Why would someone pay so much extra for this?

That's nothing. Toning does that to prices. It does it to the grades, too, inflates them, when the market graders like it.

 

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I guess they are selling the toning for $1,000, but it's too dark in my opinion.

 

I understand that but I didn't think ugly, nasty, toning would result in such an inflated price.

I would definitely understand the price a little bit if the toning was beautiful but it looks like it was dropped in an oil slick.

 

If you read the blogs, you will find out that some collectors think that ANY toning is a plus. They don’t seem to have any esthetic taste at all. Judging toning is a bit like grading. Some people can never get the hang of it.

Many collectors are now obsessed with originality. Yes, a pretty coin with original surfaces is highly desirable. I get it. But a corroded piece of black silver is not. I have come to hate the term “crusty.” Too often it means environmental damage. It’s not “beautiful;” it’s ugly. You buy them, but don’t come crying to me when the next buyer offers you a lot less than you paid. I tried to help you, but there is an old saying about leading horses to water.

 

Ah ok gotcha.

In that case maybe I should put a couple of my 1921 Morgan Dollars in my gun safe with lots of sulphur and tone them then resell them for 3x the price

 

You might be surprised at the offers you get.

 

You're certainly not the first.

Yep. But you're not supposed to say that

 

I'm evil that way, lol.

But actually, Evan, PCGS has standards on "eye appeal," I don't know if you know. If you want to see them and can't find them I'll see if I can dig them up for you. Really, I think it's kind of insane to be telling its graders what pretty is, but who am I to judge. But this guide has pictures of toned coins, and if it looks kind of like this one, it gets a half-grade bump, and if it looks kind of like that one, it gets a full-grade bump. It's old, I saw it years ago. But yeah, that's market grading for you, every bit of it.

 

Here's another one!

This is crazy!

But at least this one has nice toning (in my opinion).

 

sold already for 999