Coin Of The Immaculate Conception

It was on the coin when it got graded

I take it you mean the round discoloration?

Welcome to CCF! Coins can tone over time depending on the environment they are in caused by humidity, what is touching them, if they were found in the ground, cigarette smoke etc.. We'll likely never know what caused the round toning on both sides of that coin. We can speculate, like the coin was stored between two smaller coins in a box or coins folder. The smaller coins touching it over time created the toning. Maybe some kind of liquid dripped on it, oil or whatever. Or maybe the coin was stored in a flip with round acidic paper labels on each side. Years ago it was common for coins to have round paper labels describing them. Below is one example of an older round label. I have a few of these dating back over 100 years in my collection of ancient coins. You can tell a ballpoint pen was not used but dip in inkwell writing.

I've seen tape toning on coins, someone taped a coin to a coins folder forever leaving a big mark. Other damage is caused by PVC residue in older flips and fingerprints can cause markings.

Black, green, red spots are common on older coins. If spots are surface gunk/dirt it might be removeable with proper cleaning. If the metal itself has chemically changed, that's very different.

Some natural toning is pretty with rainbow colors, some is ugly.

I'm just guessing about the coin you posted. The round toning is not attractive to me.

You can't have chemicals on a MS62 coin . A flip does not make sense to me , why would you cover up three quarters of the coin so you can only see a neck line ? The circle on the front of my coin seems perfectly round and on the back it seems to "melt" . The year this coin was minted this Pope came out with the dogma of the immaculate conception and. After researching it He is not canonized. Should I bring this to the Catholic Church ? Thanks for the help!

Flips can either be clear plastic or paper. I prefer non acid paper flips for my ancient coins so I can write info on the flips.

Coins are safer in holders but coins can still tone while inside a PCGS, NGC or any other plastic holder especially if they are not stored properly like if they are kept where there is high humidity. Holders are not air tight. Even capsules that call themselves "air tight" aren't really 100% air tight in my opinion.

The round "blobs" of toning are clearly from round coin cabinet ID tags, not unlike the one LivingWater posted.

You can see the blobs on both sides, and we can see from the TPG pics that the blob on the reverse isn't perfectly circular, but rather ovoid - like two circles placed on top of each other off-centre. The history of this coin, and the interaction with it's sulfur-emitting ID tag, can thus be postulated:

- The coin was originally placed into a coin cabinet obverse-side-up, with the ID tag in physical contact with the reverse. Leave it there long enough to create the initial reverse round stain.
- The coin was then taken out of the cabinet, and put back in the cabinet obverse-side-down, and left there long enough to create the obverse round stain.
- The coin was then taken out again, and put back again, this time back in the original obverse-side-up position but in the meantime the ID tag has moved slightly at the bottom of the tray, causing a second round toning spot on the reverse, not-quite-overlapping the first one.
- The coin was eventually removed from the coin cabinet and subsequently slabbed.