3 years ago yesterday, I put a circulated '44 Walking Half in an older, but unused Whitman Album. Placed in on the built in bench by the picture window above the 800 pound, 100 year old, leaky, possessed radiator. Sun, heat, steam, and some vibrations from old creaky.
Every three months (give or take) I took images and put it back in its place.
I retired the project this weekend and just finished a video that stitches and blends the images together. And for what its worth, trying to get a dozen images to overlay precisely was a massive pain.
I find it pretty fascinating and wanted to share. And yes, it was/is intentional - I am a bad person.
Very interesting project and video, DOCC. Your coin certainly developed a nice toning. Don't feel like you did a "bad" thing - you just put the coin in an environment that allowed toning to develop. That's a far different cry from applying chemicals or putting it in an outlandish situation. Was it in a Whitman album or folder?
Inordinately fascinated by bits of metal with strange markings and figures
There is such a thing called 'terminal toning' beyond which a coin cannot get any darker because the entire exposed surface has reacted with chemicals in the air. Typically this takes a long time, but can happen rather quickly under certain conditions. Remember the time 'back in the day' when smoking was considered (by some) to be cool, and nearly everyone did it? That alone was responsible for much of the 'toning' seen on older silver coins.
Quote: Is there actual sulfur in tobacco? I wonder what causes actual oxidation to the silver - or is it more so a film/stain? Like it does to one's lungs.
Yes, there is some sulfur naturally occurring in tobacco. It gets atomized when smoked and forms silver sulfide in contact with silver coins. But the worst thing about smoking processed tobacco, i.e. cigarettes, was the many non-natural additives added to them by the companies for various reasons, like glycerol for moisture retention and flavor enhancement, and sodium nitrate so the cig would keep burning while you were holding it. That insidious trick made millions for the tobacco companies. There once were something like eighty different chemicals added to commercial tobacco products. I doubt it is much different today.
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Posted 01/21/2025 12:29 am
