Honestly I cannot find any fault with the sellers of these coins, as they packaged the containers properly and very well. I guess it's just a cheap education. I had purchased a set of Canadian silver dollars in their original RCM clamshells. The velvet lining appears to break down after 30+ years and the little hairs will make their way into the coins, causing hairline scratches. Lesson: Only buy Canadian silver dollars that are not housed in original RCM holders. The other item I bought was a 1981 New Zealand mint set. All the coins were nice and tucked in the set. The set is sealed very much like a normal us mint set. Upon arrival, two of the coins had broke loose from the set, and "ground" on each other, causing scratches. No big deal, it was only a few bucks. It appears that the plastic on NZ mint sets, for this year anyway, are MUCH thinner than us mint sets, and coins will easily break loose. I guess I will be more careful buying more coins, because mint packaging from other countries is not always good.
Almost any OGP will break down over time if the environmental conditions aren't maintained at reasonable levels. For example, mint cello can become brittle and crack in dry heat conditions. So can the plastic liners to which felt is applied. Chris
The flocking inside Canadian specimen sets from the early 1970s has degraded to small tears to powdery red dust in the greatest extreme. You will also find this happening with the proof sets of Franklin Mint issues of the early 1970s, as well. The original packaging was all manufactured by a Canadian firm.
Any kind of 30+ year old OGP is going to break down, to some extent. I've had my fair share of problems, both with foreign and US sets.
I'd just go with it, my friend ... that's the cool thing about "old stuff" (it gets old) => imagine your underwear 30+ years from now (eccchhh) ... the next guy is probably gonna find a few problems with it!! (it's fricken old, and ... )
I remember I sold several of the 2011 silver eagle 25th ann. sets on ebay, right after I received them from the mint. Several people messaged me saying the coins had fallen out of the original holders during shipment (and gotten scratched), even though I shipped in the exact way it came to me. I remember several people had issues with those.
Think that is fun, try the polyfilm they used on the early USSR sets. They peel, splinter, yellow etc. The problem is that Soviet mint sets had pretty shoddy packaging, so many coins are subsequently removed from their original packaging so that original packaging becomes rather scarce.
