Targets & Twinkles, Tones & Lustre.

 

Applying premium market values to coins with unusually nice toning is a phenomenon of the past few decades. Until this concept began to come on line, such coins were merely "toned" and unless really , beautifully unusual, preference was still for bright, "flashy" original-lustre pieces. There was enough preference for this "original full lustre" that lacquering was sometimes done in order that it be preserved. Now their numismatic decendants hold lacquering to be a liability and consideration given as to how it might best be removed. Times change.

Bronze coins toned (or tarnished) to a darker color mostly through sulphides; nickel wasn't much affected since it is, after all, the main component in stainless steel; gold hasn't been in much use for the past century and very little tones gold anyway. The main client for varied and extensive toning was the silver coin, especially those with a lot - or all - of its original lustre (which, by "pickling", is a very thin layer of pure silver).

And the world was a devil's brew of contaminants. Demon Tobacco held sway on bourse floors, coin shops and many collectors' homes; automobiles belched leaded gasoline fumes; factory chimneys pumped coal smoke or that from imperfectly combusted fuel oil into the air; the new, cheaper cabinets and furniture were frequently of wood-particle or plastic construction, all of them off-gassing a wide range of fumes. The miracle was that any silver coins escaped. And not many did. Overall, flat-toned silver is a direct result of the above. One nasty culprit was the 2x2 envelopes in wide use by coin collectors at the time; practically none were acid-free and the brown kraft ones would turn a BU silver into a wall-to-wall shiny black piece in a couple of years.

The below U.S. 1810 50-cent piece was auctioned some years ago as being one of the top-condition examples of the date and type. It was described as a "Gem Brilliant Uncirculated" with target-toning (whether a coin can be "brilliant uncirculated" and "toned" at the same time is left to those who debate such things). Although it does not reproduce well in black-and-white, the toning on both sides consists of concentric rings of color: deep "electric" blue near the rim giving way to a rosy mauve to a deep gold (dark yellow) to a "light lemon" (light yellow) in the center.

 

 

"Target toning" is not caused by normal, casual air pollution but rather by a numismatic invention. Around 1930, Luther M. Beistle of Shippensburg , Pennsylvania , a noted collector of U.S. half-dollars, became tired of the results storage in a coin cabinet provided him. Only one side of the coin could be seen, the shifting of the piece within the cutout allowed slight reverse wear and there was little protection from tarnishing. Therefore he designed an album with pages slightly thicker than the coin, housed within holes die-cut to the exact diameter of his half-dollars, both sides of which were protected by a sliding sheet of heavy transparent acetate. Without removing the coin, he could examine both sides, held firmly in place there was no wear, and the piece was presumably sealed against tarnishing pollutants. He took out a patent on his album design and it seemed so logical that the patent was bought by Wayte Raymond (1886-1956), the famous New York coin dealer and publisher of numismatic works. Raymond refined the prototype half-dollar album into two series: the deluxe National Albums and the more widely used, cheaper, Popular Albums - all of them extended to cover many individual series of United States coins. But it was these albums that were most likely the cause of what we call today "target toning".

 

Although Biestle and Raymond both used paper stock for the pages that was as acid-free as possible, it wasn't absolutely so. Over time, the paper off-gassed and this could not easily escape due to the acetate covers. Consequently, the lustre of the coins started to tone, beginning with the rim. Starting with a light yellow, this toning typically spread by zones toward the center, each zone at the rim being the darkest of all. The half-dollar shown above is typical, the zones from center to rim being: light yellow, dark yellow, reddish mauve, light blue and dark blue. If left indefinitely, the rim zone would probably devolve to black and this would also spread toward the center with time, each successive zone in the meantime becoming a darker step on the scale. While these are typical, fairly bright reds and greens are also known (possibly as a result of the makeup of the coin itself). The most striking results are always on the pure silver layer of lustrous (meaning UNC or very close to it) coins. Silver very easily combines with all sorts of other elements.

 

Wayte Raymond (1886 - 1956) Developer of the National / Popular Albums.

 

Target toning is most impressive on large-diameter silver coins, such as silver dollars and half-dollars which allow more and narrower zones in relation to their size. But the zoning moves at a standard rate and the U.S. dime of 1833 is an example of less-than-ideal "targetting". This coin apparently spent less time in the album since its rim zoning is light and dark blue; within that is a "rose russet(?)" with yellow at the center. The small diameter only allows for about three zones.

 

 

U.S.A. 10 cents, 1833 (2½x) "Target toned"

 

But the fact remains: if you see a good example of target-toning, chances are excellent that that coin has spent some years in a National/Popular Album - or reasonable facsimile thereof.

Just the same, some collectors were not entirely satisfied that these top-of-the-line albums allowed some toning to occur with the passage of time. Sparkling BU Gems were the desiderata and therefore there developed a market for a number of "coin dips", all of which promised to merely restore the tone to pristine lustre with absolutely no degradation of the coin. But while "dipping" became a wide practice, purists were distinctly unhappy, it being their opinion that after such treatment the coin "dulled", "lost its sparkle", became "lifeless". Yet even under 20x magnification, no apparent change could be seen to account for this.

It required the use of electron microscopes and careful experimentation to prove that the purists were correct and provide an explanation as to why it was so.

It's best if we use an anology: we have all experienced days at lakeside or seashore when the water was alive with innumerable twinkles of light, each there for only a flash and then gone. Conditions must be right for this to happen: the sun preferably behind or to the side of the viewer while there should be just a cat's-paw slight breeze on an otherwise calm water surface. What has happened is that an infinite number of angles, all very fleeting, have formed on the surface of that light chop, some of which form the perfect angle between the sun and the eye of the observer. As an average, they would be very rare but in absolute numbers, very high. Therefore the sparkling water.

Researchers found that something similar occurs with coins. Like a perfectly calm lake surface, a coin's mirror surface will result only in a kind of glare; but the slightly riffled water surface is equally similar to a coin's matte surface, so long as full lustre is there. Under high magnification, it was found that a sparkling, lustrous coin surface was actually composed of many tiny peaks and it was their angles that reflected small winks of light, changing to others as the light source or the observer's head moved. The coin "sparkled"; it "had life".

It was also found that coin dips did change the surface. In removing the tarnish (or tone), its action removed the tiny sharp peaks, flattening them into shallower, rounded forms. As such, they acted more like still sunlit water or mirror-surface coins: less contrast, more glare. They had indeed been dulled and lost some of their sparkle.

Just remember that fashions and tastes change. The "PQ" of tomorrow might not be that of today and as multi-hued tones on coins have come to command premiums, who's to say that in the future "flashy, blazing white" won't again be the thing?

Wayne Jacobs is a numismatic expert. Currently secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia, he is the award winning author of numerous articles. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.