I have been collecting coins since last August. Mostly US Mint modern commemoratives and Eagles. I am curious about some things regarding the commemorative coins. I have purchased coins from several sources; from my local dealer; ebay; on-line sellers like Hallenbeck, East river etc. and the US Mint. Many of the commemorative coins that I see at ebay and even at my local dealer have spots, hairline scratches, toning, haze, cloudiness etc. whereas almost none of the proof eagles that I see have any of these problems. I am curious to find out why this appears to be so. Is it because of the way the commemorative coins are minted or handled at the mint, perhaps someting to do with quality control; or is it because it is the way they are handled after they leave the mint by the original purchasers and/or subsequent purchasers. I have only been able to purchase the last four commemorative coins directly from the mint and they all look fine to me. No hairline scratches, no spots, haze, cloudiness etc. I realize toning could happen later. Any thoughts?:hammer: Read more: http://www.cointalk.com/blogs/mardan1/us-mint-commemorative-coin-issues-208/#ixzz0k3VsYmN5
Good morning, I clicked on your link and got a message that I was not permitted access, but to the original question, my guess is that you are buying commems from dealers that they have cherry picked the best examples for slabbing or personal collections and then have sold the rest. Only a guess, I have one la olympics commem that has the sort of hazing I think you are talking about. I bought it for bullion tho, I think it was about 14 at the time, plus the capsule is cracked, which might have let some moisture in to cause the haze.
I haven't noticed. Perhaps the dealer picked over the inventory. Perhaps collectors bought most of the decent coins and what is left over is mostly problem stuff. Once in a while a particular coin or set does have production problems, but most of the post-1982 commems that I have seen are high quality with few problems. By the way, I see you are in Los Angeles County. I can plug my local club, which folks can find by searching for: Culver City Coin Club (meets in El Segundo near LAX airport). Another active local club is the Long Beach Coin Club.
I haven't really noticed that either? Are these older commemoratives? If so, it could just be age, at least as far as the toning is concerned.
Thanks for your response. Again I want to say that I do not find these problems with the proof eagles just the commens. Someone else posted a reponse for me as well that I just read that has not had that problem either. I just received my 2010 Boy Scout coins today. 2 proofs and three uncirculated. I can see indentations in the field on one of the proofs and all three uncs have this 'dark' area near the rim and in between and on the lettering. It travels around the rim edge and lettering and is about an eighth of an inch wide. If I can get a picture of them I will send them at some point. I am thinking about sending them all back. According to you guys, I appear to be buying inferior coins. I guess I have be more discriminating.
I have commens from 1982 to 2010. Most are actually pretty nice because I return many that have problems that I can not live with. i always inquire about any problems before I purchase on ebay and have returned many coins that have the characteristics I described. I have never had to return any eagle that I have purchased because I was not satified with the condition. (The uncirculated eagles I purchase are not judged as hard as the proofs. Sometimes I purchase them close to bullion value so I can put up with a little more.) Also, my local dealer thinks it has something to do with quality control at the mint.
Could the old adage, "practice makes perfect" hold here. The mint has been making silver eagles since 1986. They make more of them and have gotten better at it. Of course, this doesn't hold true for 1986. Maybe they got lucky that year.
Thanks Chip and Chief. I appreciate your input. I think that I shall start to look for another dealer to purchase my commens from and will purchase few from ebay, Perhaps you guys can suggest a reputable online or LA County dealer. As an aside to the comments from both of you, I have had more success with the items I purchased from Hallenbeck than I have had from my local dealer. However Hallenbeck has very few of the coins that I am looking for now that I have collected a few. I have seen other dealers with online stores but the prices all appear to be retail (10 to 30% above the Greysheet price). Hey Chief: What's wrong with the mint?
QC = spots, cloudiness, hazing, scratches on coins, scratches on cases, trash inside capsules, wrong COAs, NO COAs, and lame designs .....just to get started......then theres PBGS, the shipper.......:rolling:
When we get lots of commemoratives in from other dealers or from customers they are generally not kept in the best condition where as when we buy Silver Eagles from the same people they are in much better condition. Commemoratives come in torn boxes and Eagles are pristine boxes. I don't know why this is but that has been our experience. I think people just take better care of Eagles.
I just recently photographed all my Commemoratives and I noticed something else very interesting. Every coin I have, the obverse has the majority of blemishes, spotting, flecking, nicks ect.... compared to the reverse. I could justify this in my mind with circulated coins, but in encapsulated Commemoratives, I found this rather amazing. True again of the moderns, both from the mint and other sources. Considering this is 35+ coins without an exception, I find it hard to explain.
Thanks for your comments. I am sure that the handling of some of the commemorative coins by the original and subsequent owners are part of the problem. Perhaps the capsules are opened more than the eagles after purchase to get a better view of the details. The eagles are all the same so personally I am less inclined to open the capsule unless there is an obvious flaw. I have gotten commems from all over the country and the same with eagles so climate does not appear to be a factor when comparing them. I have purchased few commems from online dealers because of the markup. The eagles I can get locally and the price for them is always at Greysheet if he has them. I have an on-line dealer also that sells them at Greysheet and the few commems that I purchased from them were close to Greysheet and also problem free. Still when I look at the Boy Scouts I purchased directly from the mint last week, I think there may be something to the quality control argument also. The only eagles I have purchased directly from the mint are the 2008 'W' that are in the 2008 unc. dollar coin set. I cannot find anything wrong with them. Beautiful!
