I bought a tube of the RCM 1oz 99.99% pure silver, 2012-dated Moose from the Wildlife series. It is limited to a mintage of one million coins so am I correct that is considered 'semi-numismatic'? Dealers are asking 50% over silver spot for this coin. The LCS is asking 60% over spot. What premium over spot do you think would be reasonable for me to sell them privately? The same as the dealers are asking or less? A few in the tube had 'milk spots'. Does milk spots reduce the value of the coin and by how much? I understand it's rather common with the RCM, but I didn't expect it to be on coins with such a premium. A few of them have an impact mark where the jimping on one coin impacted the surface or a tiny scratch. How much does this reduce the value of the coin? To say the least I'm not very impressed by this. I had (incorrectly?) assumed that when buying from a reputable dealer, every coin of this tube of 'semi-numismatic' bullion would be in 'mint' condition!
In my opinion the RCM silver wildlife is just a bullion play. They lost any chance of being semi numi when milkspots started appearing. The wolf, the first in the series was quite expensive but the rest of the coins are meh. Saying that I have a few of each, they are slowly developing milk spots. Some people don't mind milk spots, some people do. Scratches de value the coin a fair bit, and one million mintage is not rare . Scratch will make the price lower. As for tubes being mint it's hard for the dealer to check them.
Lol. If you tried selling them to the dealers, most you will get is spot (or below spot in most cases). So don't bother with RCM bullion coins as a semi-numi play. Even their 1.5oz coins aren't doing that well. If you want to do semi-numis play, try looking for older year lunars (not snake or horses or goats) at prices close to spot.
If your question really amounts to whether milk spotting on a silver coin ruins any and all semi-numi value then my answer is no, not necessarily. If you are wondering if specifically, the RCM 2012 bullion Moose coins have gained semi-numi premiums...then my answer is, I don't know. 1 million minted, relatively speaking, is not low mintage for a coin. Now sure, when compared to BU silver Canada Maple Leafs (SCML), ASE's, and BU silver Pandas as three examples, then yes, 1 million is low but the silver Panda, SCML, and ASE are sort of anomalies in terms of their very large mintage numbers for pure silver coinage. The more popular a modern uncirculated BU silver coin becomes, generally the higher premiums they will fetch and concurrently, the more likely they could then fairly be considered semi-numismatic coins. The Perth Mint Lunar series appears to be a perfect illustration of this. Their premiums tend to rise quickly and tend to maintain well from what I have seen especially certain popular Lunar Animals and often certain first year of series coins. .
I think semi-numismatics is a sales tactic to sell bullion products at higher than bullion premiums. It is pretty much a meaningless phrase, akin to 'lean' or 'lower fat' on a food product. The real proof is in what you can get when you sell it back to a coin shop, if they won't offer more than bullion then that is probably all it is worth. They will happily slap the label 'semi-numismatic' on anything to increase the price tag . As to your questions. Are the Local Coin Shops shifting coins at those prices or are have they just been sitting on the shelves for the past two years? You can ask what you want for a coin but if you want a realistic price you need to know what they are actually selling for. Coin shops have overheads, rent, staff, electricity etc. so we expect to pay a little extra for their products and in return we expect to get a wider range of choice and some comeback if anything goes wrong. For a private sale we don't expect the same level of service and so we wouldn't expect to pay as much either. Prices based on eBay sales usually include up to 12% in fees to eBay and Paypal. So if you get the same price as they sell for on eBay you have managed to do better than the people selling there. If you want a quick sale drop the prices slightly or offer a discount for buying in bulk, if you are not in a rush you can test the prices and if nothing sells you can just drop the prices a week later. Prices are usually based on three criteria, Rarity, Condition and Desirability. The Canadian Wildlife was quite a popular series, people seemed to want the whole set. So they are quite desirable. They made a million of them so not super rare, I have some and I have never consciously set out to buy any, I have no idea where they came from. So they are not particularly rare for this type of product. The condition is important though. If I have two coins on offer to me at the same price, and one has milk spots and scratches and the other doesn't, then I am probably going to buy the one in the best condition. If I want one in pristine condition I have a million of them to sort through so there is no real pressing need for me to grab the first one that comes along. You will need to mention all the detracting marks otherwise you are likely to get them returned to you and this can involve additional costs and result in a bad reputation. Personally I would offer ones without milkspots at a ridiculously high price and then offer the milkspotted ones at the price you would like to get for the coins, people will see the high price of the good ones and might decide to get the bargain discounts instead. You can always ask for more money for the non milkspotted ones because they are relatively rarer but they could also develop milkspots later, a risk the buyer will have to acknowledge and accept as there is no way that you could know which ones may go on to develop blemishes later. The buyer can decide if the the extra money is worth paying to get a top quality coin. Semi-numismatics are not held to the same rigorous standards as actual numismatics so dealers will not be checking the coins individually, that is up to you to do so before purchasing them if possible. You can always state at the time that you don't want any with detracting marks but you should still be checking them all. If they are sent by mail and you are unable to check them first it is even more important to let them know before hand that you are only looking for coins at a certain standard. It saves them the time and cost of having to replace coins. Never assume that they have the same standards as you have and don't expect them to know your standards if you haven't told them.
The wildlife series can be considered semi numismatic, yes. There is demand for good gradable examples of each, as you can probably gather - not as common as it should be. Wolf and bear are the bigs ones, moose, maybe $5-$7 over spot in Australia. It'll probably half any premium you expect to get at the least. depends on severety but you'll lose most premium you would expect to gain from a good example. I would expect perfection from pandas, kooks and lunars. I wouldn't buy a tube of wildlife coins and expect perfection.
