Hi all, What is worth more in the forum, how damaging is milk spots to premiums paid. A perfect coin (ms69 or ms70) but it has milk spots or standard average coin ms66 with no milk spots?
I would think a that if MS69 or 70 developed Milk spots it no longer that grade If I had a choice of buying a spotted 69 or 70 against a non spotted 66 I would take the 66 everytime
LOL doesn't really matter if you are buying a Canadian Mint coin as IT WILL develop milkspots at some time. Just go for the cheapest!
Just learning but have no interest in maples. So is it fair to say milkspots mean it is valued at spot?
Maybe we're looking at it from a non Canadian angle, like wine it takes time to mature, increasing its value, if we apply that logic, then with time your bullion coins will develop milk spots from the Royal Canadian Cow, this is a sign of maturity and development of the true 99.99 milk spot is a guarantee of your purchase of a genuine rare and highly collectable object. No offers of your rare and collectable Canadian Cow products needed, I've got enough of my own, I am anxiously awaiting their maturity.
2008 Kook's market performance can explain it (Mintage of 1 oz silver is 300K). How much you think a milky one will worth? Are you happy to sell at spot?
Apologies guys, my post is one attempting humour from a increasingly bad product, what's even worse is the older maples get the higher the premium and the higher the likelihood of Canadian Cow disease.
Depending if you are more of a collector or an investor. Got fed up with milkspotted rounds paying premiums through the nose - my advice is, to buy poured silver bars at least 10 Oz of weight. No milkspots and much lower premiums. Easier to resell if you want to cash in greater amounts. Cheers, Danny
It depends on how many how big and where on the coin they are ? Remember 90% of grading is on the obverse. If you have a small 1mm milk spot on the Queens head that will drop the otherwise perfect coin to a MS66 or 65. If the same spot is on the reverse (tails) then it may be a MS68 or 69. Same is true for scratches. A spot on the edge or near the edge is less concerning than a central spot etc. For regular maples it is of no concern and people who grade maples need help.
Yup, I'm leaning towards buying silver and gold bar for investment and make my decision based on spot over long term. I'm still interested in coins as a hobby, I think it's a good way for me to keep track of prices plus have a few designs that interest me. Luckily no one mentions milk spots with the coins I like.
Thanks, I thought milkspots anywhere was death of premiums. Still very new, and know nothing about grading.
In coin collecting there are a few adages... "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten," a statement generally attributed to Benjamin Franklin (though not about coins). "Buy the best you can afford" the second one refers to the quality of a coin and it is generally better to buy a top condition commoner coin than a poorer condition, harder to find coin. Obviously when you get to rare coins you don't have a lot of choice in the matter but if you want to collect coins from the last decade where they made hundreds of thousands of them for the collector market then you should avoid problem coins. These saying were more true when people collected coins rather than modern 'numismatics', now most coins are produced at about the same grade, encapsulated and never circulate so the differences are very slight, until you take milkspotting into consideration. The modern coins which are prone to milkspotting are not that rare. They are either standard bullion coins, like the Maples or Austrian Philharmonics, in which case there are millions of them, or they are limited like the Perth Mint Lunars which were sold at a high premium. If you paid a premium to get your Lunar and it developed milk spots you are not likely to melt it down, so with the mintages limited to 300,000 there are probably still 300,000 out there. Many are in the hands of dealers or speculators, very few would have made it in to a collection and are forever off the market. If you are building up a personal collection of Lunars or other coins known to milkspot, you have to decide if you want the best collection or do you want a collection of cheaper, scruffy looking coins with low eye appeal. Eye appeal is pretty much the only reason to collect coins like the lunars, so personally I would want a collection of attractive coins for the once in a blue moon when I get them out to look at. If someone offers me a coin for my collection that is milkspotted, I am probably going to hang out for one of the other 299,999 coins come on the market that isn't milkspotted, it isn't like a rare siege coin from the English Civil war where there may only be one or two examples. The only reason to grab a milkspotted coin would be because you are in a hurry or because it is a really good price. For normal coins where there is a wide range of grade you would expect a damaged coin to be anywhere from 5 to 35% less than the same coin in undamaged condition. For coins where 99% of them are all identical and there are many out there I would expect that you would lose more. Maybe not all the way down to spot, but I just wouldn't buy a coin with milk spots unless it was going for spot. So maybe you get it cheaper but maybe you find it harder to find a buyer when it comes time to sell the coin. Maybe if someone wants to buy the complete Lunar set but one coin is milkspotted it would be a deal breaker. The only way to get around this is to ensure that either all the coins, or none of the coins, get milkspots. I would avoid any coins with obvious problems, milkspots, scratches, finger prints, ugly toning etc. You should be able to find pristine coins, in capsules, as good as the day they left the mint.
People have been dumping milk spotted CML's ( As well as CML's that used to be spotted, but are now damaged from the cleaning process ) , and getting paid just metal prices ...been making quite a few .9999 poured bars lately Gotta give em one thing though , even after melting...the bars still test as 4 nines fine on the Precious Metal Verifier.
You mean to say that all that milk collectors are crying about didn't throw off the 4 9's purity? "Milk, huh, yeah What is it good for? Absolutely nothing, uh-huh, uh-huh"
