To tone or not to tone.......

No, I don't mean artificially toning. I don't know how anyway. I'm admittedly a blazer blast laser beam white fanatic of silver coins, but it seems a lot of people pay a premium for a toned coin..........which in my opinion, isn't as attractive... to me anyway. I just picked up an 1898 P that looks dang near perfect under a 10X mag. Weight is correct, but the entire coin is a dark tone. It is so toned the chest feathers look flat until you angle the coin, and there they are in full blazing glory! I haven't hammered it with MS70 and, see above, I was tempted. I have a couple of blazer whites with attractive rim toning but this coin baffles me. I'll try an get a photo of it soon to post.

But that is not my question. In spite of the collectability of toned coins, will heavy toning kill grades if it's legit? I have no idea.

 

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I'll guess you are talking about a Morgan Dollar?

 

Yes sir. Sorry about not being clear. I only collect silver, 95% Morgans. And I'll do gold if inherited.

 

All Morgans are special. Low grade, high grade, I'll take them all.

 

Yar!!!

 

I inherited earlier Morgans and Peace Dollar coins. After the Mint started issuing the latest Morgans and Peace Dollar coins, I have collected quite a few. I especially like the reverse dollar coins.

 

It’s really simple…

white Morgan = boring, no premium
some toning = nice, small premium
rainbow toning = big premium
dark/black toning = bad, undesirable




This is an NGC star coin with rainbow toning, most collectors will pay a premium.

 

Okay. Back to the coin I am trying to explain. I have another one that I call Purple Haze, but let's talk about this one. The entire coin is darkly toned. Not black out toned but not a speckled perch. I am not good at photos but trying to show the essence of the darkness and tone of the coin. It's hard to capture with a photo when I'm not good at this at all. Other than a milk spot, the coin is nearly flawless to my eye. The toning hides the details of the hair and also the chest feathers unless you rotate the coin in the light to see them.

 

She's pretty and not a mark on her. Which makes me wonder........

 

BRB. Going to weigh it.

 

26.8 grams. Which is what all my other coins are weighing. I don't think my wife's scale does 100ths of a gram.

 

Maybe it's AU +++ and just has environmental wear. Maybe weak strike and never saw circulation. I don't think it's fake, it looks real, it weighs right, the color is just weird. And in the right lighting, the reverse has a blue tint. I'm baffled. So and off to ANACS she will go.

 

Best of luck. Be sure to let us know the outcome. BTW, where did you procure this cutie?

 

My thought cleaned or altered surface and retoned

 

It seems to be a genuine Morgan Dollar, but it won’t get a straight grade. It has the typical « cleaned and retoned » look of an improperly cleaned silver coin, the blueish tint and rather dull surface confirms this.

 

By "cleaned" you mean dipped in E-Zest or something similar? I was wondering about that, because I don't see they typical hair line scratches you see on most cleaned coins.

 

My Morgans are only 90%.

 

95% of my collections, not coin composition silver content. If that was sarcasm, I get it.

 

I'm thinking the same as Mainebill. An old cleaning that's retoned. Remember, cleaning was once a thing to do.

 

My Morgans are only 90% of my collections.