Insta-Tone And The Case Of The 1903

This gal buys a nice chocolate brown coin and now it's 4 diamonds and uncirculated. I sell to her for 8 bucks and she flips it for 36 bucks

Luuucy...You got some splain' to do! Obviously, that toning must've happened during the transit of the mail when it was in USPS care and not by Mikesmountainvalues. (tongue in cheek) He also sells raw proof IHC from time to time....I'm not saying they're not proofs...I'm just saying you're never going to see me bid on those.

He's a pretty good coin doctor, I like the new 1903 too lol.

The 1891 looks like a toothpaste coin.

@basebal21, you're right, it doesn't in the cases I've seen, but I was referring to the blue color. Also perhaps the seller darkened the photos to bring out the contrast.
What else could it be?

No not plated, just stripped.

Oh my. This is interesting.

There's various darkening agents out there and methods that people use to darken a coin.




Anything man can do nature can do, so while it is most likely man made yes it is possible that nature did it. That's why we go with market acceptable/unacceptable as opposed to natural vs artificial. Plenty of natural things look man made and some man made ones look natural. It's just a guessing game unless you have had the coin since the day it was minted and know it's entire history. Whether or not that coin was artificial or natural it wouldn't be acceptable either way.