How silver coins look that come out of the ground depends entirely upon the ph of the soil. I live in coal country. The soil here tends to have high amounts of sulphur, and more elemental iron in the clay layer ,which some areas don't even have, and I've recovered some silver coins that were so heavily sulphated that the entire surface is pitted. The soil in this neck of the woods tends to be quite acidic.
Here are the last 4 silver coins I've excavated. The 1857-O quarter was horribly corroded. It was only 3 inches deep, but was near the road, soI expect it's seen it's share of exposure to road salt over the past 75 winters.
I recall reading that the toning of silver is indeed a progressive process, albeit slow. The estimate for a silver coin to be reduced to a pile of black dust was something over one hundred thousand years.
This thread reminded me of a video I was watching the other day that was showing how to tone a silver object a little quicker using electrochemistry. I'm sure there are better ones out there but this is the one I know of:
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Makes you wonder if some of the toners I see out there were created using this process.
A few of the results shown above are fairly attractive, much moreso than the pre-processed specimens. This thread may indeed become a tutorial for the AT monkeys living in the trees above your coin house . . . "Don't try this at home" can become an irresistible challenge to some folks. This + an ebay account = more trouble for the inexperienced coin buyer.
mysilveryears: ".... This + an ebay account = more trouble for the inexperienced coin buyer. "
Don't fret too much about that. There are many buyers like myself who think buying a toned coin is like buying a new car with a dented fender. Why settle for impaired when you can get new?
My opinion ... for what that's worth ... is that "original surfaces" only becomes an issue on high grade coins. Coins in the grades shown here ... it just doesn't matter to me. The coins are more market acceptable. The natural process has been kick started, and my guess is that in a couple years, especially if stored in an old Waite Raymond album ... they'll be indistinguishable from naturally toned coins. The toning forms exactly where it was originally, because the surfaces are compromised from the previous toning. That is to say ... the corrosion had already begun....but was "OK" because it was still at an attractive stage. The resellers that dipped the coins out to begin with have done as much a disservice to the novice collector as anything I've done here. All I've done is to propose a method of restoring bleached out silver coins to make them more palatable to me.
Funny thing about the cleaning and artificial toning "boogie men" is that when they sell coins that have been monkeyed with ... they may disclose the fact that they've been cleaned etc ... but it doesn't seem to impact pricing. They still price them as any "natural" coin would be priced.
The knowledge imparted here can be used either way ... by those who wish to deceive, or by those who wish to learn to spot AT. Knowledge is power. How the power is wielded is up to the individual possessing it.
I agree with dsfreeworld about the 1825 CBH. That coin was horrible and this process has it looking pretty darn good. I am not an expert by any means, but I think it would be difficult for most to pick this out as AT.
The difference that I can see ... and I'm not going to say that it's "the" definitive indicator or "smoking gun"... is that most of the coins I have that are absolutely naturally toned, contain hues of brown as well as gray. This is primarily gun metal gray, though a bit of blue will appear from time to time.
I'm way happier with them now than I was. It will be interesting to see how they age from this point.
The 1919 still shows a wee bit of polishing ... mainly evident in the skirt lines. I wish I had a before picture of that one, but I didn't even take a picture of it back when I bought it.
Here's a naturally toned 1834 bustie ... shown with the artificially toned 1824. Its easy to see the difference in color, the original having more browns .... but overall, the 1834 has a wider range of color and an overall softer transition from dark to light.
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Posted 11/10/2013 03:04 am
