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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Modern Commens, post: 779559, member: 20737&quot;]<span style="color: black"><font face="Arial">Here is a copy of the email I received from the former mint manager. What do you think?</font></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><font face="Arial">The toning is a normal thing as is spotting. We have gone to the 99.9% silver trying to help but it is something that we have fought over the entire time we have produced the American Silver Eagles. We have metallurgists that work directly with our suppliers and the only reason that they come up with is the impurities that are in the metal and they have and are still trying to purify it to 100% but they have trouble getting this done. The grading companies do not hold toning and spotting as a downgrade on their grade. Also MS does in fact mean mint state. The standard American Silver Eagle is a production coin in which they are stamped in an automatic press instead of a manual single stamp press. They are not handled like a numismatic coin. They are packaged in plastic rolls and are only sold in large cases to which they call green monsters. These coins are only sold to licensed dealers as it would be too much for the mint to sell to individuals. They in turn sell to the private dealers and buyers. You yourself can buy them off ebay or a dealer by the roll. They run somewhere in the $400. to $450 range usually. This is for a 20 coin roll. You are correct about the light or deep strike. If they are a good deep stamp they are graded as Dcam or Ultra cam. This is meant as Seep Cameo or Ultra Cameo. This is in fact the part that is considered detail. If it has a very deep strong strike it will have one of these Cameo grades on the slab. But it&nbsp; is a standard detail it will not. I have some problems with the inconsistencies of the third party grading companies. I do understand their problems as their inspectors are inspecting these coins over an 8 hour shift. But I still feel they should and could be more consistent for the money they charge for grading. On average it is in the $12.00 range fpr each coin. So in other words with a coin as you bought it fist cost&#039;s about $22.00 for the coin and then $12.00 for the grading plus shipping. So it all comes down to in many cases making a small profit and I find that the MS standard coins are not the best was to go in my opinion unless you are collecting the entire set and keeping it up and keeping it for many years. Now with the coin you are bidding on right now... As far as I am concerned the Numismatic coins are the best and always will be the best investment coinage there is period. You will in fact really notice the difference in them as they are handled only with cotton lint free gloves and never touch each other or anything but the capsule they are put in when they are stamped. They are also double stamped. This makes for the best detail and you will see this. It is like night and day between them and the standard production Eagles. As for the way these slabs are sealed. I feels that the best job done is by MGC. Then ICG and PCGS.I would never buy a coin that is graded by ANACS as their slabs are not very air tight and their labels bleed and the coins look like they are toned real bad very quickly. As for the SGS I myself think they are glued slabs. As I feel PCGS is. I got a a PCGS back from them that the reverse you could barely see the coin at all. It looked like glue was smeared all over the slab. I sent it back and they did re slab it but again I still had to pay shipping to get it there. I think most are sealed fairly good. But as for toning and spotting I think much is a chemical impurity problem. One that has baffled us for all those years. I also have some problems with the way some of the slabs seem mishandled in the process of the grading. Or it might be possible their suppliers do not handle them very good. Scratches are something I feel they could improve on very much. But again I guess it is all about money. They get them and they don&#039;t want to loose money if they have scratches and so they just go about their grading and leave it to us to live with the problems. I have had this will all the grading companies. I think only NGC, PCGS and ICG claim these to be sonically sealed. But even this will not protect from toning or spotting. We have even tested and feel that the plastic that they use in many cases help cause the problem as the chemical composition of the plastic combined with the impurities may be a reason as well. I also feel that regardless of the grading company that none are always sealed 100%. PCGS and ANACS uses a rubber donut around the coin in their slabs. Again something we feel is a contributor to the chemical reaction that may cause the toning and spotting. I had over 300 20th Anniversary sets and I had them graded mostly by PCGS and NGC. For some reason it seems like PCGS had more problems with spotting than NGC. I feel it did in fact have to do with this rubber donut that is put around the coin. But it is something we have a hard time proving the problem because some actually get some toning right in the plastic capsule we package them in. So ???? The jury is still out on this and we are still doing everything we can to find a way to make this problem taken care of. If you win the other coin I will make sure it is very clean. You will really be able to tell the difference in the Numismatic and the Standard Eagles. But then that&#039;s why they cost so much. It takes about me about a 30% return from my grading to make a reasonable profit of a hundred coins graded. In other words when I send in 100 I need 30 to come back graded 70 to make what is necessary for me to actually continue selling. With the situation of my being able to get the first strike coins on these numismatic coins it does help in getting even a higher percentage or 70 graded out of a hundred. I get in the 45 to 50 percent on my grades. But then I am their to inspect the first 12 coins from a new set of dies. I inspect and the ones I select are packaged for my purchases. So now you can see why I feel all grading companies are inconsistent in their grading. I feel my eye is superior to any of theirs. But then I am not a licensed grader.. I spent 28 years with the Mint and I do feel that I have the highest quality coins anywhere in regards to my numismatic coins. I do hope this has helped you. I feel when you get a MS70 Numismatic and A PF 70 numismatic coin you will see what I am talking about. I do have some 2008 MS70 NGC coins for auction right now as well. The prices I feel are very good for the grade and quality. They are not even half the trend or book values. They will in fact be the coins to compare and or collect. I would recommend them over the standard eagle. But then all eagles are a good investment in&nbsp; my opinion. The one thing about the numismatic coins from 2000 to the present that are stamped in West Point with the W mint mark is that they all are very low population coins. All in the 200,000 range. They are also the higher quality especially from 2006 to present. All are struck on burnished coin blanks. Please if you have any further questions feel free to email me. Thank you once again my friend. </font></span>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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