Anyone know about this brown spot on pamp swiss gold bar?

[tjwon2013]

I just noticed that one of my Pamp Swiss 1 oz gold bar has brown spot on it.
Is this normal?

I am little worried if I had a fake one.

Anyone experienced same thing?

 

[Altima]

Here's the link to your question:

http://www.lynncoins.com/brown-spotting-gold-coins.htm

In summary, gold coins (and even pure gold bars) can sometimes develop brown (rust colored spots) on them.

Rust spots or brown spots can occur on genuine gold coins when a very faint trace of other metal adheres to the surface of the coin or bar. As the other metal is exposed to oxygen or other materials in the surrounding air (can even be the air that is in the holder) it causes that trace metal to change color.

 

[House]

It's a "strawberry spot" caused by impurities in the air during the minting process. Places like PAMP also mint other metals in close proximity so the dust (eg copper) gets stamped onto the bar surface and reacts with sulfur and other airborne contaminates.

At least you know it's real

 

[Shamatti]

I have a few bars which display these spots, it is slightly sad, but nothing to worry about. I don't think it even effects the premium, although some buyers might be less inclined to part with their cash for them. Even so - they will always be worth spot plus a little, so as long as sopt goes up and am npt worried about my investment.

 

[Pirocco]

It's a "strawberry spot" caused by impurities in the air during the minting process. Places like PAMP also mint other metals in close proximity so the dust (eg copper) gets stamped onto the bar surface and reacts with sulfur and other airborne contaminates.

At least you know it's real

Do those spots indicate the gold is real or so?
It's not like that the presence of such spots 'prove' it's gold.
And dust etc is not like a nature phenomenon that can't be influenced. Production processes / environments should do cleaning and air filtering. Stamping contaminations in a product is rather a sign of not caring much. By either personell doing a job (occasionally) badly or the production designers having decided to not care (enough).
I can't see why any potential buyer would not care about an ugly discoloration. Someone that has the choice between a bar with spots and one without, will go for the one without, and only an in a sufficient degree lowered price can change that.
So however you look at it, it's a loss.
That's why some dealers sell 'circulated' maples/ases/phils as a separate item in their shops, at a reduced price. When I noticed that they removed them again I sometimes wonder whether they sold them to the scrapper or actually found a willing buyer. Did anyone here ever buy such ugly coins, to not take them to melt?
So I'm not so sure about that 'worth spot plus a little', melt is substantially lower, and both are a loss to start with.

 

[House]

It's a "strawberry spot" caused by impurities in the air during the minting process. Places like PAMP also mint other metals in close proximity so the dust (eg copper) gets stamped onto the bar surface and reacts with sulfur and other airborne contaminates.

At least you know it's real

Do those spots indicate the gold is real or so?
It's not like that the presence of such spots 'prove' it's gold.
And dust etc is not like a nature phenomenon that can't be influenced. Production processes / environments should do cleaning and air filtering. Stamping contaminations in a product is rather a sign of not caring much. By either personnel doing a job (occasionally) badly or the production designers having decided to not care (enough).

Of course not but it is indicative of real gold as no other metal reacts in such a way. Similar to milk spots on Maples.
It's bullion they're producing, not microchip processors for space shuttles. Probably too costly and labour intensive to ensure that every single bit of dust and nanoparticle is absent from the thousands of bars they mint every day. Maybe write them an angry letter?

 

[Pirocco]

Of course not but it is indicative of real gold as no other metal reacts in such a way. Similar to milk spots on Maples.

But it's not the gold that reacts, it's the stamped on 'exo' particles. So whether those particles sit on gold, or on plastic, their discoloring won't change, no?
And as you say here yourself, milk spots on Maples, why not on bullion coins of other Mints? Doesn't that just confirm what I said: bad production / techniques?

It's bullion they're producing, not microchip processors for space shuttles. Probably too costly and labour intensive to ensure that every single bit of dust and nanoparticle is absent from the thousands of bars they mint every day. Maybe write them an angry letter?

Other producers apparently can. Why can't they?
And I don't write angry letters.
Instead, IF I was interested in buying gold, I would use this brown spot element as a reason to not buy them in the first place, and instead opt for the better performing producers.
You treated it as a 'thing to accept'.
I don't.

 

[projack]

If I had a choice to buy one like that with brown spot $10 dollars cheaper I would do it.
I buy gold bars for investment, not for beauty contest.
On a cast gold bar you could remove the spot, but on minted bars not so easy, not to mention to break the packaging seal first for cleaning would be real stupid.
Don't worry you still have 1 oz gold that would sell close to spot on this forum, brown spot or not.

 

[Pirocco]

Buys for $10 cheaper implies a sells for $10 cheaper, so I don't think it matters, at least in the case of this pamp swiss gold bar, like you say yourself: a brown spot might be removable from a cast bar, but here it's much less doable.
So end to end, it's that $10 loss if you paid full, which is the case here, unless one can convince a future buyer that the brown spot doesnt make it less worth. Apparently tjwon2013 wasn't aware of it when buying. Makes a difference eh?