The $50 morgan set gets a lil more repulsive... 1887 AT

@mrweaseluv you can perform the AT yourself using an off-the-shelf product, a storage container, and a personal article of women's attire (curious?), and if you desire a better result, a preparatory "cleaning" step . Once set up, the process takes from a few minutes, to several hours or days, depending upon the strength of the sulfurous agent and the conditions of exposure.

How do I know how to do this? In 2014, when I was actively buying a significant amount of coins for my former collection, I saw listings by a seller from Reno, NV who was selling his "accumulation/collection" of Morgan Dollars that he had picked up from local commerce, and the Casinos, when these coins freely circulated prior to 1965; he stated in his Listings that he was being forced to liquidate his holdings because the IRS was putting the "screws" to him because of a tax liability. Being cautious, I did contact him (eBay did permit that back then) and I verified that he was being honest, and I also advised him that his photos were not showing off his coin(s) at their best (i.e. not sharp, taken at a slight angle, and with unbalanced lighting).

Most of what he was selling was heavily circulated; some culls, a few better dates, and a few VAMs that I was interested in, so I bid on and won about 20 coins in total (at far less than the PCGS Price Guide for what I thought the grade might have been). When I received them they generally appeared as they had in the Listings, but because of the poor photo quality, a few had heavy marks from circulation and handling, and some had dull, graying fields, that didn't show up in the Listing photos. Normally, I might return coins like this as NAD, but because of his circumstances, I decided to keep them (a contribution, of sorts).

For the suspected VAMs, I verified them, and for the "decent" ones I kept them for my use. For the culls (heavily worn with graying surfaces and no luster, per se; and those with so much scarring that they were unappealing, even if some luster was present, I decided to experiment with Artificially Toning (AT) them.

I must say at this point that I had previously extensively researched the topic of toning (or tarnishing, as some refer to it) and how it can affect coinage metals--specifically silver alloy--so I had some idea of what results to expect in general.

After performing the AT on some of the culls/scarred coins, I decided to see how they would fare if I sent them into ANACS for grading; ALL came back AT--as expected-- with the appropriate grade. Upon their return I listed these on eBay as an auction/BIN with AT prominently in the Listing Title and in the Description. ALL of them sold at a fair price and had quite a bit of Bidder activity, but I did not make a profit overall; this was more of an experiment for me.

IF you want to try this yourself you can PM me and I will give you the details on the setup and process.

 

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