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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lordmarcovan, post: 7848226, member: 10461&quot;]Can environmental damage ever actually be <i>attractive</i>?</p><p><br /></p><p>I submit to you that- under certain rare circumstances on copper and copper-nickel coins- it <i>can</i> be, when it results in a contrasting &quot;<a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/what-is-a-circcam-you-ask-look-and-see-and-post-yours.288335/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/what-is-a-circcam-you-ask-look-and-see-and-post-yours.288335/">CircCam</a>&quot; appearance like this.</p><p><br /></p><p>I scooped this 1848 cent up from my friend&#039;s dealer case on a recent visit.&nbsp; It was not an expensive coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Technically it&#039;s only a VG or so, gradewise.&nbsp; And I am willing to bet you that <i>if </i>(purely hypothetically) I were to submit this coin to PCGS or NGC for certification (which I would not, given its modest value), it would almost certainly come back with a &quot;details&quot; grade, noted as &quot;environmental damage&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>See those darker fields?&nbsp; Set off against the lighter devices on the higher points of the design, I think they look great.&nbsp; And in hand, the coin has much better eye appeal than a lot of other large cents I&#039;ve seen in this grade range.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s the thing, though: <i>microporosity</i>.&nbsp; Those darker surfaces in the fields (and also a little on Liberty&#039;s jawline) have the just the <i>tiniest</i> bit of granularity to them.&nbsp; Not porosity, really, but <i>micro</i>porosity.&nbsp; It&#039;s very faint and subtle.&nbsp; In hand, the surfaces look mostly smooth and normal.</p><p><br /></p><p>What happened here, I suspect, is that sometime in the 19th century, when it was still a piece of pocket change, this coin went through some environmental conditions which gave it a touch of porosity on its surfaces.&nbsp; Later, it went back into circulation, acquiring slight rub on the high points, which smoothed off that whisper of roughness in those areas, and gave it the handsome &quot;two-tone&quot; appearance we see now.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Technically</i>, it&#039;s enviro-damaged.&nbsp; But you need magnification or high-res photos to see that.&nbsp; In hand, it looks great to me.&nbsp; I personally think it&#039;s a very handsome coin, for a modest circulated example in this grade.</p><p><br /></p><p>There also appears to be some repunching of the date, maybe.&nbsp; I do not know the Newcomb variety here.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1351202[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1351203[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1351204[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1351205[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1351206[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1351207[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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