2006 MS70 Gold Buffalo Flaw Found

[Gold Finger-migration]

Ok I received My 2006 MS70 Gold bullion Buffalo coin a few weeks back and I have been admiring it for that period of time. Today I decided to get a real good close look at it. Not having a loupe I detached the 50mm , 1:1.8 lens off of my 35mm camera. Believe it or not that lens with proper lighting will give me the ability to find any flaw. The coin was totally perfect on the reverse. On the obverse I found the smallest little crater with a greyish little particle, that under magnification looked like a crater with a meteor still in the hole. You cannot see the flaw with the naked eye, even the best eyes looked at it and could not see it, we are talking fractional microns here in diameter. So when the coin says .9999 fine I guess I found the .0001 not gold! . I might be too picky here but it is not totally perfect like my 1987 Proof St. Gaudens Gold Eagle.

[mrkelso]

Was it near the Buffalo's face?

[the_Thing ®]

Anything been said about the red discoloration on some of the pieces?

[Wihlborg]

Yes, it is machine oil residue and NCS claims they can remove it from most of the examples they have seen it on.

 

John

[Wihlborg]

By the way, I only say that NCS claims to be able to remove it because I have no first hand experience one way or the other with any of the coins they worked on.

 

Personally, if they say they can remove it, I'm inclined to believe them, at least until proven otherwise.

 

John

[DC Dawg]

I once read an article by a professional grader that said you can find a lot of flaws on coins if you use high enough magnification. I remember that he wrote that he does his grading using a 5x and 10x loupe before using a 20x microscope.

 

Even the most "perfect" coins have flaws at high magnitude.

 

IMHO, enjoy the coin because it's a wonderful design!

 

Scott

[coinman1794]

If this "crater" is caused by a grease strike-through (it sounds like a strike-through with grease blob still attached, as this fits your description exactly) then it does not affect the grade anyway and shouldn't hurt your MS70.

[Gold Finger-migration]

No it was not near the buffalo's face. Gee I thought the indian side was the obverse, the flaw is on that side.