For those who don't know, silver not kept in a dry, enclosed environment will tarnish over time. The biggest culprit is sulfur. There are trace amounts of sulfur in paper products, ink, eggs, onions, hairspray, shampoo, etc. While the tarnishing doesn't damage the silver and can be cleaned off, it does discolor the silver. In some cases, this can be a desirable effect.
In the bullion and coin world, there is a market for beautifully toned (tarnished) coins, bars, rounds, etc. These can sometimes sell for multiples over their spot value when not artificially induced with liver of sulfur. The color of toning can vary from brown, orange and red, all the way to blue, purple, green and black.
The 1 gram Geiger square pictured above toned from being in a cardboard box for a year or so, in with papers, air tites, gloves, etc. I decided to try and recreate this, this time deliberately, in my garage.
I put two 1980s Libertads, a 1921 Morgan, random year date Panda, 1oz Pyromet card and 1oz Dark Side "The Liberator" round in a cardboard box to be toned. I threw in a small leather pouch, polishing cloth, and some wadded up gun magazine ads. The idea is that each of these give off different levels of sulfur that will tone the coins.
They've been in there probably a year now. While they're coming along, they're not quite to the stage I'd like, where you can see some blue, green and purple.
The Panda has a nice, even bronze toned rim due to me keeping it in half of the air tite. Very cool!
The 1921 Morgan has hints of orange and yellow and some very faint blue toning starting.
One of the Libertads is toning much slower than everything else. The other, however, is developing a lot of orange.
They're far from where I'd like them to be, but this is for fun (and science!) more than anything else. We'll see what these look like in another 3-4 months. 😁
Each month, I give away a $1 Goldback or 4 HBD. The winner gets to choose.
Note: Some countries may have prohibitively expensive shipping or delivery, which may not be feasible. I reserve the right to award the winner 4 HBD instead of a Goldback at my discretion.
Not sure what a goldback is? Click here to find out more about them.
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