Milk Spots- Are They Such a Big Deal?

If it were volatile, wouldn't it go away with time?

 

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"Volatile" takes on an entirely new meaning in a hard vacuum environment.

 

Well it was just a comment about the particular coin we were examining and not a general statement of condition of coins in general. It just took a little longer to get to the desired vacuum.

 

Never heard of milk spots being able to be removed. They're struck into the coin. As for rubbing the coin and not leaving scratches. Another one I would find hard to believe. I guess you can say I am a doubting Thomas on that one.

 

If you believe its AgCL they may be soluble in ammonia. However as with any metal remove PMD such as copper oxide or carbon spots you are left with a crater under magnification. But how bad is the crater? Perhaps some people can experiment with household ammonia and report the success with pictures: before/after.

JPL

 

Tried ammonia with different strengths and temperatures. Didn't do anything that

 

HMMM ... OK. I may need to take one of these milk spot pieces into the lab ... thanks Bajjerfan.

 

Sheesh, do these boards have a measly 20 minutes and 43.5 second edit window, LOLOL?

Anyways I posted about using ammonia earlier in the thread. Since the Ag atom in the AgCl is a part of the coin's surface, it seems plausible then that ammonia complexes, if formed would remain on the surface too.

 

I have dozens of "Brown" Ike dollars and most of them have a milky haze near the rim but appear clean towards the center. I've always assumed that something in the Mint packaging was the cause. But some also have "milk spots" perhaps from humidity?

 

Do you have a pic , as I'd like to see the spots as I don't think the haze are what they're calling milk spots .

 

If the compex is formed and soluble, it would be removed, of course there would likely be surface damage. AgCl + NH4OH --> some sort of silver oxkde?

 

The issue seems to be that the complex [if it is forming] isn't soluble partly because the Ag atom/ion is still a part of the coin's surface. A simple test would be to treat a coin with ammonia/ammonium hydroxide, wash thoroughly with pure water and use ESCA/XPS to test for the presence of nitrogen and/or oxygen.

 

FWIW, I don't believe that there is any kind of post or blog on the PCGS site regarding the reward. Also, I never did get a reply from either DH or the gal who was in charge of the Mint's Quality Control program.

Just updating my info/postings to this thread.

 

I would think so. To the best of my knowledge, milk spots are there for good.

 

To answer the OP's question, it depends on what YOU like and the price you paid. For me, milk spots are a big deal.

 

This is about as close as you're going to come to something official.

http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=26&threadid=615716&STARTPAGE=3

 

The comment about volatility wasn't in reference to the milk spot/AgCl. It was in reference to other contaminants on the coin's surface.