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 Replies: 17 / Views: 3,823 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1193 Posts |
Maybe this is a silly question and the answer is obvious. But I am wondering what exactly a TPG service sees or determines if a coin is "recolored" and by what method are they observing this? What to them constitutes recoloring? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
716 Posts |
I am by no means an expert on this but my understanding that after a copper coin has been cleaned it has an unnatural pinkish/orangish color to it. Recoloring is a process, natural or artificial, to give the coin a more natural appearance. Identifying recolored coins requires experience and physically examining lots and lots of coins. Maybe some of our experts can give you a better definition of 'recoloring' and what the actual processes are.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1193 Posts |
Makes sense beagle, but that leads me to ask, what is considered "natural recoloring" lol. I feel like the word recolored had such a negative connotation.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
716 Posts |
I would guess that 'natural' would be how the coin was stored and exposed to environmental factors as opposed to some artifical process. I agree that 'recoloring' does have negative connotations. Perhaps 'retoning 'is more positive.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
It has a bad connotation because it's bad. Once a coin has been cleaned, it's ruined forever. It can re-tone, or be artificially recolored, which might give it a subjectively less horrible appearance, but it's still a cleaned coin.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1193 Posts |
Captain this I understand, what methods when dealing with LWC would a TPG determine as having been used to deem a coin "recolored" other than the obvious cleaning? |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
In all of my collecting experience which covers decades, I have never heard of the term 'recoloured coin'. I HAVE, however heard and seen 'retoned' coins. These coins have had their patination removed from them, for whatever good or bad reason, and they are in the process of retoning again.
Sometimes ancient silver coins when they are dug up have to be acid washed to remove encrustations on them. These coins can be artificially toned or can be left to tone naturally, which can take many decades.
As a far as the colour of a photographed coin is concerned, that can be changed easily by altering the colour temperature of the lighting. I have seen incandescent lighting used for gold coins and LED torchlight used for silver coins. I have seen pictures of gold coins look like silver ones with the wrong light.
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
"Recolored" is a term generally reserved for copper coins which have had their appearance altered to mask cleaning, usually being made artificially darker than they were before. Like any aspect of grading, it's a purely subjective evaluation on the part of the grader. There's no strict set of conditions, nor could there be.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1193 Posts |
Thanks superdave! Well it seems I've been subjected to a subjective opinion by anacs lol.
I assume that having been deemed "recolored" in the opinion of anacs' graders also would then render a coin to score much lower than it visually appears.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2335 Posts |
Here's a Large Cent I'm reasonably certain was recolored. I bought it from a well-respected dealer of early copper & he told me it had probably been recolored at some point.   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8516 Posts |
I've tried Dellers Darkener, it kind of retones a coin. I've seen some really nasty looking rainbow toning but I'm not sure what was used. I've asked ebay buyers but they never give me an answer, lol. Oregon coin geek.....*** GO BEAVS ! ! ! ***
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1193 Posts |
here is the coin ANACS graded "60 details, recolored"   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2150 Posts |
"Recolored", Altered surfaces" etc. is pretty must just a catch all that the TPG's use if there is something about the surface of the coin they don't like. I've seen it become more prevalent over the years, especially at ANACS. With your coin, I assume it was the reverse toning that set them off. |
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Both of the last two coins raise a red flag, obviously for opposite reasons. Neither are a color which an expert should reasonably expect of a coin of that vintage, in that specific level of wear. The '09 is simply too vivid; the coin was not that brightly-hued straight from the mint. Heck of a coin, though - the obverse is gorgeous.
The '53 has a believable darkness, but were it the correct color, I would not expect lighting to play such bright highlights off the higher points - a color that dark should have already overwhelmed any consideration of "luster."
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1193 Posts |
I cant wait to get the slabs back to show you all pictures!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2335 Posts |
Quote:
The '53 has a believable darkness, but were it the correct color, I would not expect lighting to play such bright highlights off the higher points - a color that dark should have already overwhelmed any consideration of "luster." The pic makes the bright highlights on the high points a lot more obvious. In hand the color looks good & even under lighting the highlights are pretty much non-existant. There is a lot to be said for knowing how to "read" a photo when evaluating a coin. |
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Replies: 17 / Views: 3,823 |
Posted 06/02/2012 11:44 am
