2013 Silver Canadian Maple Leafs

Right, wrong, or indifferent, that would be the last conversation between me and them. Others are free to do as they see fit, as do I. If I wanted visibly damaged coins, I would be buying 2nd hand ones and not NEW ones. But... to each their own.

Yup7676
Yes maples did come in sheets of 10 and not in capsules like pandas. Some distributors have wildlife maples in sheets but its rare. I've never had a problem with sealed sheets from the mint.

Heh heh... well, it wouldn't be the 1st time.

I am not expecting a perfect coin when I buy bullion and if a coin I bought had a "milk spot" or some other well known imperfection, that would not be a big deal, unless ALL of the coins I bought had the same problem. What I am referring to are coins that are visibly damaged... such as scratched, dented, or bent, as might occur because they were just dumped into a hopper or something that beat them up. Buying beat up coins is fine IF that is what one knows they are buying and they are paying a lower price for them simply for their metal content. Most of the on-line coin and bullion vendors have "culls" that they sell that are in this shape and they are the cheapest coins they have. The silver ASEs and Maples that I buy are all sold as "BU" grade. No, this is not an MS graded coin but it should still certainly be "nice" and not beat up. All IMHO, of course.

Its sounds like weve been saying the same thing and wording it differently

I definitely agree if somehow the coin is chipped or bent or something extreme like that they should swap it and put that in their cull pile. Its the minor things that I dont think a seller should feel pressured into exchanging. Dont get me wrong I like great looking coins as much as the next person, but I dont think it would be fair to expect collector series quality for bullion prices

Welcome to CCF (literally) and "welcome to the club" (both literally and figuratively)!

CSMs are reknowned for two things--manufacturing/transit damage and milk spots. If/when you get CSMs that are literally unflawed (no dents, dings, scratches,
flaws or imperfections of any kind and above all else--no milk spots), that's a really rare day and a coin to be treasured. The highest-raised portion of the
Queen's cheekbone is generally the most common area to have abrasions caused during transit when the coins are bouncing around inside the tube. The
flat open areas on both surfaces of CSMs are frequently wavy, instead of flat and mirror-like. Etc, etc, etc, ad infiniutm...

The bottom line is that CSMs are low-premium (well--at least they used to be low-premium), low-end, mass-produced silver bullion coins and it's not realistic
to expect them to look like proofs or some fancy, high-premium, "semi-numis" bullion coin. Not gonna happen. The old saying "an ounce of silver is an ounce
of silver" was never truer than it is with CSMs.

You're right that quality control on CSMs is the worst. ASEs, Libertads and Philharmonics (at least in my experience) come through in better shape than CSMs.

Your story is pretty much everybody's story, but returning them would be an exercise in futility. What you described is pretty much the way they almost
always are. I put up with it with CSMs, but I did return the 2013 1.5oz silver Polar Bears--when I pay an $11/oz premium, I expect unflawed coins and
nothing else will be acceptable. With the CSMs though, "that's life..."

Thanks. As someone relatively new to all this, it's been a constant learning experience. With this particular situation, despite the disappointment with quality control of cosmetic appearance, the purity of content and global popularity of this product can't be denied. I guess the practical side of me kept the collector side of me in check-- hey, it's still pure silver! Now, I've been lucky with milk spots. I did NOT see any when going through all my tubes. I have read comments that milk spots can eventually turn up over time. BTW, do you guys think the RCM Yellow plastic lid coin tubes are acceptable for long term coin storage? (are they 100% PVC free?)

The Silver maples disappointment wasn't enough to sway me away from the 2013 Silver Bison coins. The samples I looked closely at all look consistently pristine on the bison side. I was actually impressed. The Queen side face area looks a bit better on the Bison coin also. There's still slight imperfections, however, not as bad as on my Maples.

I could go on about the other 2013 mint issued bullion grade coins I got, but, since this is a Maples thread, I'll leave it at that. Is there a thread discussing cosmetic quality of mint issued silver bullion coins?
(for the collector side of me ;) )

I prefer the wildlife coins over the Maples. They don't cost much more than the Maples and they tend to appreciate in value over time. I went through one tube of polar bears and found only 2 that had scratches or spots. The rest are near perfect. It really is a beautiful coin and well worth the premium (compared to some Mint products). If a whole tube of bears or maples are a mess, then I imagine that tube was already cherry-picked by another buyer and sent back to the dealer for trade/cash. Might be tempting for a dealer to unload those knock-offs hoping the customer will accept them because of the lower spot price.

I noticed that the Bison & Antelope coins have little or no milk spots in comparison to the cougar, moose, etc. so am wondering if the Mint has been improving the series in that area. The bison is nice coin, but a bit busy. The antelope is simpler, but looks more like a deer to me. Still, make really nice sets to collect and to gift.

The bonus of the Maples & wildlife series is that they are .9999 silver, which from what I understand is a better quality than .999 silver, so don't mind the milk spots too much in that regard. Anyone try to remove them? There is a video on Youtube showing various methods how that can done. Might not be a bad idea to experiment with some loser coins just to see how successful that could be... might lose a bit of silver/weight in the process or risk tiny scratches....

So far ALL my purchases have been from APMEX (Oklahoma) for current 2013 mint issued product. I chose 2013 because the current year product tends to be the cheapest with them.

One thing I noticed is all my "Mint Direct" certified Maples are on the beefy side of 1 troy oz. Each coin tends to range in the 31.3g to 31.48g range. That's one thing I like about these coins.. that slight silver bonus.

I have seen YouTube videos of a dual layer Jewelry cloth used to polish out Milk Spot on CSML coin. I would avoid doing this as I have seen how those types of cloths can put faint hairline scratch marks on shiny coins that are visible when tilting the coin a certain way.

If I ever see milk spots develop on my Maples, I am leaving them be. I guess my reasoning would be there's no point trying to buff out history. What you see is the real deal... warts and all. These flaws are the proof that minting processes were not perfect at the time.

Really like the Bison coins. Look consistently more pristine with no milk spots. Making the snow ground matte instead of shiny for contrast sake might have helped visually. Regardless, I really do like this coin and am considering moving each into an air tite protector to keep them looking shiny pristine.

I don't have the Antelope yet. APMEX cranked up the premiums recently. Hoping they go on sale some time.