MILK SPOTS! The Royal Mint must be STOPPED!

[365DaysofSilver]

Hello all,

I’m trying to get The Royal Mint to finally stop selling silver coins/bars with milk spotting issues. 

If you want to support my cause please sign the below petition (it’s free!)

https://chng.it/yd2ctqWh9Y

[Anteater]

While I too would like them to address the issue, I really don't think a petition to stop selling milky silver is going to go anything at all while many people are still buying that milky silver from them.

[SheepStacker]

1 hour ago, Mothballjim said:

Hello all,

I’m trying to get The Royal Mint to finally stop selling silver coins/bars with milk spotting issues. 

If you want to support my cause please sign the below petition (it’s free!)

https://chng.it/yd2ctqWh9Y

It's not a Royal Mint exclusive problem. Silver Krugs, Philharmonics, Eagles, Maples, they all milk. They're bullion coins. You're buying the metal.

[365DaysofSilver]

3 minutes ago, Anteater said:

While I too would like them to address the issue, I really don't think a petition to stop selling milky silver is going to go anything at all while many people are still buying that milky silver from them.

We’ve got to try something, they are literally one of the only mints left still selling coins/bars with milk spots

2 minutes ago, SheepStacker said:

It's not a Royal Mint exclusive problem. Silver Krugs, Philharmonics, Eagles, Maples, they all milk. They're bullion coins. You're buying the metal.

A lot of those coins you just mentioned don’t milk spot anymore, it’s only the older ones that were produced using the old process that do. Also if you are just buying the metal why would they bring out lots of different designs on bullion coins. 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Mothballjim

[Anteater]

Just now, SheepStacker said:

It's not a Royal Mint exclusive problem. Silver Krugs, Philharmonics, Eagles, Maples, they all milk. They're bullion coins. You're buying the metal.

To be fair, though, some are rather better than others and it'd be nice for RM to improve things a bit.

[SheepStacker]

Just now, Mothballjim said:

they are literally one of the only mints left still selling coins/bars with milk spots

Not true at all. I bought 2022 silver coins from most of the world's mints, I had milkers in all of them.

[sixgun]

5 minutes ago, Anteater said:

While I too would like them to address the issue, I really don't think a petition to stop selling milky silver is going to go anything at all while many people are still buying that milky silver from them.

The Royal Canadian Mint wasn't interested at one point but now it seems they have got their act together. So it is possible.

[365DaysofSilver]

3 minutes ago, SheepStacker said:

Not true at all. I bought 2022 silver coins from most of the world's mints, I had milkers in all of them.

I’d be interested to see, if that’s the case I guarantee they are no where near as bad as RM milk spots, sometimes the whole surface is covered in them. 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Mothballjim

[365DaysofSilver]

Just now, sixgun said:

The Royal Canadian Mint wasn't interested at one point but now it seems they have got their act together. So it is possible.

100%. They used to have the same issues but they addressed it and fixed it. 

[365DaysofSilver]

If we can get this petition to 5000 signatures I will physically hand it to Anne Jessopp you have my word!

[SheepStacker]

Just now, Mothballjim said:

I’d be interested to see, if that’s the case I guarantee they are no where near as bad as RM milk spots, sometimes the whole surface is covered in them. 

here you go

[365DaysofSilver]

Just now, SheepStacker said:

here you go

So are we saying RCM are the only mint that’s managed to solve this problem then?

[Anteater]

13 minutes ago, sixgun said:

The Royal Canadian Mint wasn't interested at one point but now it seems they have got their act together. So it is possible.

But was it because of a petition? I'm not saying that the situation couldn't be improved (even if milk spots weren't eliminated completely) but that I doubt a petition will have any impact.

[365DaysofSilver]

1 minute ago, Anteater said:

But was it because of a petition? I'm not saying that the situation couldn't be improved (even if milk spots weren't eliminated completely) but that I doubt a petition will have any impact.

A petition with 5000 signatures handed directly to the CEO would surely cause something to be done

[Anteater]

4 minutes ago, Mothballjim said:

A petition with 5000 signatures handed directly to the CEO would surely cause something to be done

Sweet summer child

[TheShinyStuff]

5 minutes ago, Mothballjim said:

A petition with 5000 signatures handed directly to the CEO would surely cause something to be done

I'd imagine it would get you rugby tackled by 18 stones of security guard.😂

[365DaysofSilver]

1 minute ago, TheShinyStuff said:

I'd imagine it would get you rugby tackled by 18 stones of security guard.😂

It would obviously be done properly, I’m not just going to try and stroll into her office 😂

[TheShinyStuff]

I've signed your petition. Good luck.

[365DaysofSilver]

Just now, TheShinyStuff said:

I've signed your petition. Good luck.

Thanks, I felt like I had to do a job interview to get that one 😂🤝

[Anteater]

1 minute ago, Mothballjim said:

Thanks, I felt like I had to do a job interview to get that one 😂🤝

I think he just wants to see you tackled by a security guard

[365DaysofSilver]

2 minutes ago, Anteater said:

I think he just wants to see you tackled by a security guard

Me going toe to toe with a security guard outside the CEOs office at The Royal Mint might actually make a bigger impact than just handing over the signed petition. Atleast that would reach the papers 😂

Edited January 8, 2023 by Mothballjim

[TheShinyStuff]

2 minutes ago, Anteater said:

I think he just wants to see you tackled by a security guard

And you don't?

