#coins

N0ZYC_: That's artificial toning. The most common method is the egg method. The speckled tone spots would have been made with a very light spray of some kind of toning solution.

myth0d_: I collect rare modern Chinese coins (MCC).

The best investments in coins these days are in the Chinese coins.

"the egg method"?

Yes, you suspend a coin over a mashed hard boiled egg.

The egg has a lot of sulfur in it.

ah

I have a big of a mineral collection in the same cabinet nearby,

I noticed ONE specific coin quickly getting a fine brown spotted tone to it, a bit like a rusting, it was a 1oz silver EMC2 canadian maple

it only was affeted on the side that was turned up (leaf side) and NO other nearby coins were affected at alll

I noticed then I had a chunk of sulfur in the case not too far away

That's interesting.

I have since removed it. but it's interesting that it affected THAT one coin, and so severely and quickly

Make a photo of the setup and post it on reddit.

I think I have one postged here. I asked the seller what caused it and he had no idea

What other coins were nearby?

I was worried at the time it may be a counterfeit

Varying compositions in the surface metal can cause greatly different toning progression.

the "frosting" in that coin's fields may be a major factor, increasing the surface area

Looking

Yeah, that's true.

however, the body of that orca is also frosted

Oh yeah, I think you have shared that photo before.

Have you posted it to reddit?

no, you can post it if you like

its interesting to see that the tarnish avoids the open areas of the fields

All 4 of those coins were next to the sulfur, and not sealed in anything?

correct

Yes, that is interesting.

and you can see how the head side of the coin is completely unaffected

it was face-down on the glass shelf

not even on say cloth

The sulfur fumes do "settle" gravitationally.

it has basically identical frosting and fields

With the egg method, the fumes come from below, where the egg is.

tho if you look very closely you an see for instance by the "eth" in "elisabeth ii" a hint of brown

and on other areas between the lettering and the rim

I assume it's there because that's the area of the coin closest to the exposed edge

Is it OK if I cite you as the source?

sure

Do you have a reddit account?

Do you have any photos of the chunk of sulfur?

I think so

I can cite your reddit account, and post a photo of the sulfur if you have it.

I can take a pic. it's not a crystal. normally I collect crystals but sulphur doesn't really crystalize so it's just a solid chunk of probably close to 100% purity sulphur

That's good.

Can I link to the links you're giving me?

How long were all 4 coins stored next to the sulfur?

a few months

I also have another silver coin that was slightly affected

hang on I will get pics

OK

This will be fun to post.

having problems locating the original piece of sulfur, not sure what I did with it. ( might have sealed it up somewhere) I DID find a second piece that I replaced it with, a rare example of naturally occurring crystalline sulfur

let me see what I can do for pics. I may even have an old pic of the lump

OK, if you can, put the coins next to the sulfur so I can show it in one image.

looking

that's the crystal. it probably did not come from that one, the crystal won't "atomize" like a chunk of compressed sulphur will

here's the idea. they often refer to it as "rough brimstone" as its taken out of sulphur pits around volcanic vents http://www.ebay.com/itm/332221831779

its air-deposited instea of crystalized so it's very easy for it to atomize diffuse into the air compared to a crystal

Do you have a reddit username?

let me look

virt1

Looking.

seems to still be valid

N0ZYC_: This is you? https://www.reddit.com/user/virt1

yep

I post from work but wasn't thinking about it using this account.... heh

"funny reddit allows me to post replies without logging in..." haha

yeah I can't find where I bought that chunk either. might have given it away. *shrug*

probably got rid of it one way or another when I got that crystal of it

IS it OK if I mention you in this chat here?

sure. you never have to ask for my permission about that

feel free to quote or cite me anytime

OK

getting a pic of that other affected coin now

virt1

http://vftp.net/n0zyc/coins/tarnishing%20silver... http://vftp.net/n0zyc/coins/tarnishing%20silver...

not the best pics, but you can see a SLIGHT toning around the unicorn and nothing around the dragon

though again around the edges on the dragon there is a little too, that was "side down" in the case

let me see if my microscope will picture that better

well the good news is I think I got some really good pics. the bad news is you're going to want one of those

actually let me turn it up past minimum and get a few moew

Want one of what?

what I am using to take these pictures

http://vftp.net/n0zyc/coins/tarnishing%20silver... http://vftp.net/n0zyc/coins/tarnishing%20silver...

looking

that's as far UP as it goes ;)

I could not zoom back far enough to get an entire coin

that's her majesty's eye

1-5 and 13+ are the more affected unicorn side. 6-13 are the portrait side. 13 is deliberately a bit out of focus to give you a better feel for how you'd see it with the naked eye

1-5 and 14+ unicorn

I added the photos to my post.

k

its interesting to see how the tarnish affects the frosting

Hmm, for some reasont the comment with all the background info isn't showing up.

I think picture 17 (the 99's) is my favorite

PRobably needs to wait for mod approval.

mod? I thought you were a mod??

I figured this was YOUR subreddit?

or is that not how it works? I'm not too familiar with reddit

also picture 9 was taken just to show what an apparently pretty prisine coin looks like under high magnification, all those scratches! though I handle this coin.

(but that particular surface might be untouched, I do not touch the faces of a coin like that when handling it

you can see my fingerpints all over the other unicorn coin I pictured earlier ;)

well that one wasn't delivered in a capsule, it came in one of those sealed plastic pouches. I just took a few out that are in capsules, and their fields are close to pristine

so I guess there's something to be said for capsules

I'm not a mod of /r/coins

ah

I have a lot of other coin related subreddits, though.

these pictures were taken with an AmScope wafer inspection microscope

Those a very nice photos.

It's not a cheap camera/microscope system?

I want one :)

using a fairly high end microscope camera (HD200VP)

Just like you said I would :)

uh huh ;)

makes precision electronics soldering *effortless*

surface mount work used to really intimidate me

I have done that.

I didn't use a microscope though.

I used a Pace solder rework station.

I could DO it but it was hard and didn't get good looking results

Using a fancy solder system is the key.

It was around $700 at the time, which today is probably a lot more.

now my FINEST solder looks like a baseball bat,