Silver bullion coin - milk spots

S

SilverMike

New Member
I recently purchased two 1oz silver coins, and Canadian Maple and an Austrian Philharmonic. They both have some pretty substantial milk spots on them, which originally I did not care that much because I read that milk spots had little play in the value of the coin. But looking at them in the light I realized that I would much rather have blemish-free versions of these coins.

Tomorrow a friend from work and I are going to pick up a maple and Philharmonic for his collection and we agreed to swap coins and I would give him a couple of dollars since he is more interested in the 1oz value of the coins rather than the collectibility. So in the end it's a win-win, I was just wondering, how much do you guys care about milk spots on your coins? Would you sell a coin with milk spots for lower than the same coin without them?
 
Hi Silvermike welcome to the forum!
In My opinion for what it is worth , I would rather have coins free from any spots, but having said that both silver Maples and Philys are bullion coins and will probably never be worth more than silver spot price give or take a buck or two, Canadian bullion coins are known for developing milk spots on probably more than not and the philys have had alot of problems with this as well, the real problem is when you are paying a high premium on coins and proof coins that develop these spots .
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

Yeah, silverstar1, I'm with you on wanting spot-free coins, even if they are bullion... I'm just OCD about it. If it was meant to be shiny, it should shine! Thanks for the input.

And ironwood, I've actually seen that video but thanks for posting it in case others reading are in the same boat as me :) I tried the eraser trick on a regular quarter and it left very noticeable scratches on it, and it wasn't even very good-looking to begin with! I will try the jewelry wipe method next. To anyone trying these methods I would highly suggest using a practice coin first, wouldn't want to screw up and mess up some precious silver after all.
 
All my phillharmonica's have milk spots. It's like buying a car that produces its own bird sh!t over time.

I don't see how the creators of these coins think that it's acceptable.
 
So they can develop actual white milk spots over time? I read that it's only from the actual coin-making process. The borax on the mould or something like that. Well, looks like I'll find some shiny ones and airtite 'em up! :)
 
From what I understand it's mainly on .9999 (Especially RCM & for some reason, especially 2009!) coins and has to do with borax residue left from the minting process: When the coins are washed after minting and not hand dried, any water left on them with borax residue in it evaporates to leave just the borax...a white powdery substance.
This is the problem with massive mintage numbers: Lack of attention to detail!
I'm with everyone else: I'd sooner leave a milk-spot on a coin with good numismatic value rather than risk ruining it all together!
 
Ah, thanks for the information! Makes sense. I think in the future I'll just buy silver without milk spots in order to avoid them altogether.
 
SilverMike said:
Ah, thanks for the information! Makes sense. I think in the future I'll just buy silver without milk spots in order to avoid them altogether.
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That's assuming that the spots don't develop after you already have the bullion in your possession. That assumption wouldn't be a good one. As you asked in your previous post, yes they can develop over time.

The jewelry wipes mentioned above do work at getting rid of the spots, but in my experience they also noticeable scratch the coin.
 
Ah okay thanks db23, I'm going to try and pick up some wipes after work today. I'll post before/after pics if I can get some.
 
This is an interesting thread and subject. I am not totally convinced that all "milk spots" are caused by borax or even the same thing. The reason is if you look at different coins with the spots they can be different in appearance , some seem more of a bluish white some greyish white some just white , also some are all round and others are blotchy, while others seem to have a sort of pinpoint in the center. I have also heard many times that they can develop later on the coin , and while this may be true I have never seen it any coins I have which are perfectly clean of any spots have never developed spots and I do not think they will. Also you have to look at the coins in different lighting and different angles , sometimes you can look in one light and angle and they look perfect then looking at it in different lighting you can see slight spotting this may be part of why some people see them and think they have developed over time, or it could also be that they were slightly there and some type of substance in the environment or even moisture could react with them and bring them out more boldly.
I would really like to see someday someone with the knowledge and scientific equipment to be able to test different coins from different mints and dates with spots and come up with some real unbiased scientific results of what these actually are and how they react. I can not see how it would be profitable though so it would have to be someone that just wanted to know , a mad scientist type with lots of money equipment and time...
 
Hey silverstar1, I do agree to the possibility that people who think the spots occur over time really just see them in different angles/types of light.

That's also an interesting theory too that I hadn't heard of yet, where catalysts, if you will, in the environment the coins are kept can provoke some sort of chemical reaction with the (at one point in time) "invisible" milk spots, and make them visible.

But as you said, I guess until the mad scientist type decides to do us the favor and perform some tests, or until perhaps a mint publishes information on this type of defect, we will just have to hypothesize and form opinions on these annoying little blotches.

Instead of hunting down some jewelry wipes (the coin store I like to go to didn't have any on hand) I just got a couple of airtites. I'm content :)
 
Jewelry wipes aren't a great idea imho...
Even the most gentle cause minor abrasions to the surface of the coins....that's essentially how they work (along with various chemicals).
Airtite them & cut your losses. That'd be my course of action!
 
My 2005 Mapleleafs started out brilliantly shiny and stayed that way for years. They sold/sell them in 200 count boxes each one still sealed in the original plastic sheets. Then in 2010 I started seeing the spots. I recently took them all out of the plastic to use the jewelry cloth on them, and I like the results. I compare the ones I cleaned with the few that don't have the spots on them (for now anyway) and I can't tell the difference, although I do make sure to "go with the grain" with the cloth. It's silver eagles and silver libertads for me from now on since I've heard that the Canadian and Austrian silver coins get the annoying spots.
 
I don't care either way, it's still an ounce of Silver. I would buy discounted milk spot coins any day of the week. I would also swap my non-milk spot coins for milk spot coins if I could get a couple bucks in the process.

Silver is Silver, especially bullion grade Silver, it's all destine for the melting pot at some stage. I have seen some fake Maples from China but I'm yet to see a fake Maple with milk spots, milk spots give them instant validity.
 
tozak said:
I don't care either way, it's still an ounce of Silver. I would buy discounted milk spot coins any day of the week. I would also swap my non-milk spot coins for milk spot coins if I could get a couple bucks in the process.

Silver is Silver, especially bullion grade Silver, it's all destine for the melting pot at some stage. I have seen some fake Maples from China but I'm yet to see a fake Maple with milk spots, milk spots give them instant validity.
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Silver is silver is an argument some people make, but I rarely see those people standing behind it 100% in that they don't always go for the cheapest silver they can find no matter what. They tend to make exceptions based on whatever their likes/wants/preferences are, which is of course their business. Maple leafs carry a premium over generic rounds for example, so I would expect a "Ag=Ag it's all going to the meltpot anyway" type to never bother with premiums whatsoever to begin with. I don't mind paying a slight premium for government issued coins over rounds, but when I do I would certainly prefer coins without the spots over coins that have them, all else being equal. If spotted coins were offered at a discount, I would probably buy them over 'pretty' coins, but I've never encountered that situation.
 
if they have milk spots and there are maple leafs that dont have em, then they have a defect, hence you should pay what you pay for a generic round.
 
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