Questionable Toning Question

Right or wrong, I am a blast white guy. That’s just me. I have a type 1 SLQ that was mostly white when I purchased the piece years ago. I only have one old photo of it below and it is a photo of two SLQ’s. The coin in question is on the right.


I was just doing some sorting and noticed that the piece has developed what I would consider unappealing toning. it is most certainly darker than when I purchased the coin.


Am I correct in assuming this coin was dipped and not rinsed properly before it was slabbed? And secondly, considering that it stays in a reasonably controlled environment. Not much more that I could do to control the inside of my safe. Is it doomed to continue to darken?

 

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I would think that it is not done toning.
In the environment it is in. I believe it will continue to darken.

 

I had a 19th century Brazilian silver coin that arrived to me blast white. I knew it had to have been dipped. Months later it began toning very similarly to yours. It was a terribly striated purplish looking toning, but it did stop at a certain point and never got any worse. I sold it at a loss. I'm incredibly leery now of silver coins 100+ years old that are blast white for this reason.

 

She’s a beauty, Randy. If she was dipped, and a lot of those blast ones had been, that could explain the expeditious onset in the slab in spite of how well you took care of her. Having said that an acetone bath could kill of some of the superficial impurities but of course she’d have to make a prison break from that slab for that to happen. But then you could always re-dip her, too. Generally, though, that had to have been a bad dip, if indeed that’s the felon, as generally I wouldn’t expect this from a proper dip.

 

Looks like dip residue to me.

Also, dipped coins have a tendency to re-tone faster even when they are properly rinsed.

 

So this is a continual risk I will take chasing blast white examples then?

 

Don't know what happened in the last post. (I fixed it for you)
It is extremely rare that any 100 year old silver coin is Brilliant white. I won't say that it doesn't happen. Just that toning is natural and for the most part can't be stopped.

 

Yeah…. In my gut I know that. But man I sure do get weak in the knees at the sight of a blast white beauty.

 

I have had my share of silver turn in the holder. I blame this one on the last person that dipped the coin.

 

I believe so. And with re-toning on a coin that otherwise was rinsed properly, the re-toning may be erratic and crappy looking. Also, coins that are dipped too many times will burn away flow-lines, and so, the coins luster. And no one is keeping count on how many times coins have been dipped already. One day we'll have our own Hollywood with celebs who have dead faces from 25 face lifts.

That's one of the reasons people like old holders so much.

We weakened ourselves by welcoming TPGs to do the heavy lifting for us. Darwin doesn't like weakness.

 

You can reduce the action in the safe. Maybe not 100%, but maybe 75% or more if you are meticulous. I use copper tape from Amazon to stick on the inside of my safes after I have used extra fine emery or sand paper on thew tape. This increase the chance that any chemical gases reacting with the copper than by combining with your coin surfaces ( copper, silver, especially). Some very expensive cardboard storage boxes use this principle similarly. If you are poor, the tape can be re-roughed if you go easy on the tape. High humidity is also a problem, so small chemical desiccators can also help. Good Luck, Jim

 

I like dirty girls........

 

It's ashamed that happened to your coin. It was probably a lot nicer than 62.

 

Now that's something I would say, back in the day that is... Wait! What are we talking about here? Too much time on my hands.......

 

He said, Dirty! Not Dusty... LOL.

 

When you dip a coin, you expose “virgin metal” that was under the oxidized metal that the mild acid dip removed. That surface is sometimes more prone to toning.

 

maybe it's me, but I really like the MS62FH and the toning. Keep it as is.

 

Better storage through chemistry.