Silvermachine

Hi All, New to the forum and have recently been buying a few royal mint silver proofs. I received a 2006 piedfort set yesterday which at first glance looked great, but when viewed in direct sunlight I could see some marks in the fields... I took some pics and I'm assuming that they've been cleaned in some way? The odd thing is that the raised parts of the design look totally unaffected and I'd always thought cleaning would show as hairlines across the whole coin, whereas these look almost like contact marks that are restricted to the fields only? Any thoughts on this? Cheers.

Sorry Azda, just picked this up after getting back from post office; I must admit the fields didn't look like a proof in the pics, but there was a lot of hazing and tarnish cutting down on the reflectivity (sp?). Either way, the seller accepted the return so I'll write it off to a learning experience 😏

Yes, 99% of the proof coins I've received have those mirror like fields; these ones are just a bit odd in that the marks seem slightly disguised by light tarnishing. Never mind anyway; I've contacted the seller and will be returning them. Thanks again for your help and advice.

I did indeed, though I should say that this was before you replied to my post; I'm well aware that you know your onions! I thought that perhaps decimal coinage was something of less interest around here as I noticed the decimal coinage section is fairly quiet.... It's a piedfort proof coin as part of a set with COAs etc which makes me wonder if it's been dipped and ended up etched in some way as well as having handling marks... Admittedly I did ensure the lighting in the last photos was as harsh as possible at bringing out all the flaws...will take a pic of the whole coin in better light tomorrow... Thanks for your advice

Also, can I ask what sort of handling would cause such marks; fingers/fingernails or contact with other coins/capsules perhaps? I'm assuming that proof coins would never have such marks present from the mint; I'm not entirely sure on the details concerning the processes for polishing of dies/planchets etc. but I'm assuming these are far too random for that...

Thanks Azda, What I can't understand is that all such marks seem restricted to the fields; I can't see any noticeable marks to the raised/frosted detail; here is another pic...