The US Mint must hate me...2009 Proof quality...it sucks!

greghansen

My order of 20 of the 2009 Proof Sets arrived last week. I left them unopened in their box figuring I would check them this weekend and have a nice glow, since the earlier threads on these sets was by and large very favorable with regard to the quality of the coins.

Well, I just finished opening mine and only 8 of the 20 sets are remotely passable. And that's after making as many keeper sets as I could from the 20 full sets.

Now before you scream about how I'm just hunting for 70's, I don't even send proofs in for grading. I couldn't tell a 69 from a 70 on a good day. But since the lincoln cent coins are such an important part of this set, I was hoping those coins would at least look like nice modern proofs. It seems the most problems are related to the 'Adult Years' cent, which will be the next one released. On almost all of my reject sets there is unacceptable hazing or spotting in the fields. I'm wondering if I'm 'too picky'. I don't think so, because I'm talking about stuff that I saw with my naked eye. I didn't use a loupe to reject any of these sets. Just used my naked eye to see if they looked like nice proofs. I'm posting three of the lincoln cent images to give you a notion of what I'm dealing with. One of the cents has a rediculously nasty scratch on it.

While the cents were the most problematic, there was also peripheral hazing on a 3-4 sets of the state quarters, and cameo breaks visible to the naked eye on 2-3 of the kennedy half dollars. I didn't image all that, cause I figured I could mix and match and get about 16-17 decent sets...but for the problems with the cents.




Would you keep these sets or send them back. I'm inclined to send them back. I'm not comfortable selling these down the road as proofs, and I hate to imagine what some of those hazy areas might look like in 3-5 years time? What do you think?

tahoe98

...........INCREDIBLE!! i'd send them back. i had bad proofs also and high-tailed them to the post office. got my replacements, and well, let's just say they are better. BUT some lincolns are still smeared! it's AMAZING! you would think that they would at least inspect the REPLACEMENT SET before shipping! INCREDIBLE!

Raybob15239

Very poor quality on my sets as well. Very disappointed.

Stork

Send them back. And wait. And wait. And wai. And wait. And wait for your refund. Then call your credit card company and do a chargeback.

I had to do that with them for my one and only purchase this year (I sent back my high relief) as the customer service SUCKED ROCKS. They were rude and never processed the refund. I followed all instructions to a T and had my delivery confirmation so it was a fast 'investigation'. It was amusing though, when the credit did come through they tried to not refund my original shipping, but, as it was a CHARGEBACK the full amount had to be paid back--despite their policy of not refunding shipping.

It made me laugh. Out loud even. (Of course, I did pay to return the POS poor quality crap, but it was worth it). Can't ever imagine buying another thing from them again.

Good luck with all that.


Cathy

YaHa

Overpriced trash... 2009 and our U.S. Mint is letting this awful crap out is downright Ludicrous. Maybe a letter with pics should be sent to Mr. Moy.

BAJJERFAN

<< <i>Send them back. And wait. And wait. And wai. And wait. And wait for your refund. Then call your credit card company and do a chargeback.

I had to do that with them for my one and only purchase this year (I sent back my high relief) as the customer service SUCKED ROCKS. They were rude and never processed the refund. I followed all instructions to a T and had my delivery confirmation so it was a fast 'investigation'. It was amusing though, when the credit did come through they tried to not refund my original shipping, but, as it was a CHARGEBACK the full amount had to be paid back--despite their policy of not refunding shipping.

It made me laugh. Out loud even. (Of course, I did pay to return the POS poor quality crap, but it was worth it). Can't ever imagine buying another thing from them again.

Good luck with all that.


Cathy >>



If you call them afterwards, they will refund your return shipping.

Stork

<< <i>If you call them afterwards, they will refund your return shipping. >>


The problem was that they never processed my refund for the return after even 5 weeks after the signature confirmation was done. Besides who needs to get yelled at and/or hung up on by the so-called customer service reps--again. Not all the reps were rude of course, but a couple were flagrantly awful, but even the polite and friendly ones couldn't get the job done.

