Monster Toning vs. Artificial: Decoding the Colors on Thomas L. Elder’s Tokens & Medals

Why Thomas L. Elder Pieces Are a Perfect Laboratory for Toning

Beautifully toned coins can fetch massive premiums. But the line between natural and artificial? It is thin. I have examined hundreds of Thomas L. Elder tokens, medals, and store cards over the years. In my experience grading and handling these pieces, no other early 20th-century issuer teaches a toning specialist more. Elder was not a mint. He was a dealer, publisher, and provocateur operating out of 32 East 23rd Street in New York. He struck, restruck, and sold pieces in brass, copper, and silver through C.H. Hanson of Chicago and other die sinkers. That mixed-metal, mixed-provenance history is exactly why Elder material tones so interestingly. It is also why it is so easy to misread.

When I hold a 1917 Confederation piece in silver, DeLorey-96, HK-887, I am not just looking at a So-Called Dollar catalog number. I am looking at a surface that may have spent 100 years in an envelope, a dealer’s cabinet, a felt-lined tray, or a collector’s album. A brass 1917 Confederation / Visit of our Allies, DeLorey-94, HK-437, will age on an entirely different chemical timeline. A copper 1907 Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition store card, DeLorey-7, will turn chocolate, olive, and gunmetal in ways silver never will. If you only learn toning on Morgan dollars, you will misjudge Elder every time.

Elder himself complicates the story. As CaptHenway documented and as forum collectors have confirmed for years, Elder’s reported mintages were often contradictory. He quoted 5 in one catalogue and 10 in another for the same range. He called pieces unique in silver that later turned up in at least two examples, including the famous Numismatic Knights of the Round Table silver pieces, DeLorey-92 and DeLorey-93. That matters for toning. Rarity claims inflate premiums. Inflated premiums tempt people to create color where none exists. My job as a toning specialist is to separate the romance of the story from the chemistry on the metal. That is where true numismatic value begins.

Rainbow Toning: The Premium Everyone Chases

Rainbow toning is the holy grail for silver collectors. Elder’s silver issues are prime candidates. True rainbow toning on silver is not paint. It is a microscopic layer of silver sulfide and other compounds that diffracts light. That produces blues, magentas, greens, and golds that shift as you tilt the piece under a single light source. In my experience, the best Elder silver rainbows show color anchored in the fields and around the devices. It is not smeared across the high points where handling would have worn it away.

I have seen a silver DeLorey-93 Numismatic Knights of the Round Table, 38 mm, certified NGC MS63, where the obverse carries a deep cobalt rim. It rolls into violet, then a soft champagne center. That is classic target toning transitioning into rainbow toning. The luster underneath remains sharp and frosty. When I tilt it, the color moves. It does not stay flat. That movement is the first test I teach every buyer. Natural thin-film interference moves with angle. Artificial color often looks dead from one angle and identical from another.

What Real Rainbow Toning Looks Like on Elder Silver

• Color follows topography: On a silver Elder medal, rainbow color will be deepest in recessed fields and around lettering. It will be lighter on the highest relief where the piece may have been wiped or handled.
• Transitions are gradual: Blue to purple to magenta to gold should blend over millimeters. It should not stop at a hard line.
• Luster survives: Under the color, original mint luster or prooflike reflectivity should still be visible in hand. Dipped and re-toned pieces look chalky. The patina sits on top of a damaged surface.
• Edges tell the story: Many Elder silvers show a darker rim with rainbow just inside it. That is consistent with long-term storage where sulfur migrated from paper or cloth.

Contrast that with the brass and copper Elder issues. A 1907 Thomas L. Elder ANA Triennial Convention Medal in brass, DeLorey-9, Eglit-64, will not produce silver-style rainbows. Brass tones to mustard, olive, russet, and dark brown. Copper, like the DeLorey-7 Jamestown in copper, tones to chocolate, plum, and eventually near-black with hints of green at the rims. If a seller shows you a brass Elder with electric blue and pink rainbows identical to a Morgan dollar, walk away. That is not chemistry. That is artifice.

Bag Toning and the Ghosts of Elder’s Own Storage

Bag toning is the second major pattern I look for on Elder material. Especially on the larger medals sold in groups through his auction catalogues. Elder sold by the hundreds. Pieces were stored in bulk, in envelopes, in glassine, in canvas bags, and in dealer’s stock boxes. When silver pieces sit together for decades, sulfur compounds from the bag, the paper, and even the air trapped between them create mottled, blotchy color.

In my experience grading bag-toned Elder pieces, the color is rarely pretty in the rainbow sense. It is patchy. It is irregular. It is often darkest where another piece rested against it. I have examined silver Elder restrikes using Montroville Dickeson dies, including the DeLorey-88 type, where one side is rich amber-brown and the other is mottled grey with faint blue spots. That asymmetry is a strong authenticity signal. A piece stored flat in an album tones both sides similarly. A piece tossed in a bag tones chaotically.

