Checking sealed tubes?

[Ron]

Just wondering and like to read about your opinions.

When you buy a full tube of silver (bullion)coins from a respectable dealer and the tube arrives fully sealed (by the Mint) , do you break the seal and check the coins to see if they are (milk)spotted or scratched or do you keep the tube sealed?

I don't doubt the coins are genuine but on one hand I am curious how they look like and if they are scratched or spotted (just curious, I know spots have no consequences for the value of the bullion coin).  On the other hand I can imagine the coins are even more liquidable when they're in a sealed tube. And as I understood the chances of the coins getting spots will be greater after the tube has been opened.

[blindguy]

I open every tube I buy. Never know what you might find.

[HelpingHands]

Some people leave monster boxes sealed.

[RoslandGold]

Just now, HelpingHands said:

Some people leave monster boxes sealed.

Yes, but they usually contain a barcode which can be verified with the mint. (at least for münze österreich and some others).

It's not just the problem that you break the seal, some tubes contains a protection gas which helps that the silver wont become milky (HQC).

[StevenDS]

I leave my higher premium tubes sealed, eg Korean Tigers.

Maples and Rectangle Dragon bars, I've opened.

If you will sell them per coin, you might as well open them as soon as you buy them.

For a buyer it can be both positive and negative. Sealed limits the posibility of fakes, but you have no idea about the quality of the coins. 

[Stu]

58 minutes ago, RoslandGold said:

Yes, but they usually contain a barcode which can be verified with the mint. (at least for münze österreich and some others).

It's not just the problem that you break the seal, some tubes contains a protection gas which helps that the silver wont become milky (HQC).

I never knew that, thanks. 

[Pete]

I always open every tube of bullion coins.
You may find many suppliers break the seal and insert a piece of padding to fill the gap and to minimise rattling during shipping.
I very much doubt the value of a sealed tube would be increased unopened.

As for modern Britannias expect every coin, if not most, to have some minor scuff marks on the highly polished queen's face.
I'm not sure if these scuffs are in minting or in rubbing when in the tube.
Having purchased in the past sheets of Britannias from the Royal Mint, each coin inside a plastic blister which I very much doubt would create abrasions, every coin was badly marked.
Perhaps they churn them out like normal currency coins into a large hopper where they rub against each other before being packed in sheets or tubes ?

Milk spots were notorious with Royal Canadian Mint bullion coins like Maples and themed wildlife.
I am seeing more bad from our Royal Mint nowadays than from any other mint, even on the Queens Beasts seeing lots of tiny spots.
Spotting and milk staining has absolutely nothing to do with handling, moisture, air quality etc - it is down to processes in the mint itself by not cleaning residues from the blanks properly, leaving chemical agents in the water which are then baked into the surface through a chemical reaction on the coin and create the stains.

It is impossible to remove milk spots and stains without surface abrasion i.e. polishing.
No acids, solvents etc will remove these marks.
Any mechanical means of erasing will most likely introduce hairline scratches but as these are bullion with inevitable deeper scratches and dings, at least they might be made to look pretty.

Here is an example of 2 Royal Mint Britannia silver coins purchased a few days ago from the European Mint ( showing the packer's greasy fingerprints ) taken from a tube of 20, described as uncirculated. The finger marks would not have been extra had I bought a full tube ( 25 ) but the coins themselves would still have been total bad, so how will you know if you don't open the tube ?
Over the next few days I will be using a Dremel drill and polishing pads with 3 grades of jeweller's rouge to remove all the stains.
I've dipped a coin in eZest which strips everything in seconds, tried acetone, methanol, ethanol and isopropyl alcohol with no avail .
Expert mechanical polishing only will restore these coins.

 

[STONE]

1 hour ago, HelpingHands said:

Some people leave monster boxes sealed.

Thats a hard decision. If you buy it and leave it sealed and sell it ten years down the road and then the new buyer opens it and discovers a problem then we get screwed twice. I made the decision, that knowing now is worth a lot more than a seal around a box. I bought a sealed 2017 proof Krugerrand with a low COA. I was just going to put it away sealed until some time in the future. Then I started reading posts that were saying the coins had popped out of the capsules and were getting damaged in transit. Well by now it was months after I had bought the coin so I decided to open it. Sure enough, it had popped out of the capsule and the desiccant had scratched up the coin pretty bad. Now my $275.00 purchase was worth $18.00   The window for returning it had closed since I had waited so long. Now I open everything and my new motto is "Trust, but verify."  For the most part, buyers down the road will want to inspect their purchases as well so opening mint sealed stuff is no big deal. A lot of online dealers are marketing "Mint sealed" as a big thing. Its not, its just marketing so they can jack up the price.

[Melon]

This is what I think of mint seals... 😄

[blindguy]

Over the years I have bought lots of tubes of silver, some from mints and some from dealers. The tubes from mints have always had the right amount of coins but also contained a few mint errors that were worth extra money.  And from dealers I bought tubes of dimes (silver) that I was told had 50 silver dimes in a tube. When I got home from the show the tubes had between 50 to 54 dimes in each tube. Another time I bought tubes of silver half dollars and the bottem of one tube contained 5 Iowa commemorative half dollars. I sent them to NGC they graded ms63 to ms65. One time I bought from a dealer a sealed $50 bag of Mercury dimes. I was told that his help had gone through the bag for key dates. He should fire his help as I found 11 1921-d and 1921 dimes and one 1942/1 overdate.  So check those tubes.  Jim

[dom555]

14 hours ago, Melon said:

This is what I think of mint seals... 😄

I too hate coins and bars in sealed plastic.  I want to inspect/check and weight every coin/bar when i get it.

[trp]

I can’t help myself, I have to open them, to tempting! For me it’s like having a cheque and not cashing it, just couldn’t do it. Most people I’ve come across aren’t fussed that they have been opened they just like the fact it’s a full tube. 

[RoslandGold]

3 hours ago, trp said:

I can’t help myself, I have to open them, to tempting! For me it’s like having a cheque and not cashing it, just couldn’t do it. Most people I’ve come across aren’t fussed that they have been opened they just like the fact it’s a full tube. 

Some mints dont even seal them. They are sent in a masterbox, but the tube itself is not sealed.  We had this with Royal Mint, Somalia Elephant and some other coins. Not a big problem at all, since coins which are delivered in tubes are mostly in a bad quality anyway. 

Some mints do it really well and encapsulate each, put a foil around and label the foil with the mintage date. Czech Mint is doing that for the lions.

Attached are tubes which are fresh from the box. Royal Mint (Great Britain 2020) coins were without a seal. 

The quality for the coins (first day minted) were really bad .. see grading results.

[trp]

@RoslandGold that is a shiny hoard! 

[RoslandGold]

this is one of our sales and packaging tables for the coins which are sent out next day. But thank you  

[Pete]

@RoslandGold - interesting to see the results in grading first issue Britannia gold coins but the topic I believe is about sealed tubes of bullion silver.
 

[Darr3nG]

21 hours ago, HelpingHands said:

Some people leave monster boxes sealed.

Schrodinger's Monster Box... "Until the box is open, all Silver is both milk-spotted and BU"