How do coins get toned?

Fair enough. Then suppose you just immerse the coins in an airtight box and fill that box with the appropriate gasses to cause them to tone very rapidly. It's the same identical chemical reaction, but is that AT ? Or just another catalyst ?

 

Is it ? If you place thenm in the box and introduce no gases the coin will not tone at all. So in this case there is no catalyst, there is only the toning agent.

You see, that's where get into the issue - the toning agent. It is always the gas that causes the coin to tone. But in the album the gasses are released more slowly. On the window sill the gasses are released even more slowly because there is only the ambient air - but the toning is speeded up by the changes in heat and humidity so the coin tones even faster than in the album. But in case every case the toning agent is the gasses.

And that is the entire point - the only difference between AT and NT is intent, nothing else. For the only factor that a catalyst affects is time. And how long a coin takes to tone does not determine AT or NT. Some methods of NT can occur just as quickly as some methods of AT.

So when you really examine the issue of toning there really is nothing left but intent to differentiate AT from NT.

Now of course this leaves out the introduction of direct, liquid, chemical application to the coin. That can be nothing but AT. Same for using heat - pure AT.