Are coins sitting out to tone considered natural or artificial?

I was reading this thread about a coin sitting on a window sill and it toned. It was asked if that was considered artificial toning but the question was never given any serious thought or consideration.

I'm not sure there is a right answer but I think that leaving a coin in the window for a couple of years would be natural toning. Full disclosure, I'm not a fan of toned coins. I can appreciate the beauty of some but I don't own any nor would I ever knowingly purchase any. Personally, I consider artificial toning either a chemical treatment or purposely putting a coin in a Tupperware container with a smashed up hardboiled egg.

While all three process show intent, I don't know, maybe going through the extra effort to boil and smash the egg seems a little more nefarious to me than putting some coins in the window and walking away for a couple years.

I've had silver eagles tone in an old cigar box. It was not my intent but that's what I happened to put them in for storage. I've had a Philharmonic tone in a plastic Home Depot tool box. Again, purely happenstance.

Now of course, people can do whatever they want with their coins and whether people tone coins either naturally or purposefully for personal use or nefarious intent is between them and their God. I'm just curious about the definition of natural vs artificial and what the grey areas are.

 

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Hey! Good question. I personally feel that by putting coins in a window it would make it "Environmental toning" (My own phrase). If it sits exposed to the air or from oily fingers, that would be natural as well. No? Using "chemicals" definitely is artificial as well as "Hard boiled eggs" (Never heard of that until now).
Let's see just what other fine gentlemen have to say about this though.

 

Folks will never agree to the same answer to this question.

 

I vote “natural.” That’s one of the ways the toning got there on the pieces that are natural. Storing the coin in an envelope made of paper with sulfur in it is another. These methods almost always take time. I’ve had the envelope method take a few years. One would also have to be super intuitive or psychic to say it isn’t “natural.”

The artificial toning usually involves heat and might come out of a bottle. The results can be unpredictable, disappointing and detectable.

The caveat is if the piece is hairlined or otherwise damaged from improper cleaning. In that case toning will only coverup the problem, not fix it.

 

There are some true toning aficionados on this site. Folks I would truly consider experts on toning. I am not one of those having been a “blast white” collector my entire collecting lifetime…….. There was a new poster here several years back. A nice lady that was not a coin person. She inherited a lovely ASE from her deceased father and that ASE had been displayed in a glass case that was in a window in his home and it had developed the loveliest rainbow hues that I had ever seen….. She had posted the piece here simply wanting information on what she had inherited. A multi-page discussion broke out among the members here on the legitimacy of the toning on her ASE that was never resolved. I came away from that with one conclusion. There is no true method to determine AT/NT on many of these pieces. Other than the gaudy neon colors that are quite obviously AT, there is no true method to determine. So we purchase and own the coins that are appealing to our eyes without regard to others opinions.

 

I am a bit intrigued by the idea of leaving coins out around the house just to see what happens to them. The Philharmonic in the tool box was a complete surprise but I must admit, the blue and purple is a bit mesmerizing and hypnotic.

 

I think it all depends on what the definition of the word "is" is.

 

Some things that coin doctors do to coins to get quick results don’t stop. It looks good to some for a while, the process keeps going until the coin is ruined. I have a Missouri commemorative half dollar that has become a victim of this. I’ve owned the coin for over 20 years, and now because of the chemicals that were used on it, it’s pretty much gone.

There is more involved than just intent.

 

I picked some fresh 2017 coins out of circulation while on a trip. I folded them into some cheap hotel cardboard for the trip home, then left them on my desk for a while. Next time I looked, they had toned with some sepia and iridescent blue colors. Then I deliberately left them in there for the past 5 years. So now they're both NT and AT.

 

I would just like to add that a coin starts toning the minute it was struck. A 100 year old blast white coin is not natural.

 

Intent is too hard to prove...not in this case... but I get the point.
I have to vote natural for the windowsill coin though because no chemicals were used or nothing artificial added. It just sat there minding its own business.

Bruce

 

LOL, the first 2 years were an accident, the last year was intentional. Same position as @KBBPLL

 

I'm almost 60, it's been 50 years since I first became a chemistry geek, and I still have to bite back the "air's a chemical too" reflex.

 

Depending on the environment I would worry about corrosion and other factors not good for coin exposure. Enjoyed the question thanks for sharing.

 

When a silver coin has screaming neon colors, which some people think is attractive and worth a considerable premium, there is a an almost 100% that it’s not natural. When a new coin that been out for less than a couple years, you can count on that being artificial toning.

I’ve seen one dealer on eBay who was cooking this stuff up and selling it. He probably ruined some good coins in the process. The artificial toning can be removed, but a small amount of metal and mint luster will be lost in the process.

 

It can be if it’s a Morgan Dollar that been stored in the middle of a treasury bag away from light and the most all of the atmosphere. There are many of them in numismatic circulation, and if stored properly in plastic holders, the toning process will be so slow that you will never notice it in your lifetime.

Bright white silver coins from that era, other than Morgan Dollars are much more suspect.

 

Ask a chemist. what the possible effects of climate changing chemicals on any blast white or other reactive metals such as copper, platinum, etc. ,as well as your's and everyone else's skin features over the next 2 generations. But of course as some also do not believe in natural toning on coins or old blast white ones. Many of us old collectors will be "underground" by then Stay protected. Jim

 

I can't argue with any of this above, I have been at this long enough to see one coin change and the one right next to it stay as brilliant as the day I got it, even copper. And my collection is mostly raw.

 

Artificial and natural are hard to definitively prove and lead to the intent question we see in this thread.
Another way to look at the issue is market acceptable vs questionable. You eliminate intent and go with what is generally accepted by the market (usually meaning the TPGs). Toning that is consistent with what is found in album, bags, envelopes, cardboard (tab toners), etc is considered fine. Toning that looks like someone gassed/cooked the coin or applied some chemicals is not. Then there are the liner cases that even the TPGs don't agree on (think something like the blue/purple cents that may or may not be caused by MS 70 being applied)-that can be another long thread/debate.