I received my 50 coins today. I have only examined 10 so far, and they all exhibit similar deficiencies.
They all have numerous brown resin marks on both sides of the coin. I can scratch some of them off with a fingernail, but it then leaves wither a black spot, or a shiny spot.
The 'aocs approved' is not struck to the same depth as the '999 fine ag'.
The coins almost look like they have light pitting - numerous tiny black dents/dings/resin/scratches/something.
I will examine the other 40 and then try to post some representative pics.
As it stands I am glad to have them, and still prefer them over ASE or CM simply because of what they represent...however I would feel dishonest selling them as BU.
After about an hour with a soft cloth and a bright light I have arrived at these findings.
The coins arrived in tubes of 20, 20, and 10. The half filled coin tube contained coins that absolutely cannot be sold or marked as BU, regardless of the fact that they are uncirculated. It appears as thought they were able to move around just enough to cause tiny dents/dings/ scratches. Strangely these are also the coins with the most of the brown resin stuff on them.
The coins that arrived in the tubes of 20 fared better, though I still eliminated 12 of them from BU classification potential.
The other 28 will likely go up for sale once GCS is done bogarting ebay.
In the meantime I will buy 40 of the trivium coin, and likely each of the next releases.
I was not able to take any pictures (because I am camera skill deficient) that clearly show the brown resin or scratches.
Also- I intend to trade older low premium silver for the trivium coins - it seems a sure numismatic play given the performance of the SBSS coin, and an easy opportunity to flip them at a future date.
phew, glad I saw this thread, was literally about to buy for 1k (doesn't ship for lower amounts to my location) even tho i just want 1-5 of them really.
Guess I will pull the trigger on some keiser rounds instead for conversation pieces.
It took them a while. I had emailed them back in late November that I wanted to replace 10 of the medallions of the 20 I had received.
Today, 10 more medallions showed up on my doorstep (I had no idea they were coming, in fact, I'd pretty much forgotten about the whole ordeal... almost!). I guess they are going to send me some pre-paid packaging to send 10 back to them (based on their earlier email that I posted above)? But there is nothing to indicate that in the box, and no email communications at all.
Odd. I'll give it a day or two, then I'll call if I don't hear from them.
All that said, while it took over 2 months to make this situation good, they did make it good, and at their own expense rather than mine, and all the while I held my own silver.
AOCS is good people in my book. I now have (or have ordered) some of each set, including a couple of proofs of each medallion for which they've been offered. They seem to get better with each new release (except for the Slave Queen medallions. I ordered some, but I think they're a bit creepy...).
2 of the medallions that were sent to replace the 10 crappy ones I originally got look identical to the old ones, except they are polished properly and obviously better strikes.
However, 8 of the new ones have the "new rim" that was introduced in mid-late December by the AOCS mint. (the close reed is the old one, the wide reeding is the new).
I asked them on the phone today whether they could give me a count of how many "new rim" were made vs. "old rim", but the person on the phone had no idea, and didn't seem interested in finding out.
These things are already selling at quite a premium on ebay... wonder if the "new rim" makes them worth more? I expect very few of them were made with this rim, which would make them even more rare than the original D&D medallions.
Photos below, you can see both the new rim and old rim D&D medallions, "old rim" on top, "new rim" on bottom:
Shipment update
I just got off the phone with AOCS and they said that they planned on shipping all orders by 1 Dec.
@RL999 re: person depicted on coinage
I'm thinking they mean modern silver bullion coins, and I'm pretty sure it's the Queen of England...
Coins
I received my 50 coins today. I have only examined 10 so far, and they all exhibit similar deficiencies.
They all have numerous brown resin marks on both sides of the coin. I can scratch some of them off with a fingernail, but it then leaves wither a black spot, or a shiny spot.
The 'aocs approved' is not struck to the same depth as the '999 fine ag'.
The coins almost look like they have light pitting - numerous tiny black dents/dings/resin/scratches/something.
I will examine the other 40 and then try to post some representative pics.
As it stands I am glad to have them, and still prefer them over ASE or CM simply because of what they represent...however I would feel dishonest selling them as BU.
update
After about an hour with a soft cloth and a bright light I have arrived at these findings.
The coins arrived in tubes of 20, 20, and 10. The half filled coin tube contained coins that absolutely cannot be sold or marked as BU, regardless of the fact that they are uncirculated. It appears as thought they were able to move around just enough to cause tiny dents/dings/ scratches. Strangely these are also the coins with the most of the brown resin stuff on them.
The coins that arrived in the tubes of 20 fared better, though I still eliminated 12 of them from BU classification potential.
The other 28 will likely go up for sale once GCS is done bogarting ebay.
In the meantime I will buy 40 of the trivium coin, and likely each of the next releases.
I was not able to take any pictures (because I am camera skill deficient) that clearly show the brown resin or scratches.
Also- I intend to trade older low premium silver for the trivium coins - it seems a sure numismatic play given the performance of the SBSS coin, and an easy opportunity to flip them at a future date.
AOCS agreed to replace the ones that are not up to snuff
I haven't heard back from them on shipping just yet, but now that it's December, I assume they will be keeping their word.
I'm surprised that more recent shipments seem to have the same issues. If the trivium coins come out like this, I won't be buying future releases.
Fingers crossed.
..
phew, glad I saw this thread, was literally about to buy for 1k (doesn't ship for lower amounts to my location) even tho i just want 1-5 of them really.
Guess I will pull the trigger on some keiser rounds instead for conversation pieces.
ACOS is as good as their word
It took them a while. I had emailed them back in late November that I wanted to replace 10 of the medallions of the 20 I had received.
Today, 10 more medallions showed up on my doorstep (I had no idea they were coming, in fact, I'd pretty much forgotten about the whole ordeal... almost!). I guess they are going to send me some pre-paid packaging to send 10 back to them (based on their earlier email that I posted above)? But there is nothing to indicate that in the box, and no email communications at all.
Odd. I'll give it a day or two, then I'll call if I don't hear from them.
All that said, while it took over 2 months to make this situation good, they did make it good, and at their own expense rather than mine, and all the while I held my own silver.
AOCS is good people in my book. I now have (or have ordered) some of each set, including a couple of proofs of each medallion for which they've been offered. They seem to get better with each new release (except for the Slave Queen medallions. I ordered some, but I think they're a bit creepy...).
Well, this is new...
2 of the medallions that were sent to replace the 10 crappy ones I originally got look identical to the old ones, except they are polished properly and obviously better strikes.
However, 8 of the new ones have the "new rim" that was introduced in mid-late December by the AOCS mint. (the close reed is the old one, the wide reeding is the new).
I asked them on the phone today whether they could give me a count of how many "new rim" were made vs. "old rim", but the person on the phone had no idea, and didn't seem interested in finding out.
These things are already selling at quite a premium on ebay... wonder if the "new rim" makes them worth more? I expect very few of them were made with this rim, which would make them even more rare than the original D&D medallions.
Photos below, you can see both the new rim and old rim D&D medallions, "old rim" on top, "new rim" on bottom: