Just got off the phone with some fella at the U.S. Mint and he was no help. I have just noticed that out of 10 proof sets I received from the mint in March of 2006, 9 of them are turning bad. The state quarters in 9 of the sets are beginning to show a little milky haze around the perimeter of the coins, mostly on the reverse but some on the obverse. I never noticed it until I went to sell a set on e-bay, and was inspecting all of the sets I had up for auction. I had to go through 8 of the sets before I found one I could sell. All the guy at the mint could tell me was to buy more. Now I have noticed a golden tone beginning to show up on some of the older sets and don't consider that to be a real issue, but this milky has is very distracting and appears to be a defect of some sort. Was just wondering if anyone else has noticed this on their coins or has heard of anyone else talking about it. It's just on the quarters, all the fractional coins seem to be fine. I looked at most of my other back dated sets and don't see anything like this.
Thanks for letting me know. Maybe it's just me. I ordered 10 more this afternoon and hopefully these will be o.k. All the mint could say was "reorder".
Most of the sets I have seen even at shows are milky. Has something to do with the rinse they used or something like that.
line_grade - Based on your description it's a storage issue. Haze on Proof coins is well known and it can show up on any of them if they are not stored properly. But if they are stored properly, it will not show up. If you can describe how and where you are storing these coins, we can tell you how to avoid the problem.
I considered that GD and was very concerned about it. Coins are stored in a wooden storage cabinet, in a seperate room where temp and humidity is pretty well controlled. After noticing this condition I then looked at all of the other proof sets I have, 1954 thru 2005, whether silver or clad are in good shape. Minor toning on some of the coins, but nothing like this milky haze. Even examined all of the mint sets I can access and noticed nothing there either.
I see you live in NJ, it's pretty humid there. I would also suggest getting the coins out of the wood cabinet and into something like one of those Rubbermaid storage bins. Then put some silica gel packs in there with the coins. That will help a lot. I know the haze issue is more prevalent with the modern Proofs, say the '70s and on, but it can and will develop on older Proofs too under the right conditions. And very few woods should ever be used to store your coins in, they put off gases and tanic acid into the air. And if you are going to say what about coin cabinets - they are almost always made exclusively out of mahogany for exactly that reason. Wood is bad.
