I received my order for 5 Westward Journey Nickel sets (the P, D and S six nickel set) and 3 of the 5 had a problem on the Denver Ocean in View satin finish nickel. There is a scuff mark in the field just in front of the bridge of Jefferson's nose. So, what do I do? Well, I didn't want to return all five for replacements and wait just to get more sets with the same problem or maybe a problem that was worse so I ordered 5 2005-D Ocean in View satin finish nickels from a dealer over the internet. Guess what? Four of those five had the same problem. Is this a known problem with these nickels? Sure seems to be prevalent.
I havent had time to look that closely at the sets i got... i will look, and also wait to see what others post....
It would seem to be, as the majority of those I ordered had flaws and were returned to the mint. I was able to find enough to complete the collections I'm starting for all the great grandchildren, so was happy with the results.
I wish this were bag marks. This is worse. I'll try to post a pic later, but this looks like someone took a piece of sandpaper and scuffed the field.
There have been several articles written already about the poor quality of the satin finish coins. It seems your best bet is to go to a dealer and pick your sets.
Sorry it took me so long to get back to this. I've attached a picture of the scuff marks on the field in front of the bridge of Jefferson's nose. It looks like someone scrathed the area back and forth with sandpaper and tapered off as they got further away from his nose. It's more defined with the coin in hand but there's no way to miss it if you were doing a quality check, so that tells me the Mint didn't.
ew. that's pretty sick for a beautifully designed contemporary coin. Where can i get a roll of Oceans for face value or close to it?
ha, let me compose myself. the bank i bank at REFUSES to sell mint rolls. they don't have mint rolls. they buy all their coinage from some 3rd company for face.
It kind of looks like grease on the die to me. I've seen several nickels with the same type of marks on them. Oh to view coins as beautiful as the Canadian mint produces.
I'd have to see it in person, but what you are calling a scuff mark may simply be where the satin finish is wearing off the die. The die faces are slightly convex and they first make contact with the planchets probably just a little above Jeffersons nose. Very close to where this "scuff" appears. And since this same "scuff" has been reported by many people spread around the country. The Sac dollar was the subject of a similar complaint of a scuff on the reverse that also turned out to be simply the first signs of die wear appearing where the center of the reverse die was first making contact with the planchets.
Yup, die wear would make sense but what got me was that almost every Westward Journey Nickel Set that I received had that exact same problem (I ordered 5 at one time)....and it wasn't hard to see at all on the coin. Since these sets came directly from the Mint, you'd think that someone in Quality Control would catch these problems. Or maybe I'm just dreaming Anyway, instead of sending my sets back to the Mint and getting another batch with the same or worse problems, I decided to buy satin finish Denver Ocean In View nickels and replace the "defective" ones in my sets. Now the sets look good, like they're supposed to. And what about the "defective" nickels, you might ask??? In the Coke machine at work....
Well every die will eventually develop the problem pretty much in the exact same spot. And there is a fair chance that if you got all your sets at the same time they came from the same die.
Even so, given the prevalence of this problem with this particular coin from this particular Mint, they can't all be coming from just one die. I called three different dealers in three different parts of the country before I found someone that had satin finish Denver coins without this problem. They all said, "Yup, all ours have it, too." Have I cornered the market??? Am I the only one seeing this?
True but like I said EVERY die will evenually develop this problem, and the satin finish on the dies is probably rather fragile so the problem will develop fairly quickly. Mint set dies are only used for between ten to twenty thousand strikes
You know, I wonder why we're only seeing this problem coming from the Denver Mint? Why aren't we seeing this same problem from Philly? Wouldn't you think that the dies in Philly would be doing the same thing that the ones in Denver are doing? Or is it that Philly just has better QA for their stuff? Hmmmmm
If they do - it's a change from the norm. It has been normal to find higher quality coins from the Denver mint for many, many years. As to why this issue isn't showing up on Philly coins - there are a couple of possible reasons. Philly may be striking them with less pressure than they are using in Denver - thus not creating the wear problem on the dies. Or it could be that Philly is just striking few coins with each die so they are not worn to the same point where the problems occurs. Or it could be that nobody has noticed the problem with Philly coins yet.
