Does anyone open mint sealed plastic sleeves, on single Pandas or Maple Leafs, for instance. How do you justify your decision?
It's entertainment expense. Not everything in life has to be to maximize potential profits. Some things are prettier with the plastic off.
Why terrible? Its an object. If I buy a coin for $40 I can do WHATEVER I like with it. Besides, you do know mint packaging is not always the best for long term storage, usually there are better options coin collectors have than what the mint put the coins in. In the 60's a lot of mint's put coins in PVC plastic. Eh, I collect ancients now. I get to hold, touch, and do whatever I want to my coins without fear of lowering its grade. Its very freeing.
If you have never looked at a Maple Leaf "naked" (without the plastic), you have never seen a Maple Leaf. Besides, as the poster one up from me indicated, the plastic in which Maple Leafs are packaged is NOT archival - far from it. I don't know about Pandas. I have an "attitude problem" about China.
I doubt their plastic is much better. In my opinion Pandas are best in slabs anyway with the counterfeiting problem they have, especially the low mintage dates
The pilots say if you want to restore a DC3, get Chinese parts. They fit better than refurbished ones from McDonnell Douglass fans.
Does the mint facility actually package anything? I have read that it is done outside the mint by contract company.
I will have to try and find the thread some day. The thread was about how a D-token could get into a Philadelphia cello pkg. Do you remember something like that?
