For the copper coin enthusiast, full Red coins are the most desirable and sell for a premium over their Red-Brown (RB) and Brown (BN) counterparts. But these toned coppers can have a beauty of their own and be well worth collecting.

Copper coins thus stand in contrast to silver coins, which today are collectible whether toned or untoned. And nicely toned silver coins can be worth as much or more as untoned coins. This was not always the case, however. Even in the 1970's, a toned silver coin was given a lower grade than an untoned silver coin. Then, in the 1980's the situation reversed, with toned silver coins considered more "original" than untoned ones. Often this assessment was true, since many untoned coins had been dipped to remove the toning and thus did not display completely original surfaces. Today, toned and untoned silver coins are viewed as equals, with collecting one or the other simply a personal preference.

A valid question for collectors is will copper coins someday follow the lead of the silver coins, with attractively toned coppers bringing closer to full red prices. After all, a well-toned copper coin often has very nice red undertones or multi-colored depth to the toning. So, even though most copper coin collectors would prefer the full red due to it evoking a newly minted coin, it might be that today the premiums for red coins over toned coppers is greater than it should be, and that sophisticated collectors will more and more value the nicely toned coppers, thus narrowing the price gap.

Looking to future values, one certainty about copper coins is that eventually they all tone under normal circumstances, and perhaps high-tech methods will be needed to keep a full red coin at its red state over decades. For example, many coins in early PCGS Red holders are no longer red, having continued to tone even in the holder. And the grading services do not guarantee the color of copper coins. A purchaser of a date that is rare in full red may well find the red coin losing value with each passing decade. A toned coin, however, likely has stabilized and already displays its toned coloration, so loss of value this way is much less likely. One attraction, then, of toned coppers is their coloration is under much less risk of change in a way that lowers value.

If we investigate early U.S. coppers, we find that PCGS, for example, has certifed no red coins before 1800, and only a few before 1809. Even classic head large cents have only a few red specimens. Yet there are a number of high grade RB and BR early coppers that are amongst the most valuable of all copper coins. We'd all love to see a full red 1793 cent just as it came from the mint, but the forces of nature have made that impossible. So we have learned to love the toned coins.

Original proof classic half cents are another category where it is difficult to find nice coins with much red. Most originals have toned, and the higher grade toned specimens have wonderful irridescent toning that makes them much treasured by collectors. The same desirability applies to nice original brown Large Cents.

There are a few dozen Coronet large cents in Red, but one has to be skeptical about the originality of full red large cents. It is not until the Indian cents and Lincoln cents that one can be sure of obtaining original red coins.

Bottom line, then is that a copper coin collection that goes back in time can have more overall consistency in Brown or RB than in red, and present a more uniform appearance than those that try to include Red coins.

This consistency, combined with the toning risk of Red coins, makes the nicely toned coppers more attractive relative to red coppers than their prices currently indicate.

Take a date such as the 1914 Lincoln cent. This coin in a PCGS holder is over $5,000 in MS66 Red, less than $500 in MS66 RB, and less than $200 in MS66 BN. Is that great a discrepancy deserved among coins that are all nice enough to be graded MS66? And this is just a typical early Lincoln date. What about the very difficult 1924-S Lincoln cent, unknown in grades above MS65 at PCGS? That coin is $30,000, $2,400, and $725 in MS65 Red, RB, and BR, respectively. One thing for sure is that the owners of the Red's better take every precaution to prevent further toning. Meanwhile, the owners of the RB and BN coins of equal grade can rest easy knowing that further color change will be minimal.

Some might attribute the price differences above to relative population. But the population of Red 1914's is 15 times that of the BN and RB combined. And even the pop of the 1924-S in Red is about half the population of RB's and BN's combined. So the Reds are not sufficiently rarer than the toned coins to justify the huge price differences.

There is still another advantage to owning the RB and BN coppers, which is that except for the early coppers, the toned coins are graded more severely than the red coins. Taking all wheat back Lincolns into account, PCGS has only graded 40 MS66 BN's, 400-500 RB's, but over 75,000 Reds. Not a single PCGS MS67 BN exists, less than 30 RB's, and over 9,000 Reds. That's the total for all dates, 1909-1958. This means there is a better opportunity for "grade inflation" at the BN and RB levels than the Red's. Why, you might ask? Well, early coppers do have some very high grade BN coins which set an example of how to grade the toned coppers. After all, the only grading difference between a toned and untoned coin is that the toned has a more mellow luster compared to the untoned. Strike, marks, and other criteria are the same regardless of color.  When professional graders learn to overlook the degree of toning on a copper coin in terms of what level to grade it, today's MS66BN could turn into tomorrow's MS67BN, and thus rise in value.  That possibility is unlikely among the full Red coins.

Turning to how to assess the toned copper coin, one simply asks how nice the toning is, just like any other coin. Some copper toning has a dirty look or a grainy look. This is not good toning. But other copper toning is smooth, even, and shows surface depth with underlying color shining up through the toning depth. The latter is the type of toning to buy.

Given the relatively low population of graded toned later date coppers such as Lincoln cents, there will not be many opportunities to buy the nice toned coppers compared to the Red's. But, when the chance arises, give these coins some consideration at the comparatively low prices they bring. In future years, you might be glad you did if the toned coins get a reasonable level of positive recognition compared to the Reds.