can anyone help with this topic? I am getting to a point that I can kinda tell coin's grading...EF-AU-MS. and can kinda spot a coin that has been cleaned. Again. Just "Kinda", I am still learning. Now comes the toning, I have heard that people use fire, or chemical to manually toned the coin. what is easiest way to spot an artifical toned coin? Also, I heard some coin dealer put some sort of lacquer on the coin to cover up scratches/nicks and it looks like a coat of toning too. thank you
1. There is no easy way. With grading, we say, for instance, that it takes 3 letters of LIBERTY to make an Indianhead cent Very Good. The same for a Seated Quarter. For the Buffalo Nickel, the diagnostic is Full Horn for Very Fine. Toning is not like that. 2. There is no end of kitchen chemistry that will tone a silver or copper coin. Coins have been baked in all varieties of vegetables. Sulphur powder mixed into Vaseline can be applied and when the coin is the color you like it, wash the grease away with mild soap and water, and pat dry or blow dry. You can put your coins in a wooden box -- cigar box, for instance -- and let them sit for a month in the sun. The point of any of that is knowing what toning is: it is a chemical reaction between the surface of a coin and its environment. On the question of cleaning and toning, former ANA president Ken Bressett once pointed out that when you carry a coin in your pocket, you are cleaning it and when you take it out of your pocket, you are toning it. Several chemicals can be involved. Most commonly toning comes from sulphur in the enivornment reacting with copper or silver in the coin. Artificial toning is applied to make a coin more attractive. It also applied to cover up problems. The "cover up" does not have to be right over the problem. If a coin has a small scratch in the obverse field at 5 o'clock, a nice rainbow across the reverse top will distract the unwary buyer from seeing the problem. The only way to know is to look at thousands of coins. There are books and the ANA seminars, of course, but nothing beats knowing the coins themselves first hand.
