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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Tail-Bar

A variety of 1890-CC silver dollar has a raised die line or bar from the eagle's tail to the wreath.

Talk to Me

Tell me about this coin, or shoot me your best price.

Threes

Three-dollar gold pieces.

Three-legger

Variety of 1937-D Buffalo Nickel. After one set of dies clashed together damaging themselves, the mint technician accidentally ground off the buffalo's foreleg when he tried to repair it. While easy to counterfeit, the three-legged Buffalo when genuine displays a moth-eaten appearance on hindquarters of the beast, and a thin dappled line resembling pee descending in an arc from the little thingy hanging there under the beast's belly . . .

Thrip

Three-cent piece, employed as early as the late 1800s. Possibly first used to describe our silver three-cent pieces, for when the nickel three-cent pieces arrived in 1865, these latter were called nickels.

Tombstone Note

$10 Silver Certificates issued from 1886-1908, the portrait has a tombstone-shaped frame.

Tonguing

Sometimes, when a coin is too bright to get the grade desired from one of the grading services, its owner will dab a bit of saliva on it to dull the shiny high points. This is known as tonguing it. A similar procedure to impart dullness is thumbing or fingering. See slab.

Toning

On your wife's fine silver dinnerware this is known as tarnish. Judged from a numismatic standpoint the same form of oxidation takes on a more refined image, often enhancing a coin's value. After about 1980 the craze for attractively toned coins spurred some prehensile dealers to artificially tone their wares. These were then peddled to a naive public (oxymoron) at grades higher than their underlying surfaces called for. Beautifully toned coins in uncommon states of keeping can command upwards of many times the price of a similar bright specimen if original. Toning also hides injuries such as rub or slide marks.

A variant term is so-called tab toning, applied exclusively to commemorative silver. Many 1930s commemoratives were sent to their original buyers in small cardboard holders. The coins were kept in place by a paper or cardboard band or tab. After decades in this style of holder a commemorative will achieve distinctive toning, deeper in the exposed areas but nearly fully brilliant where protected from the air by the tab and surrounding cardboard. Such original color is often referred to as tab toning. First heard by the author in 1992 from David V. at Superior Coin and Stamp, although probably predating this by many years.

Trivia

Who was it who first brought to light the fact that the Indian's nose on a Buffalo Nickel is placed conveniently opposite the animal's butt on the reverse when the coin is flipped over?

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