Toned Morgans. Too Common?

The marketplace--people will buy (and pay...) for what they like. People being people.

Coins can tone pretty or tone ugly.

Lots of Morgans were stored in paper rolls and canvas/fabric bags for many years, the chemical composition of which tended to impart a distinctive pattern of toning if kept in the right environment.
This was affected by surface contaminants (dirt, dust, oil from fingerprints) as well as the quality of the air (sulfur content, etc.)

I would not consider nicely toned Morgans rare unless the underlying coin is in and of itself rare.
Do they command a premium in the current market? Yes. That's what people enjoy collecting. IF they are attractively toned.
As someone else noted, toning was once considered a BAD thing and would result in dipping to remove the "unsightly" colors.

Toning itself does not increase the value. There are plenty of "ugly" toned Morgans that have lower eye appeal and might even be closer to environmental damage. Full coin rainbow toning on Uncirculated coins will bring the most money.

There are also some other types of collectible toning you might see on Morgans:

- Textile toning: coins that were directly in contact with the surface of a Mint bag can develop toning that mimics the pattern of the bag's fabric.

- Tidy House toning: the Uncirculated Morgan dollars in 1960s era Tidy House cardboard holders have unique colors and patterns that are not usually seen otherwise.

- End roll toning: Coins stored at the end of open-ended (shotgun) rolls developed peripheral or full-color toning of whichever side was "out", the other side (which was in contact with another coin) is often untoned.

- Album or coin board toning: The side of the coin in contact with the album paper or coin board can fully tone, and the obverse may have peripheral (edge) toning where it is in contact with the album/board.

- Paramount (Redfield) toning: Many of the coins in the red/black Paramount holders, such as those used for the Redfield Hoard, develop a distinct red-orange, gold and electric blue progressive peripheral tone that is uncommon in other Morgans not stored in such holders.

It's just tarnish. I have coin and sterling silver spoons in an open air display rack. After polishing them back to blast white, it takes about a year for them to reexhibit all the colors of the rainbow, as well as grey shades. Then it's time to polish them again. Silver stored in a drawer stays shiny longer.

Some of them are over 300 years old. They all tarnish at about the same rate, to the same colors, without regard to their age.

Those two statements would appear to contradict each other.

I think my oldest "toner" is a Diocletian (it's almost certainly cleaned and retoned), followed by a Denar of Maria of Hungary (probably also cleaned and retoned.) The oldest coin I have which I would 100% stone cold swear on my life has natural rainbow toning is from 1848, and it's just a thin band of peripheral color.

@thq, I have noticed that silver plate seems to be more likely to tarnish black than coin silver or sterling, in terms of flatware, but I don't know why exactly. I have a full set of 1940s International silver-plated flatware that never gets color, only black, but I have a .925 pie server from the 1880s that will color tone a bit. All are stored in a velvet-lined drawer in my vintage Drexel MCM sideboard.

Most of the "natural environment" color toners I see are either in rolls, albums, or other sorts of cardboard holders like Tidy House, or some from vault bags.
It appears that some chemicals in the papers used or cloth used are causing the effect.

I've heard sulfur in the air plays a part in toning but I am far from an expert on the chemistry involved with toning.

I can honestly say that out of all the silver I've ever owned, whether stored in a chest, a cabinet, or open air, none of it has ever rainbow toned. The only one that has is that single old pie server which has been polished a billion times. The only other silver I have in the open air is a .900 tea set that just gets dull gray.

IIRC lutefisk is made with lye (=sodium hydroxide) which is a powerful alkaline caustic agent. Sodium hydroxide would react with elemental silver (oxidation) to form a surface layer of silver oxide, which is a nasty brownish/black color. Any sulfur compounds present would also react to form tarnish.

If the dried cod is not soaked too long in the lye, the results are pretty good and can be eaten like a fish filet. But my Norwegian grandmother did not spare the Red Devil, and then overcooked the remains. There were Christmases when the fish disintegrated completely and had to be eaten with a spoon. Usually it ended up like hot fish jello. Slimy, translucent and smelly. As an adult lutefisk eater, I've never done my own lye soak, but purchase Olsen's which is ready-to-cook.

In Italy and France they soak out the dried fish in water, which takes longer but gives a much better result. The French dish I like is a puree of the fish with potatoes known as brandade. The Italian dish is a tomato fish stew called baccala.