Recently coin doctors have been concocting sulfur solutions or applying heat–to the point of baking coins in vegetables–to come up with a pastel tone that really only occurs naturally in old Hallmark and PCI holders.
Admittedly, those true pastel tones are breathtaking. They often appear in concentric circles with yellow, gold, orange, red, green and blue as if an artist water-colored them on silver.
Here’s an example.
Note how each color blends into the other and the conspicuous label, “100% White.” The chemical composition of the paper label causes the toning over a number of years.
Now compare that to the artificial pastel that is created via heat. There are many ways to do this, wrapping the coin in foil or even inserting it in a potato and then baking in an oven at a certain temperature; but the purpose here is not to encourage coin doctoring so I won’t be specific. Suffice to say, though, that the “pastel” will seem detached and even grainy with the silver taking on a burned look as in this doctored coin on the auction portal Proxibid.
Ebay may have banned replicas (although we find them consistently in fake California fractional gold); but it hasn’t cracked down on artificially colored coins. If you do a search on eBay with the words “toned silver eagle” you may find far more artificially toned coins than natural ones. Many of the fake-colored coins are treated with sulfur-based solutions or greases (Vaseline is a preferred product).
The colors of chemically treated coins can be hideous, as in this amateurish example.
One of the ways to check on a seller is to view his entire consignment on eBay or other portal. If they all are “toned” without being slabbed by PCGS, NGC, ANACS or ICG, as in this page below, you can bet the seller is a would-be alchemist unable to perfect his craft.
For more on detecting artificially toned coins, visit this PCGS’s page, “Detecting Doctored Coins.”
You’ll also find several guides on eBay. Here is a useful one.
Naturally toned coins are bringing ever higher premiums, explaining why so many are willing to doctor otherwise appealing coins. The best way to prevent the practice is to know how to detect the altered lots and avoid sellers who profit by them.
This is just like using Ajax or Comet to polish coins and medals. So you are selling a damaged coins!
A flippers delight and a fools folly.
American eagle coins are neither old nor rare. They are worth only the price of silver plus a small premium. Anything more than slight toning indicates poor storage. I dont understand why anyone would pay more for damage.
Thank you, Doug., for your astute numismatic comment. Visit eBay and search under Coins and Currency “toned silver eagle.” You may be surprised at what you find, and if you do, write us again. We always welcome comments such as yours!
A fool’s folly? Indeed. You are correct, and thank you for taking the time to comment, too.
Very interesting article, as well as the one @ the PCGS.
Thanks for the link.
Something I’ve wondered about for years is why most of my silver coins (formerly in circulation) have a nice, natural coppery patina.
I finally know why, thanks to info provided @ the link:
“Once the original surface is removed from a coin by some type of commercial dip or cleaning, toning will no longer “adhere” in the same way it does with original coins. There are several chemical and physical reasons for this. One of the main reasons is that in coinage alloys, the subordinate metal tends to “leach” out or migrate to the surface. When the coin is cleaned, the first several layers of molecules are removed-and if leeching has been occurring for a substantial period of time, more of the minority metal is removed by any cleaning.”
It would be interesting to know the metallurgical/chemical reason why the subordinate metal (usually copper @ around 10%) alloyed with the usual 90% silver would tend to ‘un-alloy’ and migrate to the surface over time, producing that beautiful coppery patina.
Again, thanks for the interesting article and links.
I heard if you store a coin in an envelope it will tone over time. I tried it with a Morgan and it toned.
In the past, folks stored Morgans in yellow envelopes, and the coins developed beautiful toning. It all depends on the chemical composition of the paper.
Thank you, Agnut, for writing. I can’t say specifically why the silver would tend to unalloy, but I know metal detector buffs know all about this stuff. You might find this link useful:
http://www.njminerals.org/metaldetecting4.html
Thanks again for your comment!
The last examples of the “would-be alchemist” are in my opinion a permissible art. Many others would find these to be beautiful albeit artificial. I guess we fall into two catagories, those who deface, and those who preserve. I’m a hybrid of both as long as historical rare coins aren’t being destroyed I don’t care if someone wants to color their bullion.
Thank you, adamogardner, for your perspective. Some are smartly done, ’tis true. Others are, well, hideous. Your point about bullion is well taken, too.
A good follow-up to this article might be how to restore such artificially-damaged coins to their former dignity as-minted.
The numismatic value of a tainted artificially doctored coin reverts pretty much back to bullion value.
Some of the more garish and gaudy attempts at artificially toning coins would probably be better off just soaked to restore the inherent bullion value without the gimmick toning.
Fake toning of coins is an exercise in diminishing returns.
Agnut, thank you again for this comment. I had not thought about what you propose, but it makes perfect numismatic sense. We appreciate your taking the time to share this.
