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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 1150782, member: 112&quot;]Since I am probably the first person to ever even bring up the subject, at least on this forum, and because it seems like people often seem to think I am saying one thing when I am actually saying the opposite, I will state for the record in plain english - I do not consider intentionally placing coins in albums because you know that will cause the coins to tone - as AT. </p><p><br /></p><p>I have merely always asked the question if any of you thought it was.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>OK - given that, do you consider using gasses to quickly tone coins as chemicals ? Example, a person takes a coin (raw or slabbed) and places that coin in a sealed container and then pumps gasses into that sealed container. The gasses then, in a very short time, cause the coin to tone. Is that AT - yes or no ?</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, is you say yes that it is definitely AT, then how you can you possibly say that placing a coin in an album to cause it to tone more quickly than it would if it was left out of that album - is not AT ?</p><p><br /></p><p>You see, the exact same gasses are intentionally being used to tone the coin in both instances. In the case with the album, it is the album itself that puts off the gasses. And the person who knowingly put the coins into the album is introducing those gasses to the coin. In the case with the sealed container the person obviously introduces the gasses to the coin. So how can one be AT and the other not be AT ?</p><p><br /></p><p>Then there is another question - is &quot;time&quot; the distinguishing factor between AT and NT ? I propose to you quite simply that it cannot be. Why ? Because we all know that toning can occur in completely natural conditions, in an infinite variety of time sequences, because it depends on so many variables. Simple exposure to the air causes any coin to tone - this is an undeniable fact. And depending on what is in the air, and on what the variable temperatures are, and on the what the variable humidity is, the coin will tone quickly or slowly. Thus time cannot be a distinguishing factor.</p><p><br /></p><p>You see, these are the questions that people forget to ask themselves, the questions that people forget to consider when making their determination about what consitutes AT and NT.</p><p><br /></p><p>So since time is not a distinguishing factor. And since the chemicals in the air are not a distinguishing factor. The only thing left that is or can be a distinguishing factor is intent. And since there is no way to ever determine intent once it has occurred without asking the person who actually did it, then there is no way to distinguish AT from NT. Which is why I ask what I consider to be the ultimate question - if you cannot tell the difference, then does it matter ? Obviously it does not, because it cannot.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now many people will argue that point because they &quot;want&quot; it to matter. They want their coins to be NT because to them NT makes their coins &quot;special&quot;. And they think that if somebody purposely made that coin &quot;special&quot; in a matter of hours, then it is not special. In simplest terms it is nothing but an ego thing. Of course few people ever want to hear that, much less admit it to themselevs.</p><p><br /></p><p>But the reality is an AT coin is every bit as special as an NT coin because there is no difference between them. They are identical in every way and there is no way, scientific, mechanical, or otherwise, even at the molecular level, to tell one from the other.</p><p><br /></p><p>Of course this argument does not encompass the use of liquids being poured onto the surface of a coin in order to change its color. That amounts to painting the coin. And such colorations can easily be removed with sevaral different solvents that remove no metal whatsoever from the surface of the coin. Such color alterations are most definitely AT for that reason.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now it may sound like blasphemy to coin collectors, but anything that causes the metal itself to change color, to oxidize - cannot be AT. You can call it anything you want to soothe your ego. But it does not change the facts. That&#039;s the nice thing about the truth, it&#039;s always the truth - whether you believe it or not.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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