Beginners Question, Can Someone Please Advise

Toning is the coins metal reacting to it's environment. Some metals react more easily than others, silver and copper for example. If you have the opportunity to see an original mint set from the 50's, they were placed in cardboard holders that caused the coins to tone or tarnish. Sometimes they just turn dark, other times they are colorful. Some collectors really like the colorful toning, others like their coins as original as possible (blast white for silver, red for copper).

Here is a silver dime that has started to tarnish, not real attractive, but not really ugly either.



Here is another silver dime I have that tarnished with a bit more color, many will pay a premium for coins like this, but if you like blast white, you won't be worried about coins like this!






Eventually you will decide your interests, what you want to collect, and if you want toned coins in your collection, or even if you want all of them to match as much as possible (all toned, or all blast white, etc.) You get to decide what you enjoy to collect!

Toning is a matter preference. Some people prefer blast white for silver or red for copper while others prefer coins to be colorful tones. Check out this website for some insight on the natural toning process of silver coins, specifically Morgan dollars in this case. http://www.jhonecash.com/coins/tonedmorgans.asp

Buy the coin, not the slab.

Buy the coin, not the story.

Buy the coin, not the toning.

when the coin is "Graded" either by a TPG or by a some individual, the grade reflects the amount of wear or damage to the physical coin. so you could have a MS-65 or higher silver coin, but have some serious awful toning. it is still an MS65 coin.

What you are more asking about is what people here call eye appeal, some people like the way toning adds color to a coin, and can have a rainbow effect, some don't.

You will need to figure out what you personally like.

However, the amount of people who would buy a toned coin is a smaller subset of the coin collecting community, so selling the coin in the future may be more difficult.

As to what toning is. Just remember that all metals react with other stuff. Even metals like Gold that people think are safe from such reactions will react with certain gasses. By all this I mean the metal of a coin will react with certain gasses depending on what the metal is and what the reactant gasses are. For example Copper reacts with gasses like Sulfur Oxides. And by reacting I mean metals become tarnished, stained, corroded, toned, etc. depending on what you call it. Iron, for instance, reacts with Oxygen and the end results is called Rust. Rust is a form of Toning or Corroding or Tarnishing, etc.
With coins some people like coins with metals that have reacted with something to form what they call Toning. I prefer a coin to look like it was just minted.

One more thing to add:
Most coins that are blast white from the 1800s have been cleaned (with gold and some others being the exeption, and possibly well stored proofs and Morgan dollars). I, personally, prefer original surfaces even it that means its toned. just my 2 cents.

By the way, have you cleaned any of your coins?