I was looking at some Toned coins through eBay and did a google search:
“Silver coins with toning worth more?”
And this page was one of the top three on the results. Great information and appreciative too. I knew people were artificially toning those Silver Eagles, in many of them there was no other way the patterns and colors were natural.
You can look at some of the oldest and rarest silver coins slabbed by PCGS, NGC, ANACS and some of the other upcoming grading companies and you NEVER see those types of colors on any of their graded pieces.
— this tells me if toning of this nature didn’t happen in coins a hundred to three hundred years old… than it can’t happen to a 1-5 year old Silver Eagle. Seems like common sense, but I like to see how others are looking into the same thing to educate themselves, and others.
Great info on here. Thanks mate.
Thanks for writing, Newman T. Your comment on 1-5 year-old Silver Eagles is spot-on. Appreciatively, Michael
Great article. My experience has been that Silver Eagles tend to tone more rapidly than Morgans, Peace Dollars and other 90% silver coins due to their 99+% silver content.
Copper is the most reactive of the metals currently used in our coinage, which results in some of the wild target toned pieces formerly housed in old Wayte Raymond albums. However, most Eagles are either kept in the original government packaging or slabbed. None are circulated. Those that do end up in albums are generally made of materials that won’t inherently tone the coins, but since they aren’t airtight the conditions of storage matter more than the album itself in terms of toning. An exception is Littleton, I’ve seen some hideously ugly tarnished Eagles as well as a few nicer pieces in both their albums and “ShowPak.” I’m not going to get into Littleton as a company, that’s been well-covered elsewhere.
Is a toned coin worth more? To the right collector, it might be. Numismatics is more than just collecting, for example, an entire run of 1986-2014 Eagles in certified 70 grade. For myself, it’s partially about collecting pieces that offer exceptional eye appeal. When presented with two identical slabbed MS69 Eagles, I’d go for the one with interesting natural hues over the solid white example every time, even if it commanded a significant premium. Why? I like to look at my coins, not just check off boxes on my wish list. When you own a coin that has vibrant natural toning, the colors can appear to be different just by changing the viewing angle. In my opinion, non-toned coins can be, but certainly aren’t always, somewhat inferior to an identical frosty example.
As with anything else, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What may be exceptional eye appeal to me may be hideously ugly to others. After viewing tens of thousands of natural and artificially toned coins over 20 years of collecting, I can attest that some AT coins are beautiful, and some NT coins are hideous. Even the top two grading services occasionally make mistakes when attributing AT/NT, so it goes without saying that I myself am unable to determine exactly how some coins acquired their color and whether it was natural. Even if a coin may have natural toning, it may not be slabbed by one of the top 2 services if the toning doesn’t appear to be, in their opinion, “market acceptable.” Then again, what is “natural toning,” anyway? Some people would view the Wayte Raymond album toning as artificial.
Basically, the whole toning game is very subjective. Like fine art, opinions can really run the gamut.
Nice comment on the range of toned coins. Thanks for taking time to share your insights!
If you own it you should be able to do whatever you want to it
If it comes out hideous you still own it
I am intrigued by the envelope idea
What type of paper or chemicals are desirable for toning ?
What methods are there for accelerating the process ?
The best ingredient to tone coins is … patience.
Hmm I really don’t think this as complicated as people are making it to be. If you own it, yes, no one says you can’t but that’s irrelevant because this is clearly about the ethical debate of being led on and buying an AT you thought could bring value to find out the opposite…and from my experience…and just go on the PCGS auction database online to verify this…if it’s a gem that’s on the high end in grade and extraordinarily high in value when compared to others of the same grade, it’s almost always due to unique toning. And after looking through enough of these gems, you pick up on common similarities and the fact that they all really do flat out look natural from the way the colors flow together and somewhat clear patterns. Then on eBay you see randomn crazy tiedie looking coins that are far more brighter with more colors that do not quite flow together at all. There’s a clear cut off from color to color and the transition to the next color has no real pattern and is kind of all over the map. These seem to be more blotchy with many irregular spots as well….so long story short I believe that’s your best answer. And ofcourse if it looks like someone took a lighter to the coin and held it there or something it’s probably because someone did do something just like that so this really is a game of intuition and using your head and if you have good intuition then you probably can make the correct buys most the time. If it looks to good or to cool to be true I would not think to hard because it most certainly is maybe with those few rare exceptions that you will probably never come across anyway that some how are true. And if your preference is that you like these AT’s despite their true value then , again, it’s irrelevant here because it’s a no brainer you have the right to like something so it doesn’t apply to the real ethical debate and learning to avoid unauthentic mispromoted rip offs….
I have a coin that is a coin holder and it is toned and how can I tell if it is real or not