I've purchased 3 of the 5 oz. America the beautiful coins and have had to send 2 of them back due to condition. The shipping and insurance costs really eat at me. How common is this?
When I spend that kind of money on a coin I plan on keeping it for some time. I'm not concerned about it's melt value and do expect the coin to be in top condition.
I just sent back my 4 2010 Silver sets for having really bad condition of the Presidential coins. I hated to have to do this because that adds almost 25.00 to my costs for them and although I asked for replacements, I have no idea if I will get good sets in return. I can't really afford to send them back a second time, either for replacement or refund, because I'd still be out my shipping/insurance costs no matter. But others have said that their sets were really nice, so maybe it's just haphazard.
I just bought 3 2010 sets and 4 2011. I haven't looked at them too closely (I'm afraid to) but I too received at least one set of each year with one "water marked" President. I'm going to look at them more closely. I doubt that I will return them.
"Water marked" is kind of a good way to describe what I saw. Some are just brown discoloration spots, and some is kind of streaked, like chaw juice (tobacco spit). Either way, it does lower the numismatic value of the coin, and I can't tell if it's on the coin or was inside the container, and am unsure if it will migrate a bit. Hard to explain if you haven't seen one. And since I don't like poor numismatic value for "new" issues (government sealed) I took the chance and returned them. But probably will keep whatever they send to me as a replacement.
My 2011 Silver proof set came with 2 cracked plastic cases. I was really disappointed.....its like they are making this stuff in China or something.
What is wrong with Garfield? Here is a photo of President Garfield from one of my silver 2011 sets. I have a few presidents with this kind of residue. Anyone know what this is? Coolant that was splashed on by machinery and not removed? Hondo53 - what was the issue with the 5oz?
I think its more the poor quality in american work that has brought this country down in the last few years.Workers once had pride in what we produced here but today its all about how many can be turned out in a days work.Even down to our kids education America is slowly shameing what was a great nation and took pride in the products we produced.You only need to look at kids today and see the real finished product.
Ever thought about hitting up the gift shop at the Philly mint? I know at the Denver Mint you want someone to circle the block in the car while you run in and do some cherry picking... To be honest I don't even know if you can buy the mint set at the Philly mint? I know the Denver mint does all the packaging of mint sets, so I can only say Denver has them. I also know guys who pay a small premium on Ebay to be assured of a good set, and some of us have good coins, but have all kinds of dust in the cases and we have to play operation on someone elses QC (Union Mint Worker)... I guess another option would be to order five sets, put together two, and send three back.
