Of the three coin colors--gold, silver, and copper--I would like to see what others feel is the "prettiest" color. Do not consider the intrinsic value of the metal, just what you perceive as a beautiful color. I'll lump nickel in with silver for the purposes of this poll. Let's leave the poll as for the color when it left the mint--i.e., toning or darkening not considered. Me? I vote for copper. I like the "warm" look of it, especially when polished.
I voted for copper. As nice as toning on Silver can be and dirty gold is I always get more drawn to copper.
This was a hard one. Each has it own appeal. I was tickeled to see some much support for copper. I love the aged red of a 1930's penny, and the blacky look of a teen penny. New copper shot is georgeous and really shines. I ended up voting for silver due to toning. I almost checked off gold because of the appeal for the coloring I have seen in older gold from Mexico.
Wow! Copper is doing pretty well. I could have voted for gold, but I cannot speak from experience. Someone hit the magic switch and put it in my price range please!
From a financial standpoint-yes. From a coin collecting perspective it is third on my list. Copper first, silver a close second and gold a distant third.
Gotta go with copper. When I'm metal detecting it's silver that gives me a rush but for different reasons. I like all the copper colors. From the brilliance of an uncirculated cent: to the chocolate brown of a circulated: and to the rainbow of colors of the toned:
i like RB copper the most silver second and gold third. silver tones the best but toning is not a big deal to me. some gold pieces are exceptional but theyre few and far between + too rich for my blood. my next expensive goal is to get a slabbed RB AU-MS large cent of any date.
Copper all the way. Gold is great but its usually just yellowish. Silver has a bit more range. But copper by far has the widest range of colors. (cheating a little, about half of these are probably orichalcum, not pure copper) Chocolate brown: Constantine I follis, Spring 317 AD, Trier mint Stone gray with earthen highlights: Claudius provincial bronze of Ascalon in Judaea, 42-43 AD Seafoam green with tan earthen highlights: Nezak Huns, AE drachm, c. 600-700 AD, Kabul mint Iridescent blue: Geta provincial bronze of Philippopolis in Thrace, 209-212 AD Dark golden yellow with green highlights: Geta provincial bronze of Nikaea in Bithynia, 198-208 AD
Wow.... These make gold look rather dull. So very pretty. #3 on Top is rather interting to me. Maybe it is more of the photo? Georgeous.
Looks like the old toning patterns that form doesn't count guys! Hard to pick one but I have to say the smooth, yet grainy surface of MS70 gold is a beautiful site.
Sorry, jumped ahead without reading the bit about the mint. I'd probably change my vote to gold but I really get influenced by the image on the coin. A crappy design on a gold coin detracts somewhat from it's beauty as a precious metal whereas a beautiful design on copper would make me drool. Gotta think about this a bit more.
I voted Silver but really think each coin should be a different color. Such as Copper for Pennies, Red for Nickels, Purple for Dimes, Silver for Quarters, Blue for Halves, Green for those little baby dollar coins. Or something like that. Time to just get rid of those same old, repeditive looking coins. They are constantly doing similar colors with our paper currency so why not coins?
Voted for silver/nickei. The OP asked about the "color when it left the mint", and at that stage those look best in my opinion. Christian
Copper, copper, copper - there is no other coin toning that even come a close 2nd! I have and have seen every color copper tone in the rainbow. I've bought and sold and kept beautiful blue, purple, rose, green Indians and Lincoln proofs and BU's. And that combined with the large cents that are chocolate or magenta. The thing IMO that makes them so special also is that for every toned one several more had to be ruined just because they were more fragile when it comes to such. 2nd choice, Nickel 3rd choice silver.
