin or two. And maybe there was a fire, and maybe a piece of silver wire ended up on that coin, got heated enough to stick and it ended up being what we see here.

    Silver wire if it got hot enough and was laid across a sharp edge like the tip of the chin could semi-melt and almost break at that point. It could also easily show some carbon buildup, a tapered end where it had been previously cut, and a shiny spot or two. And it would probably bond to the coin.

    As for the look of the coin itself, yeah I know I said it doesn't look like one that's been in a fire, and it doesn't. But, it's possible it was, and the rest does fit, at least to my mind. Yeah, I could easy be wrong, but I just don't see any other explanations that fit as well as that scenario.
     
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