Because I am trying to educate myself and I am not really a copper collector, what would cause a TPG to question a coins color? What would cause the color in this coin to be questionable? http://www.ebay.com/itm/1900-Indian...45?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item3f241135f1
When you have looked at enough copper coins in various states your mind records a lot of things about those coins. But one of the primary things is the color of the coins. And with enough experience when you see one that has a color that just isn't right, you notice it right away, it stands out from the rest. That coin stands out. My guess is that somebody dipped that coin, hoping to take a brown coin and make it red. But things didn't go so well and they ended up with a coin of the wrong color. This is the usual way of things when you dip copper. Many will even tell you that it cannot be done. I don't agree with that, but I do agree that it is certainly not easy to dip copper and end up with an acceptable result.
To the TPG's it's any color they don't want in their slabs, regardless of it's been tampered with or not. That's a nice looking IHC. If it were mine, I'd crack it, give a good soak in water, xylene then acetone, and resubmit to PCGS.
Great info, thank you for explaining it. I was wondering if dipping would have caused that but wasn't sure.
