HAZY SPOTS on 2010-W PROOF ASE COINS

The 2010-W Proof American Silver Eagle has finally landed for many a collector! :thumb:

A welcome site after the drought of nearly two years without proof versions.





Here are the eight 2010-W Proof ASEs I ordered/received:




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I find the quality of the strikes is very nice and what we've come to expect of these coins. I have not found any breaks in the frosted devices and despite the grainy quality of the frosted effect, its not as bothersome as I was worried about beforehand. I was worried it would look cheap and could obliterate small details in the design.

Unfortunately, I have found this faint 'haze' which appears in the mirrored fields. It is so faint that it is almost transparent and requires close inspection to really see the extent of its prescience on the surface of the coins. I use a 5x aspheric Bausch & Lomb loupe, and these spots are as clear as day under magnification with proper illumination.

Five to six of the eight coins I received have this haze. The haze appears most prominently under IGWT and up to the 'Y' of LIBERTY on the obverse of a few coins. It also extends from the wingtips of the eagle on the reverse and appears around the devices nearest the rims overall.

Below are several examples from a few of the coins I received that show the 'haze' I am speaking about seeing in the mirrored fields. Again, it can be seen with the naked eye, but it really comes out under light magnification and when a strong light at a rather severe angle hits the coin.

These images were hard for me to take juggling an LED flashlight, 5x aspheric loupe and pressing the shutter button on my tripod mounted camera simultaneously.

I highly recommend everyone, especially those with large orders of these coins, check your coins with a bright lamp under magnification. Rotate the coin as you look in the regions of IGWT, the eagle's wing tip areas and around the devices nearest the rim.

Perhaps this is something akin to 'milk spots' known to plague bullion ASEs, which refuses to get washed off after production. I'm not sure what it is from and I don't like it on my coins.

My coins will be returned to the Mint with a detailed return invoice and images so their Quality Control and Order Control can see the reason for the returned items.

I hope this is helpful to other Proof ASE collectors and that others will chime in here if you find similar issues with your 2010-W Proof ASE coins.

 

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Besides the spots, those are nice coins! Congrats on finally receiving them!

 

Thanks. Yes, those without are indeed nice looking modern silver coins. :thumb:

 

Krispy do you think its the wash? I have seen the same spots on other newly minted us coins.

And the real kicker for me today is .....mine are out in the mail box right now! yep but can't get them out as we have a cluster box and the hole in the back where the mail is put in is bigger than the one you can get your mail out of. Add to that I broke my leg last Tuesday and can't do much of anything that involves walking...not a real happy camper right about now!

 

krispy, there is already a 2010 Proof Silver Eagle thread ... and you started a new thread on the same subject ...
(a transgression you were all over my case for a few weeks ago)

Oh sorry ... I forgot that your nit picking rules dont apply to yourself

 

I have seen a few more of these hazy coinsposted, in other forums. I know that all silver eagle's MS/PF are prone to "milkspots".

 

No, I started a thread about a specific issue regarding 2010 Proof Silver Eagles, an issue worth mentioning from the greater context of the other thread, so that others collectors may be alerted to a condition problem affecting these coins.

What you forgot was how to limit yourself from starting a new thread on the exact same thing over and over, every day or so while silver spot price was on the rise, without joining the long running PM threads already in progress. Consensus was, your numerous threads were an annoying distraction, fractured the discussion and really didn't add anything that differed enough to warrant their creation from the other thread, which you refused to join us in discussion about the same thing.

It comes as no surprise to me that you cannot see the difference from this thread and the other 2010 Proof Silver Eagle thread let alone contain your frustration that you got called on those redundant threads of yours. As per usual, your post does little to further and advance the topic at hand.

 

Can't help but nit pick this comment.
The threads are about the same item, but different topics. The bigger Silver Eagle thread concerns Silver Eagles in general, the pricing, comments, etc, hell it is a 48 page thread!
This thread was written for the purpose of the spots, and to warn potential buyers about the possible quality of the coins they could receive. (Which is helpful to those who buy, get them graded, and flip them if they come in as PF70's, or just people who want nicer quality coins than average)

Krispy, I have heard about poof mint quality on the Silver Eagle's from a number of people over the past two years, and it looks like things haven't changed all that much. Hopefully you can get better coins in your exchange.

 

Yes, I have had bullion ASEs and now Proof ASEs with these problems. I wonder why we see this on ASEs and don't hear it reported on other silver coins in Silver Proof sets, silver commemorative coins, silver quarter sets... etc.?

 

Thanks, yeah it's a bummer that the Mint is still plagued with these problems, especially with such a hotly anticipated coin. I should think QC would be scrutinizing every one of these puppies before they left the facilities.

The Mint blundered with that erroneous email issue a couple weeks back and now I see several examples of this problem in one order! Oh well, at least I can return them, but someone might end up with them in the end.

 

Hello T$, Where ya been ? I agree this post is very informative and it is about a specific problem !

 

Chris: Sorry that happened to you. Both of mine that I ordered do not have that haze or any spots. Glad to hear that you will be able to salvage 2-3 and can return the rest. TC

 

they look almost like finger smudges...some of the bigger ones...or just smudges in general...yuck...pretty annoying. Still think i'll put one or two of these on my christmas list

 

Chris,

This is a really good thread that alerts collectors to a specific issue. I have one coming and I will be looking for these same specific issues. Thanks for the post!

Darryl

 

I haven't received mine yet but have heard (read) many, many complaints this weekend. One eBay seller had to take down all their ASE proof auctions for "70" graded coins. He said he would be lucky to get 1 in 10 to grade 70!

 

Krispy
This faint 'haze' as describe and shown, are they not the same as milk spots that have plague ASE in the past or would you describe them as something difference?

 

They are certainly not 'spots' like the milk spots I have encountered. These look more like fluid lines, which may have dried leaving this residue on the coin.

 

That's what I'm afraid of on my backordered eagles....

 

These haze posts got me curious so I looked at my 2010 silver proof set and I did find the same thing on the obverse of the half dollar. Now that I see it on a coin I can definitely say my eagles do not have it....whew!

 

Now that's interesting to know you found this on other silver coins. Thanks for checking. I'm glad your eagles are clear of this haze.