1964 Proof Kennedy Toning

I would not call that toning.It looks more like environmental damage to me but I am no pro.
John1

maybe it was heated with a blow-torch and/or painted

If you saw this coin on ebay for more then silver value would you buy it?
John1

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I don't see beauty here.

I was thinking that I may want to sell this coin on ebay at some point but I dont want to rip anyone off so would it be wise to state that it is artificially toned? Or advise that it is possible?

Toning of silver usually gives off beautiful colours, only with ancients dug out of the ground would I expect to see blackening of silver. With this coin it looks to have had two 'treatments' done to it, firstly creating the light brownish colour-maybe via sulphur powder and alcohol burnings. Then the second looks charred via some sort of oven technique or even a frying pan technique involving left over oil in the pan causing this odd arrangement of toning. The difference between the 'tones' is too much of an uncomplimentary tone contrast, which would be an indicator of artificial toning.

If it were in a house fire I'd expect to see only charring and probably more and less consistent than on the coin in question(overall charring covered, not like the coin shown), and without these contrasting 'tones'. For charring to happen, an object is usually a particular distance from the fire/source. And this coin has 'toning' all over it, so it would of had to of been levitating to achieve this from a fire, and usually direct contact with a fire may even cause melting of a coin-but this would be an extremely prolonged rather furious fire-with the right elements fueling it.

I think you did well with getting it under spot, have you tested it for silver via basic tests? I couldn't see it having a premium personally, as mentioned above though beauty is in the eye...etc. And one other thing, is this toning consistent on the rims/edge? Any chance of a picture of that?

I sourced my knowledge of artificial toning from this link:- http://roko.coinsite.com/origcoindoc/p0000080.htm
And my knowledge of charring on fires is from my time teaching outdoor survival and spending alot of time trying different things out with fires.

The reason I asked about checking for silver is because of some of the sellers at car boots, notoriously have dodgy goods. There are good sellers aswell, but watch out for the pikeys lol.

If it were in a safe, it would have different toning because at least one of the surfaces of the coin would be in contact with the safe surface or another object.

As I said you did well with getting it for less than spot, and you never know if someone would find it more attractive than others. :)

I have a few Kennedy halves that came out of a house fire. I'll dig them out and take some pictures so you can see what a real fire makes them look like.