Is there a way to tell if a etched coin was etched around the year of minting?

I'm talking about coins like my 1864-L reeded edge that I posted a few months back (which was most likely done post mint for a jewelry piece), Love Tokens, Hobo Nickels, or So-Called Dollars - is there a way to determine when they were carved or etched? I understand about the carving matching the original toning, but what if the carving was done 20 or 40 or more years after the coin was minted say on an 1864 copper coin, but the carved area still had time to tone back to a natural brown - is there any way to tell if the carving was done around when the coin was minted, or just 20 years ago?

 

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With no scientific or educational background about this, I am going to guess no. Another of my hobbies involves metal work (although none of the metals are used in coinage- Zamac...aka...Die cast cars), when you bring them down to bare metal, you can see it change in a day's time, to a month's time, to a year's time. But once you get to about a month it doesn't really change all that much.

I would guess with coinage, from that long ago...your best bet would be IDing the art style, rather then the metal itself...

But I could be wrong!

 

I think Billy is probably right. I would guess a hobo collector could probably tell us more, because I know there is a significant price difference between ones done back in the day and modern ones, especially if they are well done.

 

You could ask the coin, but I doubt that you'd get a good answer.

Another thought would be to somehow carbon date the "skin" on the coin. Not sure of the cost or if it would be destructive to the coin or even possible.

Frankly, I think you're not going to be able to answer the question authoritatively.