Aren't those milk spots in the field above her head? Stunning coin, but hopefully I can get it resolved. Bought it from a very respected online dealer, surprised they didn't see these?
Ugh sorry to hear that. Was it MCM you bought from? I noticed they now allow 15 day returns on proof coins, I know they didnt in the past. I say return it, does look like a milk spot.
I pretty much am staying from graded coins if I can, and if I get a graded silver proof coin, I only want MS69 so that should something like this happen to me, I wont get smashed as bad if I had bought a 70.
It was from Don Bailey, and I think he's a good guy. It accepts returns, I'll just see if he has another one that's better. I really wanted to try and put a short set of these together.
I was actually thinking of going back to 2012 series and building from there. I was going to target the monsters, meaning 70s only but this milk spot deal may throw me off track. I noticed if you go back much past 2012, they just are VERY difficult to locate, and pricey.
I pretty much stopped buying proofs of any kind , while proofs are super nice ,there are just too many things that can wrong over time.
Like Yup says, by not paying a big premium , your not too disappointed when something like this occurs.
Now if the Mints making proofs could guarantee their proofs to stay "perfect" for 50 years etc then I would likely buy them without hesitation, but no mint can guarantee that at this point in time.
I'm going to gamble and buy a few. I had this all worked out in my head, lol. I was going to hold them for 20 years and try to unload them for a profit.
If half of them get these spots, I'm not sure it'll drive down the prices too much because of the tiny mintage. I'll tell you what, once these things are absorbed into the market, kiss them bye bye. At mintages of 4k-10k, they could be absorbed in one large American city in six months, think about that. That's with or without milk spots imo.
I'm exposed to lots of market investments, real estate, stock markets, both international and national but I love precious metals. I think there's something special about these because of the numbers. Maybe I'll just buy 69s.
The lesson is- buying 70s for silver bullion or silver proofs sets one up for a disaster. People will not pay a premium, at all, no matter the mintage, for a coin with milk spots on the secondary market.
Speaking of milk spots, saw a video on youtube where a collector ordered from The Royal Mint one of those 5 Oz silver proof Britannia coins and it comes with milk spots. He apparently sent it back and The Royal Mint sent one without milk spots...
milk spots,,, the joys of collecting silver coins lol
:You know, MCM coins about a year ago, sold me a PF70 Somalia High Relief silver coin, with spots. They did not mention the milk spots on the listing, nor did the photo show any.
To top things off, I could not return the coin because at the time, they considered it "bullion". Which I was like really?
I can see tho, they finally relented and have changed their policy on these coins, now they give you 14 days on proof coins as an example on the Panda 150 gram silver coins.
I try and buy proof silver coins but only in OMP if possible, sometimes tho, a graded 69 proof is cheaper than doing the OMP lol and thankfully, I have avoided getting them with milk spots.
I wonder if our poster was able to resolve his issues with Don Bailey and sons?
I just sent the coin back yesterday morning. Don did say they will help me out. He also said milk spots are a big part of proof coinage now days.
I found very, very little concerning milk spots on Libertads. There's a couple of articles on the internet, nothing like the scads of articles that pop up about Maples.
I've heard it's a wash they use at these mints that creates these splotches.
Quote: He also said milk spots are a big part of proof coinage now days.
Ya thats quite telling, and is the reason I don't buy proofs anymore, I would rather buy an "enhanced coin" then a proof, don't have to worry about milk spots.
I will say this though, I have bought many proof silver coins from the RCM and have never seen a milk spot, but have seen many RCM bullion coins with milk spotting, so they must use a different method / process for their numismatic plancets then their bullion plancets and there for they know how to mostly avoid milk spotting but keep right on producing bullion with milk spotting issues, I assume its because they need to keep cost down on bullion production but with the high mark up on their numismatic coins they can spend the extra on processing the plancets properly.
I am no expert though lol but it seems most mints dont care about milk spotting issues or don't want to spend the extra money on the better plancets.
Bad news...I sent my coin back expecting to get a different coin. Not gonna happen, I was given the choice of either taking my money back or taking the coin in question back.
I decided to just take my money back, even though that's not really what I wanted. They said they inspected the coin above, and don't see the issue. They also stated that once a coin has been graded by a third party, it's beyond reproach.
I'd like to do business with Don Bailey, we were going to attempt to put together a short set of proof libertads from possibly 2012 going forward. I can't believe they don't see those milk spots in the field above her head.
I think you did the right thing and took your money. Its clear, it has milk spots. They are NOT 70s and I can guarantee you on ebay, if you put that same coin on, it wont go for a 70 price.
I can only suggest to try and stick to slabbed 69s OR just shoot for a set thats not slabbed, that way if do get the spots, it wont be really that bad of a deal.
Its amazing how dealers just seem to, I dunno, try and down play the significance of these spots. Again, MCM about 2 years ago, sold me a PF70 somalia high relief elephant and refused to let me send it back, even tho it had milk spots, the listing did NOT mention it at all and they considered bullion on top of that.
After that experience and having read countless horror stories, I made my mind up I either buy in OGP or a PF69.
Don Bailiey I have done business with them. I bought some Silver Libertad proofs a couple years back, just in the mints capsule and had no problem, coins still look good. I think they are reputable dealers but like everything else, dealers are interested in just a sale. I remember the hard sell Don Bailey gave me a few years ago about proof gold Libertads and how they were great investments low mintage and right away he could sell me a PF70 on a gold proof.
That was a turn off. I think tho its good they let you return the coins, they should because those coins are NOT perfect as we can all see with the milk spots. Do they have any silver proof Libertads NOT slabbed?
Interesting twist, I just got a response back. He said he can now see what I was talking about, he sees the spots. He further stated that it's either they weren't deemed bad enough to knock it to a 69, or, they developed AFTER the coin was slabbed and graded.
I can buy that, it's plausible, at least the part about the milk spots developing later on.
I'm at a crossroads, I've been eyeing 1/10 gold libertads and 1/20 gold libertads. The mintages are wildly tiny, like 500 or less. My common sense tells me to buy several and hold them for a number of years. With such a miniscule mintage, these things have the potential to payoff down the road.
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Posted 08/29/2016 4:00 pm
