About 25 yrs ago at a coin show in Santa Clara, Ca. a dealer walk up to my table and offer to sell me a dozen of these Morgans. The devices on both side were painted frosty white. http://www.ebay.com/itm/MORGAN-DOLL...898338?hash=item3f57dad322:g:uE4AAOSwwE5WVmWv
"HAS NOT BEEN CLEANED OR ALTERED !" Then again it's coming from the guy who spelled "monster" as "monseter" Here's the rest of the description, it seems like this coin has everything. I wonder if it can fly? "MORGAN DOLLAR RARE 1888 o CAMEO DMPL MONSETER MIRRORS SUPER BU GEM SPECIMAN BLINDING GLASSY DMPL SUPER KEY DATE COIN A KEEPER"
And also says: PLEASE IF YOUR NOT HAPPY IN ANYWAY PLEASE LET ME KNOW SO I CAN FIX THE PROBLEM , PLEASE DONT OPEN A DISPUTE OF ANY KIND UNTIL I GET THE CHANCE TO FIX THE PROBLEM FIRST , THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING .
Look at all of the coins he's offering with this "black/white" appearance. Note that they all, to one extent or another, have an area of color along the periphery. This is a hint that he's either using two types of bulbs to light the coin or a circular fluorescent. Circlines have a collar around where the wires enter the bulb, and that part of the bulb doesn't illuminate like the rest of the circumference. The color temperature it outputs is different, especially if the bulb hasn't warmed up yet, and it casts an arc of color as seen here. It's also the best way to bring out the "black and white" look in a Proof. I allowed enough time for the bulb to warm up for that one, and had figured out the best distance between bulb and coin (higher than one might think), but you can still see the same effect a bit. The collar is at Noon in this pic. When you get it right, it's like this: Just mentioning this to illustrate how photographic technique can affect the look of the final product. Morgans can lend themselves to this - there are plenty around with near-PL surfaces and near-frosty devices which are amenable to this kind of....photographic enthusiasm. In case you're wondering, this is what the same lighting technique does to a coin with normal cartwheel:
Which says NOTHING about his character or motivations, and is completely reasonable for any seller to say.
Here's a Morgan that was painted long ago. I might sell for the right price I'm guessing as the pink-ish paint peels/wears off, the exposed surface displays that dark "tone". Makes you wonder what the current crop of "colorized" coins will look like in 100 years.