How to Identify Bag Toning in Hand

1. Look for contact ghosts: Faint outlines where another medal or token sat on top for years. The color inside the ghost is often lighter or darker than the surrounding field.
2. Check the rims for rub: Bag-toned pieces often have slightly softened rims and scattered contact marks that predate the toning. Artificial toning is usually applied to an already cleaned, hairlined coin, so the marks look fresh under the color.
3. Expect uneven color between obverse and reverse: If both sides are perfectly matched in a bag-toned premium piece, I become suspicious. Real bags do not produce symmetry.
4. Feel the surface: Natural bag toning on silver has a slightly granular, matte feel under magnification. Artificial toning often feels smooth or waxy because of oils, lacquers, or chemical residues.

Bag toning does not always command a premium. Collectors pay for eye appeal, not just age. A dark, blotchy bag-toned Elder in brass may be 100% natural and still sell for less than a clean, lustrous example with light golden toning. My advice to sellers is honest: describe bag toning accurately. Photograph it under both diffuse and point light. Do not try to dip it to white. You will destroy the very provenance that makes it interesting.

Album Toning: Squares, Halos, and the Envelope Effect

Album toning is where Elder pieces really shine for a specialist. So many survived in advanced collections — ex-Snider, ex-Ostheimer, ex-Shevlin, ex-keets, ex-Tim Gabriele — often in Wayte Raymond albums, envelopes, or custom holders. Album toning creates geometric patterns that are impossible to fake convincingly.

The classic album-toned silver Elder shows a square or rectangular outline where the coin sat in a window. Or a circular halo where a cardboard holder protected the center while the outer rim exposed to sulfur in the album paper. I have seen this repeatedly on the silver Knights pieces and on Confederation types. The center is soft, original white or light gold. The rim is deep blue-black or russet. That halo is not a defect. It is a fingerprint of 80 years of storage.

Envelope toning is similar but softer. Elder sold many pieces in small paper envelopes with his imprint. Those envelopes, especially the early glassine and manila types, contained sulfur that migrated slowly. The result is light, even gold or light grey toning with a slightly mottled texture. On copper DeLorey-7 pieces, envelope toning often produces a warm, even chocolate-brown. Collectors find that far more attractive than a bright, cleaned copper surface.

Album Toning vs. Artificial Square Toning

• Natural album squares have soft edges: The transition from toned rim to protected center is gradual over 1-2 mm.
• Artificial squares are razor sharp: If you can draw a perfect line with a ruler, it was masked and sprayed or chemically treated.
• Natural album toning respects the holder: The square will be centered on the piece as it sat, sometimes slightly off-center if the coin shifted. Artificial toning is often perfectly centered for visual effect.
• Look inside the square: Protected areas should retain original luster. If the center is hairlined and the rim is dark, the piece was cleaned first, then toned — a major red flag.

I always tell buyers: do not penalize album toning. In the Elder market, a well-toned album piece with a clear halo often outsells a blast-white example because it looks older, more honest, and more displayable. Eye appeal is not just color intensity. It is color with a story you can see.

Reading Eye Appeal on Brass, Copper, and Silver Elder Issues

One of the biggest mistakes I see from new Elder collectors is applying silver toning standards to brass and copper. Elder’s output was deliberately mixed-metal. He reused dies — the Santa Maria ship die from Eglit-63 appears on his Jamestown store cards, the Dickeson Confederation and Continental dies were paired with Knights reverses, and the Pennsylvania Gold 1/2 Nerve dies were later restruck by Dan Carr and John Dean. Each metal ages differently. Eye appeal must be judged in context.

On brass, I want to see warm, variegated color: honey gold, olive, and russet that follows the devices. A brass DeLorey-94 with even, light gold toning and sharp details will always beat a dark, corroded brass piece, even if the dark one is older. On copper, I want chocolate to plum with original red hints in protected areas around letters. A copper DeLorey-7 that is fully black may be natural, but it has lost eye appeal and therefore market appeal.

On silver, eye appeal is about contrast and luster. The most desirable Elder silvers combine three elements: original luster, natural color, and sharp strike. The NGC MS63 silver Knights piece mentioned in the forum is a perfect example. The grade is only part of the value. The toning is original, the surfaces are clean, and the color enhances the design rather than obscuring it. When I grade in my head, I ask: does the toning make the design pop, or does it look like dirt? Beautiful toning enhances. Ugly toning distracts.

Eye appeal is not a grade. It is the moment a piece turns in your hand under light and you understand why someone kept it for 50 years without cleaning it.

Artificial Toning: The Signs I Look For Under the Light

Artificial toning is the fastest-growing problem in the Elder market precisely because Elder pieces are scarce, popular, and often sold as rare variety silver strikes. When a silver piece is marketed as unique or near-unique, the temptation to add monster color is enormous. I have examined artificially toned pieces that were originally dipped to white, then heated, exposed to sulfur fumes, or treated with chemicals to simulate rainbow toning. They photograph well. They fail in hand.

