Was Artificial toning a thing in the 60’s?

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by Casman, Jun 16, 2020.

  1. Casman

    Casman Well-Known Member

    My experience is less than 5 examples but seems every time I submit a toned coin that’s been in a folder/coin book for 60 years it comes back QC.
     
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  3. Insider

    Insider Talent on loan from...

    In the 60's "white was right." Everything got dipped or scrubbed.
     
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  4. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins

    Exactamundo.........I used to 'freak' with any kind of toning back then.
     
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  5. Randy Abercrombie

    Randy Abercrombie Supporter! Supporter

    Yup... As an old guy that collected in the 60's I will wholeheartedly agree with the fellers above. I still prefer my coins blast white.
     
  6. Casman

    Casman Well-Known Member

    Here’s an example they called QC D03CA8FB-827B-45A2-BC88-5C36073393ED.jpeg
     
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  7. Casman

    Casman Well-Known Member

  8. Lehigh96

    Lehigh96 Toning Enthusiast

    The TPGs don't like that combination of blue and burnt orange or violet on modern coins. On older coins it is an indicator of a dipping and secondary toning (see below). On moderns, they assume that heat was involved.


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  9. Collecting Nut

    Collecting Nut Borderline Hoarder

    I like blast white coins. And that's the way it was in the sixties.
     
  10. Casman

    Casman Well-Known Member

    I don’t like toners myself, thanks for the clues to the QC. I’m bored from the lockdown and just sent in a few.
     
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  11. Jeffjay

    Jeffjay Well-Known Member

    Doesn't patina translated from Greek mean corrosion?
     
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  12. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    Good information. As someone who used to buy "original" stuff, I see nothing wrong with the OP's toning. I have many similar coins in old collections. If I saw it, I would not think it was AT unless it was on a coin without luster. That is a silver coin with tons of luster, IMHO that toning can occur naturally.

    Edit: Just to share the environment I am referring to, I have seen such toning as the OPs coin time and again. Heck, I think I still have a couple of rolls of 62-64 quarters that look like that. They were always very fresh silver, (fully lustrous, BU silver coins), put away in Iowa without humidity protection and in a cardboard rich environment. The same environment RUINED tons of coins next to them, but for some reason the BU 60's silver quarters toned this way. Like I said, if this was an AU coin or anything other than thick lusterous silver BU coins I would agree with AT suspicion. Maybe the TPGs know that, and simply want to not certify any that look like this, throwing the babies out with the bathwater rather than risking some true AT slipping through the cracks.
     
    Last edited: Jun 16, 2020
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  13. Roman Collector

    Roman Collector Well-Known Member

    No, it comes from the Greek πᾰτᾰ́νη which means "a flat dish."
     
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  14. Jeffjay

    Jeffjay Well-Known Member

    Thank you . Good to know.
     
  15. Derek2200

    Derek2200 Well-Known Member

    Not really people then did not like tarnished coins and with good reason. Shops would even dip Unc rolls for customers.

    AT is more of a recent gimmick. I think a lot of the tide driving the toning craze was a marketing push by rich big gun dealers buried in the stuff (toned coins many looking like run over on the street) which was not selling. Hence the term original was invented. Toning gets darker over time.....Tarnish is a dirty word to them but most of market prefers coins that are brilliant / white. Some toned coins have exceptional eye appeal and their own market. Pricing is subjective so watch out. There is nothing really original about a tarnished coin which has decades of atmospheric exposure lol.
     
    Last edited: Jun 16, 2020
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  16. LRC-Tom

    LRC-Tom Been around the block...

    In the 60's, as I recall, "toning" was a word that wasn't even defined. All silver coins needed to be bright to be desirable.
     
    Derek2200 likes this.
  17. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    I readily agree that it's more common in the last 15 years, and far more common today than it was 15 years ago. But I first saw it done almost 40 years ago. And if it was being done then, rather obviously it was being done before then.

    Many collectors seem to think that the things we see today are fairly recent, but pretty much anything there is was being done long before any of us were born. Take dipping coins for example, dipping coins to remove toning has been around for well over 200 years - that's documented. And I suspect it was around long before that.
     
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  18. Mountain Man

    Mountain Man Well-Known Member

    Back in the 60s it was called tarnish and silver polish was used to remove it.
     
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  19. Randy Abercrombie

    Randy Abercrombie Supporter! Supporter

    I know, right?? Now it gives me the willies to think about it.
     
  20. Lehigh96

    Lehigh96 Toning Enthusiast

    Artificial toning was originally a coin doctor's method of hiding flaws such as marks, hairlines, old cleanings. It was done mostly to improve the overall grade of the coin. It wasn't until the late 90's that people started paying huge premiums for rainbow toned coins and the coin doctors started to attempt to replicate rainbow toning in order to generate a toning premium for exceptional eye appeal. At that point, the original method of artificial toning became known as Type1 AT and ATing coins for a toning premium took the moniker Type2 AT.
     
    Insider likes this.
  21. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    I'd agree, but it was also done because some people simply liked the pretty colors - even back then.
     
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