Hello, I am new to the forum, stacking, and thought I should begin to blog to help answer some questions you long time stackers will probably know the answer too. So I ordered my 20oz of 2016 Eagles in a Mint Direct tubing last week, from APMEX, (i know) and my UPS Ground delivery date was for Snowzilla- the blizzard of 2016, as I was in one of the states affected. My order was on truck for delivery that day it began snowing, but then got turned around and went back to the UPS hub. Then they redelivered mine today, and this is my first Tube stack, and as I held my tube in the warmth of my home from the freezing cold, it began to fog up so I thought I would break the seal and open it up to allow for condensation to be relieved. I have 2 defects 1. The first two coins at the top of the mint tube have defects. The first coin has a little red/brown spot on it- small, but not as large as ones seen on gold bullion coins (copper or rust). 2. The second coin had a milking spot on it. Not as large but enough to be paranoid about. So I am assuming this is a production error or could it be the effects of the weather? 1. Regardless of how the spots occurred- should I place them back in with the rest of the perfect 18 coins or seal them individually? 2. Should I be concerned about condensation putting them back in the mind direct tube now while its high humidity- I will be storing them in a low humidity room. However the humidity is very high today and I have them all laid out on a cloth. Thank You for your advice!!! Look forward to chatting with you all in the future!!!
Elo welcome to the forum I would put them good ones back, with some silica gel packs to suck up moisture, anti-tarnish strips. Check this vid tutorial of Shadow Stack. He made a good tutorial vid on how to prevent milk spots, condensation and tarnishing. https://youtu.be/BzNUVqVuChk Also have you reported to dodgy ones to your dealer?
All the desiccant paks, "anti-tarnish strips" and purportedly air-tight storage methods in the world will never do anything to prevent the possible onset of milk spots. Milk spots are caused by inadequate rinsing practices during the silver refining/minting process and the fate (milk spot-wise) of every individual silver coin has been determined long before the coin even reaches the retail market. You can take steps to prevent or lessen moisture-caused coin surface deterioration with desiccant paks and you can slow and minimize toning ("tarnish") by not exposing silver to airborne sulfurous contaminants, but there isn't anything you can do to "prevent" milk spots on your silver. I doubt the countless myths about how to "prevent" milk spots will ever go away, but seeing this ignorance passed on by people who just don't know any better is discouraging.
Thanks for the advice, greatly appreciated. I decided to air out the coins and container in a low humidity environment, and repackaged 18 of them in the tube, and ziplocked the other 2 with issues separately out of caution. I do think since they were at the top of the pack that somehow during the shipping process during these extreme temperatures and weather conditions had something to do with it, but I could be wrong. We learn as we go along, thanks again!
