Do milk spots show up immediately, or do they develop over time? How do you know when a coin is safe from milk spots?
I suppose this raises two questions. 1) Where did the blanks come from? RCM? and/or 2) Where were the coins minted, ie were they outsourced? Unlikely to have been minted outside Perth, but the q has to be asked. Especially the high qty in a relatively short period of time compared with mintages of other PM 1oz product. Regardless it is a great success for Perth mint, if quality control can be maintained on the other more premium products. With Dubai refinery opening (and minting inevitable) they have to establish a higher qty market share, or start minting the Dodo.
Leave at least one sealed: It will still be mint/unc/unopened condition and any incidental spotting or scratching you can say is mint related with your unbroken seal as proof. Also in the process of transferring to capsules you may cause or expedite any spotting.
You people are winging about the quality of a bullion coin :/ Now this is madness http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2014-P-A...?pt=US_World_Coins&hash=item20e6d0f8ab&_uhb=1 I'm not touching them
'Early Release' and an "Exclusive Label" what's not to love?!! Someone out there will want an MS70 to add to their collection. If they were advertised with milk spots I am sure no one would have grounds to whinge.
This is really a shame. Specifically, shame on Perth Mint! I had hoped this was going to be the beginning of another winning new series (like the Kooks and Lunars) and I was going to be getting in on the ground floor and collecting the whole series from the very beginning. Now this looks like another of life's cruel jokes played on me by an unkind fate. That notice in the Provident website is an eye-popper. I don't think they ever put up a notice like that before. They're saying "These coins are howling, rabid dogs, we take no responsibility for that sad fact and our ordinary customer service policies don't apply to this train wreck" with a (very slightly) less indelicate choice of words.
I think it's a load of rubbish - I've personally put about 500 of these into capsules and other staff at Gold Stackers would have done many more (one of our staff is actually a trained numismatist) - we've culled TWO coins out of several thousand that have been handled individually straight from tubes. One with spotting similar to the photo in this thread, one with an obvious large scratch. It's entire possible that a few slipped through, but to call these coins "blemished" from tubes is a misnomer, and in my opinion just a dealer covering their bases to avoid fussy collectors trying to return bullion coins that aren't "perfect". Perth make their own blanks. These are being referred to by the mint as commercial bullion strikes, they are not the same grade of minting as Kooks or Koalas - it is apparent on some coins that there has perhaps been dust contamination on the die resulting in minor dots or specs appearing on coins, but only issues that would affect someone seeking an MS69/70 grading - they are still mint condition coins that are what they are - an unencapsulated low premium silver bullion coin.
GP---Here's hoping you're right! I've got over a tube of Crocs on the way, so I'll see what mine look like when they get to me. The Provident notice is unsettling, though. I don't believe they've done notice like that before---not even for those famously milk-spotted, mint-damaged Maples. Provident is a solid, reputable vendor---one of the best in the US. I don't know why'd they'd post an alarming notice like that unless they had what they saw as due cause to do so. At any rate, I'll see what I'll see when I get my Crocs.
They have done that before with the ATBs--saying only selling in Monster boxes with no returns---think they re-canted later though
Yeah, you're right---I forgot about the ATBs. Anyhow---My Crocs got here and they aren't bad, but they do have the visual appearance of inexpensively-made coins. The degree of relief on both sides of this coin is extremely shallow. It's like a new classification of bullion coin. We had "regular" bullion coins and there were those specially-made (and costly) "high relief" issues and now the Croc is what I'd call a "shallow relief" coin. The relief doesn't compare to Lunars, Kooks, ASEs, Maples, Philharmonics, Libertads, Britannias, Pandas or anything else I'm familiar with. Most of the background surfaces are a frosted finish, so I don't think milk spots will show very much on the backgrounds. I got a tube and five loose ones. Each of those five has minor surface imperfections and one has a minor scratch on the Queen's hair, but the total of all of that is nothing I'd complain about in low-premium bullion coins. Those little problems don't hold a candle to the ordinary mint damage on Maples. There's enough empty space in the tube for another two coins, which is not good because that leaves the coins in the tube bouncing around freely. First glance opinion on the Croc --- I got what I guess I should expect for the price and I can't complain about the condition of the ones I inspected. However, for my tastes---in the future, I'll pay the higher premiums and stick with the Lunars and Kooks. They're better made and better looking (which you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out, and which they should be because you're paying for it).
There seems to be a lot of speculation about milk spot on these coins but how many people have actually had this problem you all seem so quick to react to something that may be nothing more then just a few out of hundreds of thousands of coins that MAY have imperfections. There are many people saying kooks and koalas are better but I have had some of these with milk spot too so should we start bagging them too now.
Yeah, the unsettling part of this whole discussion is, provident putting that 'label' warning that they may come with imperfections to cover their arse on returns. I haven't seen them do that on other coins...I guess there was a time for the ATB...but seriously, this ain't a good message...I guess if you treat the coin as a pure bullion, and don't expect to gain the premium back when selling. cause it ain't happening, IF in fact it has scratches, and white spots AND it is highlighted by the seller.
Provident only puts such disclaimers on specific bullion they've seen have issues, like the bullion ATB coins. So the disclaimer should be used to lower expectations if you plan to order the crocs, if you end up with some that are scuffed or spotted, you've been forewarned. We managed to pick 5 up yesterday below spot after ebay/paypal promotions so if ours show up less than pristine, we won't mind
I will agree with you that Provident is covering their butts on this one. It wasn't too long ago that they were not going to sell individual ATBs, as they stated they got too many returns due to the quality of the product. It's pretty simple to me. People buy from them for the prices they offer in hopes of getting a "70" quality coin. When they find a minute imperfection, they send it back hoping they'll get somebody to go thru a bunch of them to get them the perfect coin. They're not set up to do that, so they put up the disclaimer to discourage the cherry picking consumers they have. Lastly, it's a bullion coin for heaven's sake...
