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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GSDykes, post: 2131501, member: 73321&quot;]Thot I would add my two cents:</p><p>Imagine a conveyor belt moving thousands and thousands of silver planchets out of the drying ovens to meet the presses. They are shiney, and have just been washed with detergent (a soap, often with borax compounds). Occasionally some residue of the soap remains, it is almost invisible to any inspectors. The press stamps each planchet with (lets say with 100 tons) tons of pressure. The invisble residues are actually pressed INTO the metal of the coin, the small bit of detergent is now a part of the coins metal structure! It cannot be removed without removing metal from the coins surface. These milky whitish spots (see &quot;Doug&#039;s ASE sun-with-rays, pic) are especially troublesome in the fields of silver proofs. The mints are aware of the problem. But it requires some extra time and effort to CAREFULLY dry and remove/rinse with clean distilled water, repeatedly to remove all of the residues. Heat, air drying, and even hand drying with clean towels are used. Some mints (such as the old Franklin mint) and the Perth mint rarely if ever released/release such ruined coins! The lazy and sloppy -- and usually busy -- mints should be held liable for selling such coins!! It is hard for a buyer to avoid such ruined coins, especially if the buyer cannot FIRST inspect the coins. Thus it is a gamble when ordering directly from the mints, or buying off&nbsp; auction websites. Such coins are part of a numismatics life. live with it!! And beware. The fiber cloth &quot;solution&quot; stems from a person who does not know what true milk spots are. I mean really -- rub a fiber cloth across the mirror surface of a proof ASE, you will leave hairlines. (see the period ...).</p><p>Gary[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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