Mint sealed coins with damage!???

This Baseball HOF dollar just came in the mail yesterday. It's in OGP and the capsule appears sealed and not tampered with. I was surprised to find a rather visible mark above the O in "ONE" which I confirmed with my loupe is a depression in the metal. Is it common for mint products to have these types of issues? At first I thought it could have been mishandled later but I don't think the capsules can be opened?

I would have expected a bit more quality control...

 

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Yes, it's common for mint products to have these types of issues. Very common in fact. They mint scads of everything they produce and have a lot of automated production steps to manage such volume while keeping human labor costs at a minimum to make a profit selling pretty bullion. The result is poor quality control, and such problems are statistically prone to happen at such volume.

Yes, the capsules can be opened. How do you think they go from OGP capsules to TPG certified holders...

The question is, are you going to accept the condition you received this in or return it to the seller as it doesn't meet your expectations?

 

I guess that's why 70's demand such a premium.

 

Actually 70's can and have displayed similar issues the only way is to examine a coin in hand.

 

Here is a 2005-S KS SQ Silver Proof that was supposedly processed by hand.

 

Somebody didn't wash their hands after using the restroom...

 

Actually the bigger reason is registry sets. There's also the claim of having the "perfect" coin, but registry sets are what create the insane prices.

 

Yes quality control by the Mint has gone way down even with the High Tech technology they have. Human will always make this kind of mistakes. I have gotten to the point of returning anything anymore since they have removed the Free returns longtime ago. Unless the coin cost much more then I have to return it for better one and that is Not always guarantee from the US Mint. I don't believe that will ever change cause of the shipping return cost from us.

 

Not every coin can be a 70!

 

Registry sets get far to much credit for prices than they deserve. There aren't more registry sets than 70s, not even close. People wanting the best is what created the prices for 70s.

 

I normally stick to classics and don't buy many moderns, so this thread has been a good learning experience for me. Until now I didn't realize that mint packaged coins can have imperfections that are easily noticeable, as I naively thought their quality control was better than that. Now I can see why some people are willing to pay a premium for 70's.

Since so many moderns are getting slabbed, I wonder to what extent the coins still in OGP have been picked through? Even so I would rather have a coin in it's original holder that hasn't been messed with even if it isn't quite perfect. But now I understand why some would prefer otherwise. The modern slabbing craze makes a bit more sense to me now.

 

A lot of them are in all honesty. Especially from the big boys the ones being raw are generally grading rejects. As time goes on they may turn some over raw that come in the door raw but right off the bat they're usually grading rejects. But yea the mints quality control leaves a lot to be desired at this point

 

Registry sets are absolutely the reason for the insane price difference from 69 to 70. By insane I mean 2.5-3x (or greater). It's measurable too. Go look at the popular registry sets and you can see the price difference from 69 to 70 is greater than the price difference between non-popular registry sets.

Even though the pop report might show more 70's than registry sets, that does not mean there are more 70's available for purchase.

Furthermore, most collectors know the difference between 69 and 70 is virtually indistinguishable. They pay 3x more for the sweet top pop bonus.

Now naturally 70's would be more expensive because of the higher grade. I even mention that in my original post. I'm referring to the substantial increase from what would be considered a logical increase.

 

Since I work in quality assurance I guess I really should know better. Even though I encounter quality issues every day in my own company and industry, I tend to assume that nobody else's processes are as screwed up as the ones I'm dealing with. But whenever I get exposure to another company or industry I'm ALWAYS proven wrong.

So now I'm getting the same rude awakening with coins.

 

It happens........back when these baseball coins came out, I was one of the first in line to get them. And then they sold out. What I received was truly perfection.

Fast forward a few months, and all of a sudden the mint had more of these coins to sell. Must have been all the returns from the first run, right? You betcha. The three coins I received were all flawed in some manner, but I didn't care. I wasn't expecting quality as I knew I'd be getting someone elses' return. In fact, I turned one into a pocket piece.

 

Oh, and that mint capsule if quite easy to open.......just find the seam on the edge of the capsule and run a pen knife along it until you gradually separate the two halves.

 

hi - i have not had to pay any out of pocket expenses associated with returning products to the u.s. mint - within the last 60 days, i have have returned numerous products back to the mint for replacement - i called their 800 # and asked them to email me a postage prepaid shipping label......which they did each time - sometimes the replacement, were in worse shape then the original shipments - and back they went - again, at THEIR expense.......

 

When I had to return coins, they said that they would cover return shipping if the coins had a problem (as opposed to "I decided I didn't want them"). However, I understand that they can cut you off if, in their opinion, you're abusing the return policy.

I got them to send me a check for the expense of returning gold Kennedys via heavily-insured Registered Mail, tens of dollars. For an anniversary set of four silver Kennedys, I didn't bother. (The gold ones all had haze, and some had fingerprints or other problems; the silver ones had various issues.)

 

You're lucky. I've been trying to get a check from them for return shipping since having to send back badly scratched up baseball coins. Also get told a supervisor will call me back to handle it and they never do