My Mt Rushmore 5oz is probably my favourite coin of anything I own, though the 5oz Libertad proofs are up there
None of them can match with the 2014 5 oz proof Britannia! OMG, this forum did cost me a lot of money.
That's one way to put it. Another way could be to say it saved you lots of money because instead of spending that money on far less worthy stuff, you have some gorgeous and valuable silver you can actually appreciate or even treasure for many years to come if you so desire not to part with it. And indeed, Mt. Rushmore is one of my favorite ATB 5 oz coin designs. Great design and because it's a huge 3" diameter coin, the design can really be appreciated. As usual though, the bullion version is prone to poor quality production and finding a bullion version in excellent condition you'd have to go through many, many, many tubes of them. The "P" version seems to have much better quality control and I suppose the extra cost to buy one justifies it. But I'm so glad the U.S. Mint didn't go with a smaller diameter 5 oz design. .
Well, I have no problem admitting when I'm wrong.. And when I was hating on these things a while back, guess I was being pretty foolish.. Because this thing is sweet! Got Smoky in today. Very impressed. Obverse, reverse, OGP.. all great. Everything is in excellent condition, too. Guess the seller had stocked up on them from the Mint when they came out.. maybe thinking spot would rise more? Because I didn't pay much over issue price. These ATB's are very much worth it. Spend the few extra bucks, and get the P version. (I still see no use for the BU's.) Nice strike, nice designs, nice finish. Awesome diameter for a 5-oz, too -- are you listening, Perth Mint? Not typically a US Mint fan, save for a few various ASE's, but they did a great job with these -- dependent on particular design, of course. Should have been buying these years ago! Everglades has already been shipped from the Mint..
Apples & oranges.. But yeah, both the Brit proof & Libertad proof are pretty hot. Actually not much of a fan of Rushmore.. Not sure what all the hub-bub's about (not just here, either). I think it's okay, but probably more in the middle of the pack, for me. To each his own..
Ive only got the BU versions and while some are average quality with marks my Mt Rushmore is great. No longer buying these without seeing the coin or picture first due to wildly varying quality
I suppose one could rightfully argue that the bullion ATB's are just that...bullion and that it's to be expected that their quality, compared to the collector version, is quite inferior. I have a few raw bullion ATB's in not such good quality and I have a few in the highest grade possible (MS69 DPL) and I will attest that the quality difference between the average ATB bullion coin and the scarce MS69 DPL grade is quite a remarkable difference. .
I just don't agree with the decisions they made at the Mint.. They should have never done the BU for any of them, and instead doubled the max mintage of the P version, and decreased the issue price a bit. Then again, I don't work there, heh.
The thing is that BU version could be much better. See the ASE BUs, much much better than the ATB BUs.
I know very little about the minting process but I have to assume that there may be some (significant perhaps) differences between minting a 40mm ordinary finish coin (ASE bullion) and 75mm nearly mirror-like finish coins (ATB bullion) in terms of how much work goes into them. After all, when you get a deep mirror proof-like ATB bullion coin in high graded condition, it makes high graded bullion ASE's look rather pathetic in comparison. What is confusing to me is the wide disparagement in quality of the high graded bullion ATB's and the straight-from-the-mint poor condition bullion ATB's. Like why can't the consistency in condition be much better? I don't know of any other non-circulating bullion coin in which there is such great disparagement in terms of condition. Let me put it this way, if I do buy more bullion ATB's, I will either only get one that I can see right in front of my eyes or I will get a high graded one....I won't get one any other way. After all, if I am not interested in high quality but only in the silver content of a product, then I can find blobs (common, non denom bars and rounds) at less cost than bullion ATB's. I do like the collector "P" version ATB's...their quality seems much more consistent and considerably better. Boy, I wish the US Mint would bring back the discounted subscription pricing for the "P" version. .
