Toned hammered,

[craigy]

i am starting to see a lot of toned hammered for sale here and there,    anyone else noticed, i think in 15 yeras of detecting and coin collecting i have only ever seen one hammered with a slight tinge untill now

[Rob]

Examples? Are they recently dug or from old collections?

[myt]

So this was the only applicable thread I thought I could find when looking for something on toned hammered coins - certainly nothing compared to the thread "Let's See YourToned English Milled Silver!". I picked up this James I Halfgroat because it is a tougher mintmark, and was a very decent price. The toning on the reverse is intense, and to be honest reminded me of people who artificially chemically tone US Morgan Dollars. But I can not image for the life of me, someone going through the trouble on a random J1 Halfgroat - so I am assuming it is for real. My guess would be that someone had this obverse up for a long time on a piece of paper which is not archival safe, and the chemicals just toned the reverse, accelerated by humidity if it was not kept well? If it was in something like a sleeve, I would expect both sides would be equally toned. 

[Coinery]

I think so many lower-grade detector finds are spit and foil to clean, that anything is possible. When hammered is really crappy, and consequently aggressively cleaned, the end result is a flat, washed out, and uninspiring coin.

I believe the deep-layered cabinet tone of old collectors’ coins on good metal, is what we’re all really looking for.