My sister recently got her 2007 US Silver Proof Set. We were shocked as the coins seem perfect, as is the casing, and no specks of dust are evident. My set, on the other hand, was a total mess. Pieces of hair on several coins. The dollar coins were the worst. Also, the Wyoming Quarter had a noticeable scratch on the mirror surface near the bronco. The Washington Quarter had an imperfection near the salmon.Surprisingly, the Kennedy Half was perfect and the image had beautiful frosting. Sacagawea had a nick by the cradle,too. I shipped them back. I can imagine what my new set will look like!
you will most likely get vomit and fecal matter on your coins back..just kidding. Imagine if it really did ?
I returned 4 out of ten silver proof sets because the presidential dollars were spotty. The other coins were all perfect, but the plastic cases didn't seem to fit together properly. One of them even started to come open when I was handling it.
Funny you mention that. I was just going through a roll of P Wyoming coins, and several had a wierd area around the entire image on the reverse and some around Washington's head on the obverse. When I looked closer, it's actually indented in those areas. I tried to get a pic, but I lack a camera good in close-ups. Never seen anything like it, and it was rather distracting. Guy~
One possible explanation would be an improperly polished die. When the hub is forced into the die blank the metal is pushed down and sideways. This pushes up a little "hill" in the die around the hub device. After the hubbing the die is supposed to be lapped which would grind that hill down flush to the fields. If it isn't lapped, or if the lapping isn't complete, that hill can remain. And a raised hill on the die would mean a depressed groove around the devices on the finished coin. A second less likely possibility is something they used to o sometimes back in the forties and fifties when they were using hub that was wearing out and they didn't have a replacement. They would outline the device on the hub with a sharp pointed tool. This would make the device appear more distinct from the fields. But it also left a groove in the hub that resulted in a groove around the devices on the finished coin as well.