Maybe the U.S. Mint has improved their QC of production for the bu strike ATB's? The bu's used to have a reputation of having considerable imperfections from what I'd read. I have only a few raw bu's from 2013 and so I'm not really one to know first hand about the quality of the series in the bu strike. .
I bought several Everglade BU (last issue in 2014) from an ebay seller who bought his in tube. VERY LOUSY quality, foggy, milky, and small scratches, and he refused to exchange. So all I could do was to leave some bad feedback for him. Luckily, after bonus Ebay bucks offer, the price is not too bad
not sure about 2016,NOT crazy about 2015 designs. Especially #1, homestead, so boring. And the 2nd one turkey is just so so too. not good enough for me to buy. Maybe next 2-3 are ok. I like ALL 2014 ones. And earlier ones also have some lousy designs.
Did you leave negative or just bad feedback? Did the seller deceive in any way regarding the condition? If not, then I see it as wrong to leave negative feedback when buying bullion coins or blobs in which there is no specific quality claims attached or ascribed to these items. Bullion is bullion....these products are not intended to be sold or purchased for collector quality unless there is a very specific claim as per condition ascribed. Now if there was specific quality claims such as "blemish-free" then that is a different matter. I'm glad you were able to take advantage of the 4X eBay Bucks....I screwed up this time because I made a $100+ purchase on ebay but I didn't realize that I first needed to accept the offer by clicking on the link before making the purchase. I thought about contacting ebay and asking them to honor the 4 X eBay Bucks anyway even though I didn't follow the proper protocol. Do you think it's worth going through the trouble of doing that? .
Look, I sell coins on Ebay TOO! If I have any coin that have scratches or spots, I will NOT use stock photo. I usually take the picture myself for that coin, and write in the listing, the coin you see in the picture is the coin you are buying. I even mention where is the milky spots, or where is the scratch, or capsule has marks. But this seller of Everglade BU ATB used ONLY stock photo, and had NEVER mentioned coins he was selling have spots, scratches! And when I got them, I contacted him, he refused to do exchange. so what am I supposed to do, leave 5 Star feedback for him??? LOL. I do NOT know what is your standard of DECEIVING! For me, what he did was Nothing but deceiving!! I would NEVER sell problematic coins like that with nothing mentioned in the listing, and use the Stock photo only!! The seller deserves NOTHING but a NEGATIVE feedback! And yes, that was what I gave him!
I blame the US Mint for all this.. Shouldn't have produced the BU's in the 1st place! I haven't been paying attention to when & which ones, but I know there have been quality issues with at least some of the BU's. One of the reasons why I'm staying away. Maybe not relatively many & probably not to the extent of, but I know even the P versions can have issues sometimes.. Which is why I asked some potential sellers ahead of time. And a wise & honest seller would probably answer in a certain way.. Obviously they don't want to lose a sale, but they also don't want to help create any future headaches for themselves, either. You might not always get a direct answer, so sometimes you have to read between the lines. I had passed on one seller (used stock photos due to multiples) because of the way they answered.. Perhaps it would have been fine, but decided to take my chances elsewhere. And another I had deemed their answer as acceptable (again, stock photos & multiples).. Turned out that everything was in excellent condition. Even though they didn't directly state that, to my ears it was a very strong implication of such. But you do take your chances sometimes. Even when purchasing directly from the mints. Anyway, bummer about your BU's..
While I'm glad that you are more precise with your eBay listings (as I am as well), what the seller you described did is NOT deception, you simply made assumptions. Anyone who is interested in buying something has the very simple ability to ask questions before buying, including asking to have actual pictures taken and posted or sent. If the seller doesn't respond, then no one is forcing you to buy from that seller. The lack of communication began with you, not the seller. What deception is, is making claims that aren't true. The seller never did that. ATB bullion coins are not collector coins and they have always had quality problems since the very beginning. A smart person avoids assumptions by asking questions before buying. Also, I have returned some items over the years that were not as described but I have never purchased a bullion coin based on assumptions. Your assumptions made the experience a bad one for both of you. .
