What's a list of "don'ts" for milkspotting?

[YearOfTheDragon2014]

Have had some 2018 Britannias for about three weeks. Have had them out of the capsules but I've been very careful to only hold them by the edges. Looked at them today and one has horrendous milkspotting that wasn't there when I got them. Like a third of one side is covered in a big white splotch. Doing a bit of googling, a couple of people have mentioned moisture triggering it and I do have quite clammy hands. So should I just not touch them at all, even by the edge? Anything else I should avoid doing?

[RoughDog]

No sure really. 

Iv'e not had many coins that have milk spotted, only a few Canadian coins and a Perth mint spider.  They milk spotted while they were stored in capsules, maybe not placed in capsules directly from purchase but soon after.  When I noticed the milk spotting 🤨🧐😕⚡😣⚡😡🤔🔨😡 a while ago and also not being well, I placed the maple in between some pieces of paper and took my worldly frustrations out on the coin with a metal lump hammer. 🔨💥🔨💥🔨💥😣😕🤨   Now I have a slight attachment to the maple🤩😎 and it is no longer in a capsule, left on my desk to man handle like a kind of stress ball and spinning top coin to play with.  The milk spots seem to have disappeared.  Maybe due to handling it?  The coin has been left on my desk or lying about in various places and it looks OK, just some big dents.  

My other coins like queens beasts are in capsules and the capsules are sealed in small push clip seal bags with the air squeezed out by hand, with the exception of one of each coin in a lovely queens beast box made by Alun.  So far no more milk spots.  

[Alymac]

Anyone ever tried vacuum sealing coins? Just thinking I have a sous vide and with that use a vacuum sealer quite a bit but wondering if could place coins in bag and vacuum seal it and maybe save them from milking.

On a side point....do silver bars ever milk up?

[sovereignsteve]

41 minutes ago, Alymac said:

Anyone ever tried vacuum sealing coins? Just thinking I have a sous vide and with that use a vacuum sealer quite a bit but wondering if could place coins in bag and vacuum seal it and maybe save them from milking.

I'm sure it's been talked about on here. Can't remember who was advocating it but I'm pretty sure someone was doing it.

[Lowlow]

Don't buy coins where this is an issue ... 90% constitutional silver is much better

[Bullionaire]

I've got a 2018 brit that I'm trying to tone up by handling as much as possible and leaving exposed to the air at all times. No blooming change in it after 5 months... whereas other coins that have been encapsulated all their life are spotted beyond recognition... Goldfinger!

[danmc82]

Dont buy anything from the Canadian Mint.

I'm surprised their Silver still gets bought after seeing the state of some of their coins.

 

 

[StackemHigh]

Don't buy silver. Buy gold !

[Pete]

There are literally thousands of posts on the web about the dreaded silver milk spotting.
This is like a disease on a plant - you either have it or you haven't when you buy it.

Some mints are more prone to milking than others but the worst has to be the Canadian Mint.
After the Royal Mint switched to pure silver rather than Britannia silver, more of their coins are showing spots.
Surprisingly this is much rarer with Australian mint both Perth mint and Royal Australian Mint.

Having read multiple articles my conclusion is that the milk spot problem lies at the door of the Mint and has little to do with storage, type of capsule etc etc.
The milk is silver chloride and once present it cannot be removed without some surface damage - maybe you get lucky but under magnification there will be changes.
The silver pox is created in the Mint most likely by not removing chemicals thoroughly in washing or reusing water that should have been changed earlier - a bit like running a car on old oil ignoring the time to change. The fact that some Mints have next to no spots whilst others have an alarming rate of spots percentage wise does suggest the problem is linked to a cleaning or cooling process which does show up in batches as opposed to the coin design.

[terakris]

On 14/03/2019 at 20:53, Alymac said:

Anyone ever tried vacuum sealing coins? Just thinking I have a sous vide and with that use a vacuum sealer quite a bit but wondering if could place coins in bag and vacuum seal it and maybe save them from milking.

On a side point....do silver bars ever milk up?

I do this and spots still appear. I've realised it's just a fact of stacking silver so kinda expect some to spot. It may help but I think if it's going to spot it's going to spot... not much you can do.

[RoughDog]

If I end up with significant amounts of milk spotted coins, eventually it may tempt me to experiment pouring my own 100g bars.  To date it's not worth it, so keep on stacking.

I have no silver proof coins for this reason.  I think the most I've paid for a single ounce is £34, again for this reason.

 

[TeaTime]

A very old friend of mine washes  all his bullion coins with mild detergent upon receipt before encapsulating them - to date he has never had milk spotting. I can only summise that it's nothing to do with the silver as such but must be related to chemicals on the coin either from the minting process or from the mint wash (or lack of).

Personally, coming to silver stacking from a numismatic background, i'm not that fussed by milk spotting.

[silenceissilver]

24 minutes ago, TeaTime said:

A very old friend of mine washes  all his bullion coins with mild detergent upon receipt before encapsulating them

Only silver or also gold?

[TeaTime]

Silver. He's too canny to collect gold...

[RoughDog]

22 hours ago, TeaTime said:

Silver. He's too canny to collect gold...

He may be too canny to collect silver now.  He may have turned in to a stacking master 😃