I occasionally invest in bullion (often in UK coin form as they are CGT free for me) but I'm not a collector or stacker, so please forgive the 'noob' question. I'm just curious how often you see bullion coins with really obvious imperfections or impurities? I bought a 2022 gold Britannia recently and it has a very small but unsightly black spot on it. I realise it's not a proof coin or anything special - just bullion purchase for me so I don't really care - but still curious to hear from some experts. I did find this post from Chards complaining about Royal Mint quality control: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/royal-mint-quality-control/919 Photos of the coin in question attached, including a couple of close-ups from an admittedly very low quality micro-lens.
I'd ordinarily say "no, it shouldn't make much difference" -- but that last photo REALLY makes it look like gold plating has flaked off and revealed a base-metal core. How trustworthy was the source for this coin? Have you weighed and measured it? If it were mine, I'd be tempted to pick at the edge of that spot and see whether more plating comes off, or whether the spot itself goes away. Yeah, that will cause some further damage to the coin, but at this point it's already not pristine. Welcome to CoinTalk, and I hope this is a false alarm!
Yes, looked to me like flaking, too! I'm traveling at the moment so will do some better investigation when I get home and report back. It did come from a reputable source so hopefully it's a false alarm.
Bullion is bullion, but there are certain coins that are discounted unless there in B/U condition with no scratches dings or imperfection one comes to mind right away and that would be a Maple leaf don’t know the rhyme or reason behind it.
Just to update this very old thread (two YEARS later!), it turned out to be a false alarm despite how those photos appeared. I'll blame the low-quality 'microscope' for that. The coin wasn't a plated fake. The spot came off with a little picking and just left a bit of a scratch behind. Wish I could explain what the blemish was in the first place, though.
Someone like me would pass right over that coin not knowing it was a legitimate coin with that damage. Not knowledgeable enough, beyond my Pail. Welcome gstett. It's very difficult here to find a question they can't answer!! CORRECTLY
Thanks for the followup, and I'm glad to hear it turned out genuine! I hope you've held onto it long enough to enjoy the, what, 30-40% run-up in the price of gold since you bought it...
