Hi, For the colored bullion coins, is the coloring applied supposed to be applied over a regular bullion strike which has a significant dimensional relief of the mice on a bed of straw or are the colored coins a different, very low and smooth relief strike bullion? I purchased recently a 2 oz 2008 colored Mouse and looking at a Series 2 colored bullion coin closely for the first time, I noticed that the mice and straw lack any sharp significant relief (3-dimensionality)....they appear to be ever so slightly raised and soft/smooth. Nice colors but very little relief...I'm assuming that this is how they are supposed to be minted but I can not find info which details this. Thanks for your help.
The coins that are "pad printed" are minted using a special die that produces a flat area for the application of the colour. Soak a coloured coin in acetate etc, and you will get a coin with a flat outline with no relief where the colour was. In other words - don't try and convert a coloured coin back to a regular bullion coin - the dies are different.
I've got a coloured 1/2 ox with the colour removed. Where the colour was its a dull featureless finish. You cant remove the color to make the coin look like a bullion coin. If so all the 2oz coloured Mouse would have been de-coloured !
Right Matthew, I totally get that point. I am not interested at all in defacing in any way any colored coin I received....I just wanted to be certain it wasn't a fake that I received. But after thinking on this question since I posted it, I realize that it would be quite impractical (technology-wise) to colorize a Lunar series bullion coin because printing a detailed image on a 3-dimensional surface is just a very complicated process I can only assume. The colored dyes could only be applied to a relatively flat surface otherwise it would probably be a very costly type of printing process the other way around.
