This proof set is hot!

Well.... I been rather happily oblivious to this whole toning phenomenon. I was introduced to it some months back when a one time poster inherited an ASE from her deceased father. The ASE has sat on his curio cabinet exposed to sunlight for years. She was admonished by several members for the artificial toning. I defended her. The piece did develop a beautiful rainbow halo sitting on her fathers curio cabinet. Compared to the purple haze abominations that I often see displayed here, I find the gentle rainbow hues to be quite appealing.... I would not call yours artificial. I would call them accidental toning. I think they have some eye appeal.

 

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Wowowowow those are very nice looking!.
Next summer i think im gonna try that trick.
I would totally make myself a few toners if they came out of the oven (or car) looking like that !!

 

Accidental on purpose. Natural means used to produce results, kind of like storing them in high sulfur envelopes or coin boards.

 

Sure it's accelerated toning, but I think many of the modern (particularly proofs from the 80s-2000s) coins have had some "help." This set looks fairly attractive now and I think your experiment was quite successful.

 

It is accelerated, but if you took those coins out of the plastic you would never know it. That is exactly how modern toned proofs look. The addition of heat just means it happened in 4 months instead of 30 years.

I think those coins are all quite attractive - and I would remove them from the set now to prevent further accelerated toning. While they are colorful now, the next step in the evolution is brown and ugly.

I would also give them an acetone bath to remove any residual contaminants from the surfaces. The outgassing of the plastic probably deposited residue on the surfaces that may cause damage down the road.

Looks like you got quite lucky with those!

 

Ya know, there are a whole gang of collectors on-line, looking for this exact pattern to add to they collection. You could probably submit these (the clads) in an economy piggyback submission and make a nice chunk of $$. Assuming they straight grade the 1st go 'round, & i dont see why they wouldnt.

I agree about cracking and acetone