A few questions about coin condition

[gold_fever-migration]

Hello.

I was wondering if someone could school me on something. I have a lot of Uncirculated Franklin halfs, in US mint celophane from 1959, etc. The coins have always been taken care of, and have little to no contact marks. They do however have spotting. kind of milky white dots that have developed. I've heard it referred to as oxidation. My question is: how much do the spots downgrade the coin? can they be submitted with such an issue, or destined for details grading? or is that considered damaged?

heres a pic. the contact marks seen are actually on the plastic, not the coin, but the spots are what i need to know more about.

 

My confusion stems from a recent sumission of mine...20- 09 canadian maples. (regret that one btw!) I had one returned to me in a flip. the note said STAINED. Upon examining the coin, it appeared to have spots such as these, different, but similar.

 

(side note The confusing thing is that they came from a sealed monster box. A bunch of the coins actually had similar issues. mint made, not by me, because they were FRESH out of the tubes.)

But anyhow. The spots on the Franklins? any info?

 

THANKS!

[gold_fever-migration]

Heck of a time posting that pic. Now i see it didn't load.

Anyhow, I see the "spots" on a lot of old mint unc sets. this is what i am referring to. are coins with those types of spots damaged? or ?

[bsshog40]

I;ve seen the spotting you're talking about. Not sure what causes it but I know they are very hard to remove if it even can be done.

[MarkFeld]

Welcome to the forum.

 

Are you by chance speaking of Proof coins, as opposed to mint set coins? The former are more susceptible to the type of spotting you described. Either way, it (the spotting/environmental contamination/oxidation) does negatively impact the condition and the value. Even without the spotting, however, odds are against your 1959 coins being worth getting graded.

[Bugmann1974]

I think he is talking about Mint set coins Mark.

 

I think the '57 that I have is showing the same spots he is talking about. for some reason it looks brownish but spots are really white. Its a dang shame too, this is a super nice coin! Deffinate FBL candidate also.

 

 

[Ahab]

I think he is talking about Mint set coins Mark.

 

I think the '57 that I have is showing the same spots he is talking about. for some reason it looks brownish but spots are really white. Its a dang shame too, this is a super nice coin! Deffinate FBL candidate also.

 

 

You wanna sell it?

[physics-fan3.14]

While the fields on that coin are smooth, the spotting limits the grade to no higher than 64. I'm pretty sure that no amount of dipping or chemical treatment will remove the spots either. They are known as "water spots" and are fairly common on coins of that era. Modern ASE's have the same problem, which goes by the name of milk spots. No one is entirely sure why they occur, only that they are permanent.

 

For more, see the entry in my Registry about them, here: http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/CoinDetail.aspx?PeopleCoinID=178908&PeopleSetID=6638

[Bugmann1974]

You wanna sell it?

 

Not at this time.

 

Jason, thank you for that explination. I had a feeling that they couldn't be removed.

[prudden]

You could try an acetone bath to possibly lessen the severity of the spots. 100% Acetone is available at Walmart or Home depot. It absolutely won't damage the coins i any way unless you leave it on to dry. After the Acetone bath,you must rinse thoroughly with distilled water.

[gold_fever-migration]

Yes indeed! Those are exactly the spots I was referring to. Thanks Guys!