I just bought a roll of "lightly spotted" 1996 ASE's for $679.80 ($33.99 each) ... most of the coins look ok to my eye ... but a few are tending towards homely. Can anyone offer any advise on dipping the 5 coins at the bottom of this 20 coin photo (larger photos of these marginal coins are below). Would it be ok to dip these more homely 4 or 5 coins ... or would i be better off forgetting about it? If a quick dip is ok ... does anyone have a recommended brand of coin dip? Or are they all the pretty much the same? Finally, will dipping remove "spots" ? (the spots on many of the better coins just spots of haziness tending towards opaque). I am not totally sure what caused the spots.
Personally I'd forget about it. Kinda curious though why you'd pay such a premium. $8 a coin premium seems a bit much.
If I were dead set, I'd get a bottle of E-z-est and dilute 3:1 with water: http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/e-z-est-speedip-10-ounce.html Practice on valueless coins until you get it down. It will only take a second (or less) to perform a dip. Don't forget the acetone and/or distilled water rinse either! If you don't completely remove all remnants of the dip (and quickly) the coin will suffer -- and evidence of this will often take months to appear.
Highest over spot in my locale is 6$ for ASE's, I cringe when I pay 1.25$ over spot for generic 1oz rounds. I'm sure silver will hit 34$ eventually, but I prefer to just make money on 1oz bullion rounds, because when you sell you sure aren't going to get a 8 dollar premium from a coin store. And if you do, tell me where it is and I will fly to sell to them.
The premium over spot is too steep for me to consider for these, regardless of what folks on eBay or elsewhere are willing to spend. I do not 'collect' bullion but recognize there may come a time when these coins garner a numismatic premium throughout the market and not just to some folks. This just goes to show that people are willing to pay more for bullion than they are worth to the 'bullion investor' of ASEs, which goes along with examples I gave counter-point to in mikenoodle's recent opinion thread on certified bullion. Now, as for cleaning these, I wouldn't. Doing so might, after all, hurt their future potential numismatic collectibility. You may end up 'damaging' them by trying to clean them even though they may at first look nice to you. So think long and hard about it and read everything people talk about in the threads about how to and when/why to do so or not do so. With that, Acetone and Distilled Water as detailed in many other threads by Doug, following his steps--> carefully. There is also a rather swift acting cleaner you can consider but should be cautious with using (test it on junk silver first!)MS-70 The best advice, is that if you want bright clean white looking coins, buy them that way to begin with so you don't have to fool around with ideas of cleaning anything. This is especially so with ASEs, as there are scads of them for you to buy.
The 1996 is the "Key Date" for ASEs, if bullion coins can have a key date. So buying them $8 over spot really isn't that bad a deal, I've seen them go btw $40-60 typically. As far as cleaning or dipping them, I wouldn't.
Hey thanks for all the feedback ... I am taking the consensus advice and skipping the dip. Thanks for everyone's input! As for the premium ... it was just a little gamble. I could have bought an UNC roll 2010 ASE's for $600. I paid an extra $80 total to get a roll of the key date of the series. I was hoping that maybe in 20 years this key date might be worth more. Who the heck knows! In any case, to me it felt like I was only gambling with $80 (which is no big deal to me) I have taken stranger gambles! Like hoping my 1806 Draped Bust Half appreciates over time.
So I don't start a new thread: Is there any particular way to dip silver nickels. I've got a couple that are beautiful but have black on the reverse. They are UNC and *almost* full steps (couple hits on them but all 6 are there). I did a thread search and came up with nothing.
Ahh ... a better solution ... The company that sold these to me just emailed me that I can return the coins I dont like and they will send me replacements. A much better solution ... dipping makes me nnnnerrvous as when doing some internet searches i read a lot of horror stories. I will ask them if they can try to pick out some replacement coins that look better. It's funny but I bought this roll back on November 4th for $680 ... since i sent a check and they had to wait for clearance ... i just got the shipment today. I just checked their web site again and the "lightly spotted" rolls of 1996's are now going for $880 on their web site ($200 more than what i paid) Looks like i bought these at the right time. Hey thanks for everyone's input ... i really appreciate your time and insight.
It's a good thing you skipped the dip because the white or opaque spots wouldn't have come off anyways.
And a roll of '96 UNC's at $830 (with 23 bids) on eBay with over a day to go... http://cgi.ebay.com/ORIGINAL-ROLL-1996-AMERICAN-SILVER-EAGLES-/300494110834?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45f6d84072
I hear you jloring, This roll of 1996's fired off for $1,066 with 23 bids ... a few days ago http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400172203207&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT I don't think i would ever reach that much
