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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 53704, member: 112&quot;]You&#039;re right that gold won&#039;t tone - pure gold anyway. But very few coins are made of pure gold - most are about 90%. And that other 10% - well that stuff tones. So it is not at all uncommon to find toned gold coins. But don&#039;t go looking for any rainbows on them&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>Now lemme ask a question - there are those who don&#039;t like toned coins. That&#039;s cool - up until about 3, 4 yrs ago I was one of them. But then somebody asked a question one day - how does a 100 or 150 yr old silver coin NOT tone ? Silver, if exposed to the air, will tone - period. There&#039;s no maybe - it is going to tone. It&#039;s a simple fact. Of course the key is - if exposed to the air. Or paper, or anything else it can come into contact with. And not just silver - but basically all metals. The very instant they leave the coining press - coins begin to tone.</p><p><br /></p><p>But 100 years ago - even 50 years ago - how many collectors had access to airtight materials or coin holders ? How about a big fat <b>0</b>. </p><p><br /></p><p>So OK - how do we explain all those bright shiny Morgan dollars - or any of the silver Barber designs ? Or any design that is more than 50 years old ? Very simple - dip. That&#039;s right - if you own a bright, shiny, silver Morgan dollar ( or any older silver coin ) - the odds are about 8 or 9 to 1 that the coin has been dipped.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sure there&#039;s a chance it was not. Perhaps it was owned by some collector, or a series of collectors, over a 100 or 125 year period where in each case the coin was protected from being exposed to air and or humidity. But that&#039;s a pretty slim chance given the technology they had. They didn&#039;t have silica packs or AirTites. They mostly kept their coins in cabinets lined with velvet - or in paper envelopes. Paper loaded with sulphur I might add.</p><p><br /></p><p>But if those cabinets or envelopes were stored just so for many years - and the coins were exposed to very little air and low humidity - maybe the coins didn&#039;t tone.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now as a collector I was always attracted to originality. When I collected Proof &amp; mint sets - I wanted them all in original mint packaging. And for individual coins - I wanted them just the way they were made. I didn&#039;t want dipped coins - I wanted them original. And that&#039;s when I came to realize that sometimes original meant the coin would be toned. But there&#039;s a great many different degrees of toning. It comes in all kinds of colors - some of it, many collectors find breathtakingly beautiful. Some of it - others find as ugly as a mud fence. </p><p><br /></p><p>So anyway I began to develop a taste for toning. After all - it&#039;s nature&#039;s way and nearly inevitable. Now I still like bright &amp; shiny coins too. But if I find with one with nice colors on it that appeal to me - and makes me say Ohhhhhh that&#039;s purrrrrty !! Well I don&#039;t walk away from &#039;em anymore&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s like ice cream - chocolate &amp; vanilla. What flavor do you like ?&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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