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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 1928162, member: 112&quot;]No, water will usually do nothing. But acetone or xylene will often rinse what you are calling chemical toning off the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Experience. But it&#039;s not quite as simple as the way you worded it. <u>All toning</u>, natural and artificial, is caused by chemicals. But what you have to understand is that those chemicals can be in the air (a gas form), in a liquid form, a powdered form, a paste form, or even a solid form. </p><p><br /></p><p>What most people call natural toning results from the chemicals being in a gas form. In other words the chemicals are present in the air that surrounds the coin. Toning from storage in albums, paper envelops, paper coin rolls, coin holders, coin cabinets, or even just sitting on the dresser or in a drawer - all of those are caused by gasses. Some people think that the toning is caused by direct contact of the coin with the album or paper envelope, or whatever. But it isn&#039;t. It is caused by the gasses put off by those things. The reason you see toning develop close to edges of a coin that are in direct contact with the object, is because of the proximity of the coin to those gasses being released by that object. That&#039;s where the greatest concentration of gasses are, by the edges of the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>But there is even more to it than that. Moisture (the humidity in the air), temperature, and time also play a part in toning. There are a thousand variables involved with toning, everything matters, everything has an effect. And that is all just with natural toning.</p><p><br /></p><p>When artificial toning is employed, the chemicals, in any of their various forms, can applied directly to the coin, or merely in close proximity to the coin. The chemicals can be concentrated or scattered, minimalized in other words. But the result is going to be the same, the chemicals will act on the coin and cause toning.</p><p><br /></p><p>Bottom line, anything that man can intentionally do to a coin mother nature has already done. Toning, no matter how unique or unusual it seems, can be 100% natural. Or it can be 100% artificial. There is no way to tell for sure if it is one, or the other. All you can do is guess.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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