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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;SuperDave, post: 2417063, member: 1892&quot;]I can&#039;t say I&#039;m positive on which coin we&#039;re talking about any longer, so I&#039;ll offer opinions on both. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>The original AU50 coin with the PVC - something I never mentioned because of the PVC discussion - should have graded Damaged (because of the marks on the shield and the scratch thru the third left star, too much for an AU coin although they&#039;d probably ride if it were VF20) and is <b>beyond a doubt</b> (to me) cleaned. All you have to do is look under the date and at 5:00 obverse to see what didn&#039;t get removed. In fact, I&#039;ll bet the PVC came from the container it was put into after that cleaning - PVC flips have only been invented during my lifetime.</p><p><br /></p><p>The &quot;follow-up&quot; coin - Post #56 - is a tougher study. Contemplate: These coins circulated in a day and age when, in the cities at least, atmospheric sulfur was present at levels which would cause the EPA to blow a gasket and fall out. Ever notice how dark Seated and Barber coinage can get? That&#039;s because the atmosphere of the Industrial Age was so poisonous.</p><p><br /></p><p>So - and it&#039;s something few seem to factor into their thinking - we have to contemplate the probability of the coin <i>toning while continuously in circulation</i>. This can lead - mind, I&#039;m theorizing here, not stating fact - to a look where the periphery of the coin is dark while the areas capable of being finger-rubbed stay clean. Don&#039;t forget, baths were....less common back then and even the average pocket was a pretty dirty place. I wonder how much of that is silver sulfide, and how much would come off in soap &amp; water? </p><p><br /></p><p>So that one&#039;s a far more complex evaluation to me. I know silver toned far faster and far more deeply in those days - Seated and Barber coinage - and the &quot;circulation cameos&quot; we (mostly) love prove it. It&#039;s tough for me to believe that circulation cameos weren&#039;t caused by dark-toned coins being handled in circulation. With that in mind, I cannot apply the &quot;traditional&quot; rules of halos and &quot;clean&quot; fields to issues which circulated at the end of the 19th Century - they deserve rules all their own.</p><p><br /></p><p>To make a long story short, I think it very likely this second coin is righteous and original. But in view of the above, I cannot and never will be sure.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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