How do coins get toned?

Purchase a vintage Wayte Raymond coin board, insert blast white Morgan dollars, store in coin cabinet for 35 years, check on progress, remove rainbow Morgans when desired colors are reached.

The other method which is quite easy, fill a 1880's era canvas mint bag with 1000 Morgan dollars, leave them in the back of a bank vault in Illinois for, oh say, 70-80 years, remove from bag as desired colors are obtained.

 

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never heard of airtight safes grandpa? now i am amazed.

 

what? you dont know how to rainbow tone coins? even if you wont share it at least tell us you can do it

 

that what happens if you dont use IS albums

 

Good one Jim and soooo true!!

 

Thanks, GDJMSP! I did not even address Altitude. High Desert 5280' to now 14' (Sea level!)
Steve

 

your attitude determines your altitude in life

 

So if I i was transferred from Arizona to an area say, an hour south of Pittsburgh along with my extensive mint state silver collection to a drafty old farm house and a year later all my coins were blue and purple, would it be NT? Did I move intentionally? LOL!!!! What if my collection was in a room with a leaky old coal furnace, and the colors appeared in a month? What if I just put them in a chamber, an burned some sulfur and in minutes got toning.

IMO All of the examples above are Natural or Unnatural, take your pick. I still contend that there is no difference AT vs NT except time and no one, no one that i have ever read, has ever defined the duration that separates AT and NT. because there is no standard.

What is that they say. grading is an art? To each his own... Color them coins if that is what you like. Just be prepared to hear about sins and transgressions from the old school codgers.

 

GDJMSP is correct about what I meant. The chemical reactions are the same. There is no difference or we wouldn't be having this conversation, PCGS and other TPG would have a test for determining it. Likewise, Time isn't a determining factor as this can vary by many multiples. There is no reason why AT couldn't take a long time if utilized methods as such, even longer than a NT that was in a bad environment. SO THERE is NO difference between AT and NT ,other than intent,which can not be determined by looking at a coin. That is why I am in the Market Acceptable/Market Unacceptable group, rather than AT/NT group. People elongate coins, and people carve coins and make love tokens. This is acceptable and often considered art, but tone one yourself and most want to call you a coin doctor and denounce you. If all toned coins sold for less than dipped ones, there would not be this fuss over something one can not verify. Suspect maybe , but not verify. Since there is a difference in price , some want you to think they can tell for sure, and that their coins are all natural. Who can tell for sure? If it is in a PCGS or NGC holder, it is market acceptable.IMO.

Jim

 

my coins have a strick diet and exercise program that tones them quite nicely a little zumba doesn't hurt either. J/K

 

Naaaa.. I got it, was just feeling ornery and occasionally like being a wise old donkey...

Although, you responding - is too funny .. you took my watch and told me what time it is! thanks!

so AT vs NT is determined by ethics, not duration? Where did I read you can't be 1/2 pregnant? I now do I rest my case? Apparently now, there is no difference between AT & NT. ethical intent can't be proven - it can only be what? - proven circumstantially by checking what an eBay seller had bought and then sold in his feedback?

More power to colored coins and the people who collect them!

((Seriously) The more variations of coin collecting, the more demand, the more demand on a finite supply, the........)

I think the next rage is the really extremely colored coins, like this whole bunch of painted Littleton nickles that I have no idea of what to do with.

 

Put them in a Wayte Raymond album.



Wait about 10 years.

Presto!

 

SO it would it be a wise investment to submit a bazillion toned coins? I am betting that it would be. Wish I could test that!

BTW I like what you say and for what it is worth (bout zero) I think I will adopt this opinion. I like.

 

I could not prove it, but I strongly suspect that any large submission of toned coins by a non-top PCGS dealer would be highly questionable.

Like many others here, I have many toned coins that I know are NT, having seen them change over several decades, but I am realistic to know that it could never be proven. I only started photographing them in the last decade, but I suspect many or most would come back questionable color ( one of my 3-leg buffaloes did that ), and I don't blame the TPG for doing so, as they have to back them financially. Books on coin chemistry are quite lacking, and when Thad completes his, I think it will become popular among collectors. He has neat tools ( toys) to work with.

Jim

​

 

I still say Natural toning, just leaving them exposed is the Catalyst.
Steve

 

so a top pcgs dealer is honest the rest of us are crooks. another insight into how the system works

 

Sarek?
Steve