Red Flags From My Bench

• Uniform, neon color: Artificial rainbows are often too saturated, too even, and too pink-blue. Natural Elder rainbows are muted, with gold and amber as the bridge colors.
• Color on top of hairlines: If you see fine, parallel hairlines under bright color, the piece was cleaned, then toned. Natural toning develops on undisturbed surfaces.
• Color that does not shift: Tilt the piece from 10 degrees to 60 degrees. Natural thin-film color shifts. Paint-like artificial color stays the same.
• Residue in letters and devices: Artificial toning often leaves a dark, oily residue in recesses, especially around the legends on Elder’s text-heavy reverses.
• Brass and copper with silver colors: As I noted, brass cannot produce true silver rainbows. If it does, it is lacquered or painted.
• Overly perfect album squares: Masked artificial toning creates hard lines that natural albums never produce.

Another sign I look for is toning that covers edge damage or old cleaning marks. Elder pieces that circulated as store cards — the Jamestown issues are a perfect example — will have honest wear. If a worn brass store card suddenly has perfect, even toning with no wear on the high points, I suspect it was stripped and recolored. Natural toning is always interrupted by wear.

For buyers, my actionable advice is simple: always view a toned Elder under a single point light source, not just under fluorescent case lights. Photographs lie. In-hand tilting does not. And if a piece is slabbed, look for the grading service’s notes on surfaces. A straight grade with no surface comment on a monster-toned silver Elder should make you ask harder questions.

Market Premiums: What Color Actually Pays

Let me be direct about money, because toning specialists who avoid the subject do collectors no favors. Beautifully toned coins can fetch massive premiums, but the premium is not automatic. In my experience selling and appraising Elder material, the market pays for three things in order: rarity, condition, and eye appeal — but eye appeal can move a piece from one price tier to another.

A common brass Elder store card in average condition might sell for a modest price regardless of toning. A silver Elder, especially a known silver striking like DeLorey-96 or a Knights silver, is already in a different market. Add natural rainbow or target toning with original luster, and you can see premiums of 50% to 200% over a white example, depending on the buyer pool. Add artificial toning, and the piece becomes unsellable to advanced buyers at any price until it is conserved.

Premium Tiers I See in Practice

1. Light gold or light grey natural toning: Small premium, 10-25%. Collectors view it as honest and attractive.
2. Album halo or target toning: Moderate premium, 25-75%. Very desirable for display.
3. Monster rainbow toning with luster: Large premium, 75-200%+ on silver. This is where Elder silvers become trophies.
4. Dark bag toning: Often no premium, sometimes a discount if it obscures details. Natural but not pretty.
5. Artificial toning: Negative premium. Advanced buyers will pass or offer melt-plus until conserved.

Sellers should learn to photograph toning honestly. Use a single light, show the piece at two angles, and include a straight-on shot and a tilted shot. Buyers who see that honesty will pay more because they trust the description. Sellers who use only one perfect photo and hide the tilt are inviting returns.

A Buyer’s Checklist for Toned Elder Tokens and Medals

Before you bid on that next Elder piece — whether it is a DeLorey-88 Dickeson restrike, a DeLorey-9 ANA medal, or a silver Confederation — run it through my checklist. I have used this for years when I examine pieces at shows and in auctions.

• Identify the metal first: Brass, copper, and silver tone differently. Judge color by metal, not by Morgan dollar standards.
• Check for luster under color: Tilt under point light. Original luster should cartwheel beneath natural toning.
• Look for pattern logic: Does the color make sense for bag, album, or envelope storage? Random perfect color makes no sense.
• Inspect high points: Natural toning is worn on high points. Artificial toning is often perfect there.
• Examine recesses: Residue, pooling, or unnatural darkness in letters suggests chemical treatment.
• Verify the die pairing: Elder reused dies constantly. A Knights reverse with a Confederation obverse is DeLorey-93; with a 1776 obverse it is DeLorey-92. Toning cannot fix a misattribution.
• Ask about provenance: Ex-Ostheimer, ex-Shevlin, ex-Snider, ex-Gabriele provenance often explains album or envelope toning and adds credibility.

If a piece passes all seven, you are likely looking at natural toning worth a premium. If it fails two or more, budget for professional conservation or walk away. There will always be another Elder. Elder made thousands of pieces, even if he lied about how many were in silver.

Conclusion: Collectibility and the Honest Surface

Thomas L. Elder remains one of the most fascinating figures in American numismatics — a dealer who was witty, prolific, controversial, and often dishonest about mintages, but who left behind a body of work that is endlessly collectible. His tokens and medals, cataloged by CaptHenway in the DeLorey reference and by Hibler and Kappen as So-Called Dollars, survive in brass, copper, and silver, struck by Hanson and others, paired and re-paired with dies from Dickeson, Eglit, and beyond.

For the toning specialist, Elder material is a master class. Rainbow toning teaches us about thin-film chemistry. Bag toning teaches us about storage history. Album toning teaches us about the collectors who preserved these pieces before they were fashionable. Artificial toning teaches us to be skeptical when rarity and money combine.

My final advice, from years of examining Elder pieces in hand, is to collect the surface, not just the story. A unique silver claim means nothing if the color is fake. A common brass store card with beautiful, natural envelope toning means everything if the color is honest and the eye appeal stops you in your tracks. Beautifully toned coins can fetch massive premiums, but only when the toning is real, the luster is original, and the story matches the chemistry. Learn to read that story, and Elder’s work will reward you far beyond the price you paid.

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