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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;SuperDave, post: 2382818, member: 1892&quot;]I dunno; it just seemed obvious to me that a &quot;fresh&quot; area had to have been created after the toning. Then again, not having similar thought processes to me is a compliment to you. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>This is a woodie, which means the darker areas are purer copper than the usual alloy mix and will therefore oxidize even more quickly than a better-mixed planchet. I&#039;d be surprised if this coin wasn&#039;t completely toned by 1900, especially in the more polluted atmosphere of that day. Or, within a decade or two of being moved into such an atmosphere, if it spent some of its&#039; life in better rural air. Although all copper needs is oxygen to patinate, like other coinage metals a bit of sulfur in the air won&#039;t hurt. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s actually worth contemplating some time, how a coin (which by nature won&#039;t be stored on edge) can tone so evenly on both faces when one side <b>had</b> to have been against a surface. Unless they <b>all</b> did so in bags, in which case you&#039;d expect more crescent toners from contact with adjacent coins, or terminal-stage toners from the atmosphere being so foul that next-coin contact was overcome. How did this coin come to be?</p><p><br /></p><p>In this case, I think it <b>is</b> terminal-stage album toning, and it&#039;s even on both faces (you&#039;d expect the face closer to the album back would tone faster) because it <i>can&#039;t</i> tone any further; it&#039;s in (gloriously-beautiful) chemical equilibrium. I would further postulate (while I&#039;m wildly speculating) that the slight difference in toning on the high points of the obverse - cheek, chin, feather tips - happened from contact with the closed cover of the album slightly altering the surface characteristics in those areas.</p><p><br /></p><p>And with such irregular edges the fresh area has to be either PMD of some sort or a lamination. The rest of the coin has obviously been well cared for, having no marks notable in your images (I would <b>so</b> own this coin <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> ), so I&#039;m led to conclude it&#039;s a detached lamination.</p><p><br /></p><p>Woodies are nice indicators of how alloys aren&#039;t always as monolithic as we think.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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