The Most Absurdly Toned Clad Coin I Own - 1973 Rosie Dime PCGS MS-65

So this coin has a bit of a story to it.

This coin originally came to a dealer who I know who deals in exclusively toned coins. He purchased it from another dealer who bought the set over the counter from a gentleman who had been buying mint sets since the sixties, and had a complete collection of mint sets 1955-Date (from what I was told his birthyear to date). The original dealer who had bought the gentleman's collection noticed many coins, especially in the double mint sets, were beautifully toned and sold those sets to the dealer I know.

So the dealer I know ended up buying from purchased half a dozen sets from him for an undisclosed sum. One of the sets he bought contained a stunning 1973 Lincoln Cent, which was the reason he originally bought that set. What was not disclosed was the toned 1973 dime, which was not factored into the original purchase price. That dealer than cut all the toned coins and sent them to be slabbed in the original cellophane. All of the coins came back straight except one, the dime.

So annoyed that everything except the dime straight graded he cracked the dime out and sent it back to PCGS with his next submission. Almost everything in that submission straight graded, except for a pair of cleaned coins, and that dime again.

That annoyed him because he KNEW it wasn't artificially toned. Why would every toned coin from that collection be natural except for a single dime in a later date set? So, yet again he busted it out and sent it to NGC. He knew he wasn't likely to make any money on the coin at this point, he just wanted the justification that it WAS natural. NGC rejected it as Artificially toned.

At that point, he was done with it. While talking with him about a separate purchase he mentioned the coin and his struggles with it and sent me some photos, I took a liking to it, and having to reason to doubt his story I made it my problem for $15.

Well, a few months back I sent it to PCGS, where it came back in a Questionable Color holder. Well, with my latest PCGS sub I had a bit of extra credit on my PCGS account and so for giggles cracked the dime and sent it back, this time, after a total of 5 rounds at the grading services, it came back in a straight graded PCGS MS-65 holder.

Now, looking at the coin, you'd think it HAS to be AT since clad doesn't tone like this normally. But, given the origin of the coin, and my experience in identifying artificially toned coins, I was sure that it was natural, and this time around PCGS agreed. A great lecture on differentiating natural and artificial would be this by Bob Campbell.

https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/560383

Well, story aside, what are your thoughts on this coin? It will forever represent the clad dime in my slabbed type set. Even though I could very easily find a coin many grades higher (68FT) none would match the eye appeal of this beast.