[ZRPMs]

The current thought is that milk spots on silver coins are caused by a flaw in the minting process. The silver coin starts life as a flat circular disk known as a blank or planchet. To prevent the silver coin becoming too brittle, the blank is annealed, which is a process of heating and cooling. Prior to annealing, the blank is cleaned/degreased with solvents and it is thought that sometimes not all of the solvent is removed before the coin is heated, baking an imperfection into the surface of the silver.

The coin emerges from the process looking in perfect condition, but with time (between days and years) the imperfection mutates into a white substance, the dreaded milk spots.

Other theories attain that milk spots can be caused by reaction with certain plastics (like PVC) but it may be that these reactions simply accelerate the appearance of the production flaw.

Milk spots are quite common and the problem is not limited to a single mint. Coins affected include Canadian Maples, America Eagles, British Britannias, Chinese Pandas, Silver Krugerrands and many others, including silver bars.

The real question is can milk spots be removed without damaging the coin? The answer will always lie in the negative as any cleaning of a coin is always detrimental to some extent. Cleaning affects the surface of the coin and there are real dangers that hairlines, micro abrasions or even full scratches will result. Poorly cleaned coins have a habit of 'looking wrong'.

Unfortunately, there is no known way for silver collectors to prevent milk spots. You can maybe help matters by using good quality encapsulation, using only plastics that are known to be safe with coins and then storing coins in a friendly environment.

But if a coin has been flawed in the production process, it will still be liable to develop white spots. This moves the onus back to the mint where the coin was produced and there is action and good news coming from that direction.

The Canadian silver maple was one of the coins that was prone to silver spots and the Royal Canadian Mint invested in considerable research into the causes and eradication of the problem, and have been assisted by the collaboration of a local University. The result is what they call MINTSHIELDTM surface protection. Launched in 2018, this process improvement has greatly reduced the occurrence of milk spots in silver Maples.

The source for the above info is Milk Spots on Silver Coins (britanniacoincompany.com) I thought it was very informative. I'm more in to gold but I have, in silver, mostly poured bars. These don't tend to be affected by the milk spots. I now know why.

[365DaysofSilver]

10 minutes ago, ZRPMs said:

The current thought is that milk spots on silver coins are caused by a flaw in the minting process. The silver coin starts life as a flat circular disk known as a blank or planchet. To prevent the silver coin becoming too brittle, the blank is annealed, which is a process of heating and cooling. Prior to annealing, the blank is cleaned/degreased with solvents and it is thought that sometimes not all of the solvent is removed before the coin is heated, baking an imperfection into the surface of the silver.

The coin emerges from the process looking in perfect condition, but with time (between days and years) the imperfection mutates into a white substance, the dreaded milk spots.

Other theories attain that milk spots can be caused by reaction with certain plastics (like PVC) but it may be that these reactions simply accelerate the appearance of the production flaw.

Milk spots are quite common and the problem is not limited to a single mint. Coins affected include Canadian Maples, America Eagles, British Britannias, Chinese Pandas, Silver Krugerrands and many others, including silver bars.

The real question is can milk spots be removed without damaging the coin? The answer will always lie in the negative as any cleaning of a coin is always detrimental to some extent. Cleaning affects the surface of the coin and there are real dangers that hairlines, micro abrasions or even full scratches will result. Poorly cleaned coins have a habit of 'looking wrong'.

Unfortunately, there is no known way for silver collectors to prevent milk spots. You can maybe help matters by using good quality encapsulation, using only plastics that are known to be safe with coins and then storing coins in a friendly environment.

But if a coin has been flawed in the production process, it will still be liable to develop white spots. This moves the onus back to the mint where the coin was produced and there is action and good news coming from that direction.

The Canadian silver maple was one of the coins that was prone to silver spots and the Royal Canadian Mint invested in considerable research into the causes and eradication of the problem, and have been assisted by the collaboration of a local University. The result is what they call MINTSHIELDTM surface protection. Launched in 2018, this process improvement has greatly reduced the occurrence of milk spots in silver Maples.

The source for the above info is Milk Spots on Silver Coins (britanniacoincompany.com) I thought it was very informative. I'm more in to gold but I have, in silver, mostly poured bars. These don't tend to be affected by the milk spots. I now know why.

I did make a video a while back on how to remove milk spots but even once they are removed they can still come back.  
 

I think my biggest problem with milk spots is they can be solved/minimised but the RM is just choosing to ignore them.

They do impact resale value 100%,  and the silver maples hardly have any issues now they’ve introduced ‘MintShield’. We just need RM to follow in their footsteps!

 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Mothballjim

[Petra]

The Canadian Mint actually only admits that their patented method only ‘reduces’ milk spotting and if it is going to happen then it will just take longer to show.🤔