What do others here do with miscellaneous milkspotted silver coins and rounds? I was thinking of looking through what I have and culling any I can find that are spotted. Some options off the top of my head: (a) keep them and sell them as junk silver if the spot ever increases substantially (b) sell them cheaply now and buy other silver now (assuming anyone actually wants cheap silver coins with spots) (c) take them out of capsules and leave them exposed so they "antique" or tone
depends on what coins are they.Im ok with toning(like most of us here) but dont like milk spots at all.Id sell them quick before the disease spreads to other coins :lol:
I'm holding onto some spiders with a plan to melt them down one day. Looks like theyre sitting on a pool of milk... But hopefully they tone before then.
Soak them in HP sauce for a few hours then buff them with a soft Dremmel wheel with a dab of "auto-sol" Any milky coin will become "proof like" without too much effort!
Wow. That bad? Why make them if they are going to fall into the same category as maples, and piss people off? Way to go Perth mint.
Same reason the RCM still does it, its just bullion and not numismatic coins. Or atleast thats line they use for an excuse to continue their cheap sliver blanks processing procedure. I actually am starting think they do it on propose to keep numismatic collectors from switching from the high priced numismatic coins to bullion, I mean some of these so called bullion coins are really nice, but the milk spotting kills it for collecting other then for just stacking for the sake of stacking. Its a conspiracy i tell you.
Maybe we can work out the full process used for antiquing coins like the Gods of Olympus series, then artificially antique any coins that get milkspotted?
Boy, this thread sure is encouraging! I've been buying a tube each of Perth Lunars and Kooks every year for a while now. I just put them away, without opening them or even looking at them. Now I wonder if I'm sitting on a pile of tubes of spotted coins and I'm having some serious doubts about continuing to buy my annual pair of Perth tubes. This thread strikes me as a great encouragement for quantity stackers to move into low-premium bullion coins (that have an established reputation for rarely being spotted) and generic .999---where spotting has little or no meaning or effect on value.
Hey Fat Freddy, I don't think any silver coin, be it bullion or collectible, is risk free from spots. Unfortunately. I do think the chances are mitigated a fair bit with collectibles, because they do a better job at quality control. But it's not flawless. I've seen spots on collectibles PM coins. I have a ton of Perth Mint lunar and kook coins too. Luckily they've withstood the test of time, and are, for the most part, spot free. However, I keep them vacuumed sealed, in intercept bags, in airtite containers, and inside the airtite containers I have heavy duty moisture and air absorbers. Have to do my part in helping the knuckleheads at the Perth Mint!!
I hear you but like you said, QC isn't flawless. There has even been some spotting on Libertad proofs (GASP)! It's rare and the few spots are very small, but it can still happen. I've always been a proponent of a diversified and balanced stack (part .999 generic, part low-premium gov't coins and part semi-numismatic), but seeing widespread qualitative deterioration in recent years is getting discouraging and my attitude is starting to shift away from semi-numismatic. Royal Mint Britannias have gone all to hell with mint and post-mint damage, a little bit of spotting has shown up on Lib proofs, there was a thread here about spotting on Perth Lunar kilos, etc... This is in addition to the already strong spotting history of the Austrian Phil, the horrendous spotting history of the CML and the recent Perth FunnelWeb Spider spotting problem. Yikes! I know the standard, pat excuse is "It's only bullion, so you're not allowed to expect anything", but I don't buy that. Unless a coin or bar is articulately advertised and sold as being damaged &/or spotted, I expect it to not be horrendously damaged or spotted. The thing with low-premium gov't coins and generic .999 is that if spotting does show up, you'll suffer no loss with the generic and minimal if any loss with low-premium coins. I'd hate to be the owner of any of those crazy ~$100/oz fancy things when they start developing spots. Say hello to taking a hellish beating and reselling for close to spot! The biggest problem with spotting is that we have no control over when or whether or not it'll rear it's ugly head. Spotting is the result of a deficient rinsing procedure during the refining/minting process and all the storage precautions in the world will do nothing to stop it from developing. It can develop early in the life of a coin but it can also develop later on, without regard to storage precautions used. Storage precautions can be effective in preventing toning but not with spotting and once spotting develops, the only way to remove it is by abrading the surface of the coin, which will leave scratches. The funniest (?) thing of all is that I can't remember ever hearing one complaint about spotting on cheap generic .999 stuff. When was the last time you heard somebody moaning about spotting on Sunshine, OPM or GSM 1oz bars? I have a pile of old Engelhard stuff and there isn't a spot to be found. Engelhard is hot stuff today but when they were in production, they were just one more private mint producing .999 consumer bullion. It seems the semi-numismatic producers should take a lesson from the guys who crank out the cheap stuff. IMO, holding down production costs during refining/minting and putting out spotted coins is a really bad idea, but it's a great way to drive stackers away from what you're trying to sell.
