Tone Question

Yup, absolutely, Some of my favorite coins. Bu then again I love all colorful toners...

Edit* this ones not bluish purple, nor completely blast white on the other side.. But it's my favorite one. But again yes, they do come in alot of colors and sometimes only one side . Just make sure to be able to tell the difference between artificial vs. natural toning or buy slabbed until you can.. As some people do a pretty good job artificially toning coins..

with NathanASE.

Better question... how can you tell the difference between artificial and natural toning?

IMHO: coins are not exposed to the environment both sides at the same time - in natural state, they lay flat on one side, therefore, the main characteristic of natural toning is being uniface. Anything else than that, is the result of un-natural toning (or fabrication).

Here are 2 of my coins.

The 35 dollars provenance goes back to the lady who first received it as a gift from her father in 35. All of her dollars (35 and on..one a year) were kept in the same untouched location until I purchased them from her. The 35 has the same heavy toning on both sides.


The 34 50c piece has similar light toning on both sides. So similar toning on both sides is definitely out there and it's natural.

It's probably best to not make "blanket statements" about all coins.

Running the risk of making more blanket statements, silver oxide is black. Other salts have different colours. Rainbow colours can only happen if you have an atmosphere (or a wrapper such as Kraft paper) with complex and reactive components - not our usual environment.

Light blues and yellows occur naturally AND as a result of smoke (as of cigarette - predominantly blue with hints of yellow and green). Beautiful rainbow toning can be obtained by baking the coin inside a potato, etc etc.

Natural toning take years to occur. If the coin is 2-3 years old, it was chemically altered. Odds of having natural "beautiful toning in both sides are ZERO. Natural toning occurs irregularly on the coin, so you have patches of grey here and there, many times affecting the eye appeal ( look at Devlec's pictures). Natural toning needs a certain level of humidity, so you will have little dots of deposition of salts. It is not an easy subject and if you check some threads in this board, it gets sometimes really heated.

A lot of the double dollar sets from the 70's have wonderful rainbow colours on both sides and some of the early mint sets (and kept in their closed mint leather cases) from 1911 as an example have dark and equal toning on both sides.

I would have also thought that the toning should be greatly unequal due to one side being up and exposed to more environmental effects. (you would naturally think)..but the toning is quite equal.


darryldarryl...Your coin is wonderful but it does seem to have been sitting out for quite a long time before being found,..and placed in it's protective clear 2x2. Maybe someone found it and put it in a drawer years ago? A rare piece...!!

I'd say 90% it's authentic toning, but 10% chance is been altered. Pretty much have to see in hand as like you said, it's very hard to get a picture that even closely shows off the coin's look. If it was mine, I'd consider it natural toning and enjoy the beauty thereof.

Thanks for sharing,