Toning Question

Hi Tbar and welcome to the forum. This is a very friendly place and plenty of expertise and experience to answer most questions.

Do you happen to have a picture you can post? That would help to make a better determination.

Darkening of a silver coin can be caused by a lot of reasons, but if it's uniformly dark (almost black) over all surfaces on both sides (or maybe just one side), I'd be inclined to guess exposure to a high-sulfur environment or other atmosphere to which the coin was exposed. Fake toning is common (oven, chemical sprays and paints, chemical chamber, etc), but we'd need to see a pic of the coin to make a better guess. I doubt cleaning would result in darkening although if it was an amateurish job with the wrong type cleaner, it's possible.

Fred

I am talking about something along these lines.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...79&rd=1&rd=1

I have seen a few that are uniformly dark like this, which I think is somewhat attractive....but was just wonder if this sort of coloring is natural or the result of cleaning.

Thanks guys.

Ya ...I saw that 50. I wasn't really interested in this coin, I'm trying to stick to AU or better.

I was just posting this as an example of the toning I was speaking of. Right now I am just trying to educate myself on grading before I begin making purchases.

I do believe this coin is graded very accurately though....am I wrong?