Ok, so the photos really don't show what I'm seeing, and unfortunately, I can't take a photo through my 20x loupe to really see the details. However, I snapped some shots of the tube, which was my main question anyways. Here is a shot that shows the height difference. 2010 tube is the taller one, and all my other tubes are exactly the same as the short one, though they are all 2009 or earlier tubes.
Ok, so here is a shot of the inside of both tubes. I hope you can see that there are a couple of differences; one is that the older tube has a plastic "line" that sort of narrows the tube so it holds the edge of the coin at that line only (the rest of the tube is wider, and so there is air between the tube and the coin rims, except where that line is (actually, there are 4 lines, one at each 90 degree distance around the inside). However, the 2010 tube does not have this, and the result is that the coins sort of slide around inside and are not held tightly. Also notice the flashing on the 2010 tube... none of my earlier tubes have that flashing. I'm not sure if they trimmed away the flashing on previous years and just don't do that anymore, or if this is another sign that it's not a real tube from the mint?
Now then, this is the best I could do (sorry, I'm a bad photographer, even after practicing, haha) to show some of the "chip" stuff on the rim...
This doesn't really look that bad, but if you see it in person, you can see that the rim almost looks "stuck" on the edge of the coin; hard to explain. Compared to past years, it looks... well, different. So I got out the 20x loupe and when I look at the same little "ding" on the rim, it actually looks like the top is shiny and flaked off, and the bottom is dull, darker, and... well, I'm not a coin expert, but it looked like plating flaking off to me. However, it's tiny (can't see it with the 10x loupe well enough to tell), and maybe it has something to do with the difference between the top of the coin if it's finished somehow by the mint? Different from the metal underneath that isn't finished?
I should confess that while I've looked at
US coins with rim or edge chips in the past, they were always older, business strike coins in .90 silver, so perhaps comparing that to this is incorrect if they do something to the top of the planchet that makes the very surface of the silver look different? I've never seen a silver eagle with a ding in it like that before, let alone 20 of them. And it's only the edges and rims that have the problems... although the surface of the coins is also weird. It's shiny almost like it's greasy in the centers (obverse and reverse), but in the fields closer to the rim, it's duller. Although it does cartwheel if I rotate it in the light. But anyways, maybe this isn't plating chips, but just dings of some kind?
But if it's just a "ding", how did it get there? The seller swore up and down they had never even opened the tube after receiving it from the mint as part of a monster box of 500 coins (25 tubes). But every single coin has dings and chips in the edge. Yet there are no metal flakes inside the tube, and although the coins can rattle around inside, they can't rattle enough to get damage on the edges, and the material the tubes are made of is soft plastic, so I can't imagine it could possibly have scratched the edges of these coins. So clearly this damage to the coins happened before they went in the tube. Is it possible this is happening at the mint itself?
Now, one thing I only recently became aware of (as in a few minutes ago) is that the US Mint only produced like 4-10 million Silver Eagles per year until the economy crashed and silver demand went up. Since 2008, they've done much larger amounts, and I also read that there have been problems with planchet production (the US Mint does not make it's own planchets, but contracts with private companies for planchet supply). 2008 saw over 20 million Silver Eagles minted, and 2009 saw over 30 million. So far 2010 is on pace to meet or exceed 2009 numbers.
So... it's possible that what's making me think these are "fake" is actually the mint sacrificing quality due to rushed production and adding vendors for supplies (planchets, tubes?) that aren't meeting the same standards as the earlier year coins.
Or, then again, maybe they are fake? But, if they are fake, they are really really good fakes. They weight within .1 grams of 31.103, they are within spec for diameter and edge width, and they ring right.
So anyways, now I'm beginning to think I'm just overly paranoid, they are real US Silver Eagles, and that the US Mint has really falled off in terms of production quality in the face of increased demand...
However, I'd still really appreciate it if someone could confirm or deny that the 2010 plastic holders changed.
Posted 08/24/2010 6:26 pm
