I get it now! PM is also responsible for mum & pop dealers and re seller who buy bulk coins purely to sell at a much latter date at much higher premiums in the guise of scarcity. Now if the original buyer opened these coin rolls and checked them for quality they could have exchanged them around the time of purchase just like any other product bought. I didnt understand because I dont buy large quantities for re selling where a plastic intended for shipping material demands a higher sale premium between those mum & pop re sellers.
There used to be a time when products were faulty retailers and manufactures would say, " Sorry Sir / Madam, we apologise for the inconvenience ". These days it's, " NO WAY it's our fault " and then pass the buck. Boy how times have changed ! Yep, there is NO WAY that die fatigue or milk spotting occurs on larger Perth Mint coins. Yet time and time again evidence proves otherwise. We don't need lip service ! We need change ! So far that change is not evident. Things happen in life and mistakes happen, but too many mistakes are being made in recent years at the PM. As per usual the buyer/consumer once again is telling fibs, or this impaired bullion is a figment of their imagination, even when video or photographic evidence is provided. GROW UP PERTH MINT and acknowledge there are issues, and stop offering excuses.
UPDATE: Happy to report that the dealer is accepting a return (with return shipping on them). Will be receiving a full refund. They probably would have done an exchange, but I had brought up the potential issue of getting one just as bad (or worse), plus that I didn't think it would be fair of them to charge me for any additional shipping costs. They also mentioned that these coins were purchased directly from the mint. As an aside: Does Perth Mint ever send out known "factory seconds," as such, at a lower cost for dealers? I don't know. Aside from the abrasions, it's an otherwise nice-looking one for a modern coin. I'm also a big fan of big Kooks, when it's a great design -- which is why I'm taking my chances & ordered another one from another dealer. However, that's probably also going to be my last PM bullion coin purchase for a while.. Of course, they're always free to try to win me back as an end-customer. I don't know the numbers, but I suspect over the past 5 years or so, the mint has been experiencing some growing pains -- and as oftentimes typical in such a scenario, quality control inadvertently(?) ends up taking a back-seat..
Let's hope that when dealers start returning damaged goods to the mint the PM may start to review its quality control. Sadly I don't think for 1 second that will happen. If they were serious about quality they would have reacted differently to this post as was explained by silversearcher. This is not the first post on the deteriorating quality, scratched and damaged new coins, milk spots and other free but unexpected additions to your PM purchases. Where are the replies from the PM telling us we will fix the problem ? Where are the posts from Bron telling us we (The Perth Mint) has a problem. No no it's not us it's someone else, or it's a very rare event or its dealers handling coins badly. so don't expect this problem to be fixed any time soon.
It's the new corporate mantra across the globe: Publicly ignore it, in hopes that it all magically goes away soon enough. Sort of reminds me of an immature child closing his eyes & blocking his ears, repeating "NAH NAH NAH! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Anyway, not expecting answers from Bron, to begin with. Per his disclosure, he's just here on personal accord -- not as an official PM rep. Has every right to be here & say/do what he wants (more or less), as we all do. From what I gather, just another dude with shiny-itis. :lol: Besides, he's already stated elsewhere that he's not on the production side of things. A customer's wallet speaks louder than words, anyhow. Only language a large corp knows, really. Finally, not just an issue with Perth. Affecting quite a few mints.. But perhaps that much more noticeable on the "Perth Mint style" of coins, as it's a pretty stark contrast, aesthetically-speaking. And a number of dealers aren't helping the issue, either, with their cherry-picking en masse via TPG bulk submissions, for example, and other crappy get-rich-quick scams that end up turning off their customer base, perhaps for good. Quite a few reasons why I've been increasingly shifting away from mainstream players.. And pretty darn happy with the results thus far.
For ages I have avoided buying online due to similar stories that Ronnie and Bandito describe. Ronnie hits the nail on the head by saying the dealers need to return the goods back to mint, but that's not happening. And this blas attitude that it's only bullion is BS. I've heard similar comments. As one dealer over the phone said. "It's only bullion, so what's wrong with milk spots ?". Huh !!!! With that type of attitude the consumer has no hope of change. While both manufacturer and retailer continue to lay in bed with each other and profits keep rolling in, expect a similar behaviour pattern. As for so many people receiving so much impaired bullion online ( including myself ). I have no doubt this is a deliberate action, as buyers pick the eyes out of the perfect coins on site. The rest of the garbage is shuffled off to the online buyers in hope it's not returned. Perth Mint and dealers are not part of the solution, they are part of the current problem. As for the consumer, just move on and find bullion that's impervious to any impairment.
It's happening due to the treatment of the blanks. No more mechanical polishing - virtually everyone has moved to a chemical wash process. If RCM went back to mechanical polishing I would guarantee that the Maple Milkspots would be virtually gone overnight. Meanwhile the few I bought to hold in my hand are spotted beyond belief and they are 2015's out of the tube for 3 months.
Apparently the buzz around The Perth Mint is that the quality control team have all been sacked. So now it's up to their seeing eye dogs to do the job properly. :lol:
Silly stackers, the Queen had surgery on her right cheek just before that sculpt was made.....the Perth Mint is simply depicting true to life including suture marks and all. :lol: .
Pristine 10oz kooks are going to be rare birds this year. I saw these identical marks on several 10oz kooks and the 1kg Monkeys and 1kg kooks had consistent scratches in other areas. At least with milk spots you think you have a great coin until 1 year later . These scratches this year are pretty obvious and more difficult to blame on some fictitious filtration problems. At Apmex this poor kook is joined by its spotted Canadian cousins in the damaged section.
I was looking at 10 oz silver Perth Mint Lunar series coin quality as per NGC grading census and it seems as if most years, the quality has not been so good. Only in 2013 and 2015 do we see what might be evidence of higher quality production of the 10 oz size since in these 2 years the number of 70 graded exceeds the lower number grades: https://www.ngccoin.com/census/world/australia-lunar-series/sc-362/s10/ As for Kooks in this size, seems like quality has been shoddier but again in 2013, seems as if quality may have peaked: https://www.ngccoin.com/census/world/australia-kookaburra-series/sc-361/s10/ .
