So Tired of Milk Spots On Graded Coins

I don't purchase many slabbed coins. Most of the coins I own are modern silver. Every once in a while I see a decent deal on a coin I want and it is slabbed, either by PCGS or NGC, so I get it, usually on ebay.

For the small number of coins I get this way, I have noticed a rather high number of them are milk spotted. Also, let me say all of the coins are 69-grade.

My question is this: how can a coin have milk spots and still be given a 69-grade by the "primo" TPGs? Do they just have lousy standards or am I expecting too much?

I would bet there are even grade-70 coins with milk spots. Why are the TPGs not more critical of these appeal-diminishing critters?

 

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Sometimes they develop after the coin has been encased.

 

Couldn't agree with you more. But as John said, they could have developed after being encapsulated.

 

I've read the milk spots don't affect the grade of the coin. But most do develope after they were graded.

I bought a new grizzly coin on provident after my previous one developed the milk spots. The new one was perfect with no problems at all. A year later, milk spots.

 

What exactly is it that causes these milk spots?

 

Improper rinsing at the Mint

 

You find a lot of that in the mint sets of the 70's and 80's. You'd expect the mint to take a little more care with ASE's though.

 

Who said we, (I), did?

I imagine their fallback would be, "well its that way from the mint, so its the same as weak strike, worn dies, blah blah blah blah".

 

I guess all of those mushy, lacking details MS64's I have seen over the years, (and much higher), just are my imagination.

Just take SL quarters and the FH designation. If the die was SUPPOSED to have a full head, by definition EVERY SINGLE non-FH coin is from either a weak strike or a worn die. Wouldn't that be correct Doug? How high of a grade can a non-FH grade?

 

I'm not a collector of foriegn coins so my question comes from lack of exposure. Do foriegn mints have the same problem? If so, are their washing procedures the same? If not perhaps it's a planchett problem. Do world mints use the same resourse for planchetts as the U.S. Mint? Maybe it's the last 1/1000 of impurity in the silver, on the planchetts surface, that becomes visible over time?

 

Sam,

I collect a good number of foreign silver coins and, yes, they are spotted also sometimes. My experience is as follows:

1. Canadian silver is the worst. It's like they don't really care.

2. Mexican Libertads are spotted from time to time.

3. Chinese Lunar proof coins are spotted fairly often.

4. I have never found a spotted China Panda (no jokes please.)

5. I have never found a spotted Perth Mint Lunar coin.

Regarding ASEs, I haven't found too many of them that are spotted, but I'm not a big fan of them so I don't have very many.

 

Just a heads up when buying slabbed bullions' make sure they coin doesn't any show any indications of milk spots. For my experiance coins that did devolop larger visible milk spots often had small milk spots present which i could spot via loupe and seemed to grow in size (perhaps exposure to certain temperature or humidity levels?). Why do i emphasize this? Because in secondary markets buyers seem to stay heck away from spotted coins regardless of what grading it has and often see these coins selling for spot prices'.

 

Its the power$ if you spend 1-5 million a yr with a TPG like the Coin Vault<->Tel-A-Trade. etc has been for 20+ yrs they get what they want on a grade.released 1/1 any yr graded on hand graded over night by TPG that what is know as $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$power ready for sale 1/2
@spot do show up latter 2000-P+D Sac + 2006 Proof 24kt Buffalo PR-70UC are 2 examples I am sure there more if you buy from TV Coin Vault.

 

I heard there is a reward out there for the reason milk spots appear on coins.

My answer is Rat urine. Pretty obvious. Hope this helps.

 

I bought 2 2010 eagles (not proofs) while on a mint tour several years ago. After reading this topic, I pulled them out to look. One has some very small spots, the other does not. They were stored in exactly the same location since I purchased them.

Do proofs exhibit the same issue, or just the uncirculated eagles?

 

all these modern coins will show spots. silver coins milk spots pure gold coins red spots it is a matter of time. and a few years down the line people will stop penalizing grades for it. it is a natural process like toning I know lot of people will disagree and that's fine.

it is caused by high humidity 70% and up.

 

Milk spots may not be caused by humidity as mentioned earlier, Mints' claim it is due to this taken from wiki article. Humidity might accelerate this process
"A very common trait that many Canadian Silver Maple Leaf's carry, is the well known "Milk Spot." It is a baked-in blemish, that has a cloudy white appearance to it. This happens when a cleaning detergent is left on the coin, and is still present when the coin goes into a furnace to prevent it from being brittle,and it gets baked into the coin itself"

As for Red spot in Gold they are manufacturing defect and are due to impurities left behind, even 999s gold bullions' have them. Humidity has nothing to do with this, gold is an inert metal. Most modern gold coins rarely have any red spots.