"Milk" type spots on Canadian silver?

What are these spots? How are they formed? How can I prevent them from forming on my other bullion? How can I get rid of them?

 

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Take it out of the case and scrap it off with a butter knife. where did you get that one?
"Gold, the least chemically reactive metal, aside from dulling slightly generally stays the way it is over even thousands of years." ~Reid Goldsborough

 

Canadian Maples have a tendency to spot like that. You can't get rid of them. I wouldn't attempt it.

 

I've read that using a pencil eraser works, there are also some solutions that will do the job as well.

You can google getting rid of milk spots for more info as I'm not an expert. (or someone else may chime in here)

As far as how its formed one of the theories is that a chemical is left over on the coin after its cleaned during the minting process. (possibly chloride)

Some mints have a lot worse problems with milk spots than others. Canadian mint is the worst.

 

You won't be able to scrape it off. It's a silver coin not gold, although silver isn't very reactive either.

 

lol

 

It is best to leave it as is. Milk spots are not only on the surface, but embedded in the metal itself.

 

Maples, Pandas, Philharmonics all have these problems in spades...its best just to live with it. If it's for bullion investing it doesn't matter anyway. It's a shame because I haven't seem this problem with ASEs so the U.S. is doing Something right or just takes an extra step so this doesn't occur. Maybe that's the reason for the higher premium for ASEs?

Here is RCM's official position on Milk Spots:

The following is an email letter from a RCM distributor concerning the problem. To summarize, the RCM's position on "milk spots" on their silver coins is : "Don't like it? Buy something else."

Hello,
Here is the short explanation. We just had a meeting with the Mint about this 10 days ago.
The white stains (or "milk spots") result from the planchet (flan) cleaning and preparation process. Some Silver Maple Leaf coins have them (SMLs), some do not.
This is the Mint's official position: The coins are bullion coins. They are not collector coins. They are sold as one ounce of silver. The Mint knows that there is a problem. The problem has existed since 1988, when the SML coin was first introduced. The Mint says that there is nothing that they can do about the problem.
Our experience is that some SMLs have them and some do not. We do not know what we are going to get when we open the boxes of 500 ounces of silver that come from the Mint. We have to take what we get; we can not return them. We do not have the time to sort them, etc.
We ship out what we get. Per the terms of our invoices, we do charge a restocking fee for returned bullion items.
I am sorry about the problem, but we have no control over it.
I hope that this helps,
John

John Winkelmann
ANA Life Member
Talisman Coins
Official Distributor for the Royal Canadian Mint,
for the Mint of Poland (in Warsaw),
for the Perth Mint of Australia,
and for Monnaie de Paris (The Paris Mint)

9051 Watson Road, Suite 103
St. Louis, MO 63126
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 

I had a couple roll of silver eagles that developed milk spotting, but overall the U.S. mint is the best or at least one of the best at preventing milk spots on their coins.

 

All types of silver coins are affected by it, including ASEs, but Silver Maples probably the most.

 

Yeah, I have some RCM Maples, Wildlife, Birds Of Prey that have that. In the past, I made a few attempts to remove spots and not happy with results (spotted area seems futzed over). Unless there's a coin dip that removes spots perfectly, I'm not going to worry about it. I get it that "it's only bullion"... very pure silver. Still, I don't buy as much RCM bullion nowadays

 

I've only had problems with pre 2005's and ML in rolls and boxes, older or packaged differently no spots, have they changed something?

 

I have 122.5 ounces of silver from the RCM and not a single milk spot....The members of this site really seem to have an American bias unlike other coin and bullion forums.

 

The extra premium for ASEs over CSMs speak for themselves...I don't think its a forum bias.

 

And I like you too Mr. Roots......

 

No bias, I kept my coins with my other ASE's and the Maples attained the milk spots in just a very short time. Over the span of one year. I have bought other coins from the RCM in the past and had no issues. But they were gold coins.

 

Only bullion coins I own are Canadian. But that's only cause I like the designs.

 

I have no bias at all. In fact, I prefer some other world coins as much as and some even more than the ASE. I can say that it is a fact in my experience the worst offenders when it comes to milk spots are products of the Royal Canadian Mint. It's not so much the premium items, it is the bullion products.

As the letter above indicates, they know there is a problem, but basically just don't give a rat's behind. Therefore, I return the favor and just don't give a rat's behind about owning their offerings.

 

You've gotten very lucky then. Sometimes it takes awhile for the spots to develop as well, so they may still be coming.

No bias here, RCM is well known for their milk spotting issues, they hands down have the worst problem with it of any mint.

 

I wasn't talking about just CSM's....But the tubes I have in CSM's have a higher premium vs a tube of ASE of the same year....Most one ounce silver coins from the RCM have higher premiums, they don't just do the same coin year after year?

Very few of us even know how to or even have the time or timing to get the premium back when we sell, so for most of us premiums are wasted money.

This is the third site I found for posting about silver, I was at the other two for years before I found this site and I never even remember reading about milk spots at the others.

What speaks for it's self is the post on this site about the awful ATB pucks....it reminds me of people who collect things from the Franklin Mint.