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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cecilstarcher, post: 580163, member: 18428&quot;]<b>Toning alters coin surface!</b> </p><p>Guest Commentary in July 4 issue of Coin World by <b>Weimar White</b>.</p><p>A chemist for 42 years and specialist in Carson City coinage and member of the LIberty Seated Collectors Club, American Numismatic Association, and American Chemical Society.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Here are a few of the statements made by Mr. White;</p><p>Quote:</p><p>It is a fact that whether a coin is lightly or heavily toned, the metals in the coin have experienced oxidation, which is the loss of electrons resulting in chemical wear. </p><p>I take this to mean a toned coin has been damaged to some degree.</p><p>Quote:</p><p>When a silver quarter dollar is toned golden on both sides, 260 micrograms of silver have been removed from the the atomic state. Toned red it would have lost 440 micrograms and if it were toned blue, it would have lost 700 micrograms of silver by oxidation. The darker the toning is on a silver coin, <u>the more metal oxidation has occurred, which etches away the cartwheel spin or mint luster</u>. Blue or black toning cause the most damage to the radial corrugations on Uncirculated coins. </p><p>This don’t sound good to me!</p><p>Quote:</p><p>Frequently, when a thiourea dip is used to remove the black or blue toning, <u>the dip is blamed for the dullness of the MInt luster</u>, when in reality it was the toning that etched the surface of the coin through oxidation. </p><p>This is what I’ve always been told. Now I find out its the oxidation!</p><p>Quote:</p><p>This is easy to prove by weighing a toned silver coin to the nearest 0.1 milligram and then dipping it in a thiourea solution. Rinse the coin in water, dry it and weigh it again. Record the weight loss. Then dip the coin again and rinse , dry and re-weigh it again. You will see that virtually all the weight loss occurred in the first dipping, which means that <u>only the oxidized metal was removed</u>. </p><p>Maybe there is something to this after all. Mr. White finishes with this statement;</p><p>Quote:</p><p>I have suggested that toned coins not be designated as “Mint State”, because they were not toned when originally minted. </p><p>After all this I still like those “honey” colored Buffalo nickels, but then they aren’t silver are they.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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