So, I called BofA and did the chargeback which ultimately was satisfying. Especially because the credit was done in two parts-- the original coin cost, followed by the second credit for the shipping cost. It looked like they tried jack Mastercard a tad, and MC jacked back when the full amount wasn't refunded initially.

Oh well, the mint got the crap back and I got my money, and the mint paid for an awful lot of 1-800 time....I hope this refund goes a little better, and the idea to send a letter with pictures to Mr. Moy sounds like fun too.


Cathy

MsMorrisine

How about them Spots! And we were blaming only Denver and Philly....







mint QC is slipping.

Mowgli

So much for manufacturing quality and the subsequent quality control. Those are ugly. If you really want to have an impact, send the photos and your story to The Times, Newsweek etc and let the general public know how poor the quality is of proof coinage. The mint will not like the bad press - maybe enough to do something.

garsmith

Send the back

BillJones

I stopped ordering from the mint for exactly this reason.

I go to my local dealer these days and pick through his stock. Even then it's not great. Every one of the Zackary Taylor dollars in his sets had spots. Since the presidential dollars are the least interesting thing about the set for me, I bought it anyway.

Edited to say. I'm not into getting these coins slabbed so I don't need them in PR-70, DCam. But I do want decent Proof coins, and right now the mint is doing a bad job of supplying them.

Kdog08

That is a shame!

Swampboy

I have a suggestion fot the CCAC meeting today to "Review design candidates for medal honoring the 38th Director of the United States Mint." ( read Moy)

Why not specify scratches , hazing, spots, and smudges on this piece as a reciprocal gesture from his customers?

What's fair is fair.

InternetJunky

Personally, I'm holding out for the Silver Proof Set. I hope it's not going to look like the examples posted here or else it'll definitely be sent back with no intentions of purchasing from the mint again.

BillJones

<< <i>Personally, I'm holding out for the Silver Proof Set. I hope it's not going to look like the examples posted here or else it'll definitely be sent back with no intentions of purchasing from the mint again. >>



Most of the coins that are really bad are the cents and presidential dollars. You will be seeing the same coins in the silver sets made of the same base metal. The biggest risk with the silver sets is fingerprints just as it is with the clad sets. I hope the silver sets are better, but don't hold your breath.

renomedphys

Not to rain on your pity party, but I bought three sets, and the only slug in the bunch was one of my Sacs. The rest of them actually look like PR69DCAMS, with maybe a 70 or two to boot. Don't know how I got so lucky.

baddogss

I feel your pain. I had to return the Braille MS silver dollar twice, the third one I received is acceptable.

pennyannie

I just looked at my sets. Mine are fine. I did not know any could look that bad.

JupitarCoins

Sorry to hear about that. My two sets were the best quality proof sets I have ever recieved from the mint. Maybe cause I was one of the first to order them.

greghansen

12 of the 20 sets went back today for replacements. We'll see how the 2nd round goes. I concur with the poster who noted that the majority of the problems are with the cents and dollars. The quarters and other denominations seemed to fare much better overall.

shark1970

the 2009 proof sets I received were very nice.

the best quality in several years.

08HALA20

I just received grades from NGC and received 1 PR67, PR68 only 6 out of 40 70's.

Better than the average though.



If they grade this low at NGC what will PCGS pops look like?

Joe

YaHa

<< <i>I just received grades from NGC and received 1 PR67, PR68 only 6 out of 40 70's.

Better than the average though.



If they grade this low at NGC what will PCGS pops look like?

Joe >>




A scarecrow laughing his ass off to the bank. PCGS is tough on these moderns I tell ya..

Konahead

Well if you take a look at the percentage of 70's with the 4 proof cents your observation is bearing out. Very low percentage grading high.

CWPaul

Can you send me high resolution color images of the spotted cents in the Proof sets to pgilkes@coinworld.com, both obverse and reverse?


Paul Gilkes
Coin World
Senior Staff Writer

CWPaul

Can you send me high resolution color images of the spotted cents in the Proof sets to pgilkes@coinworld.com, both obverse and reverse?


Paul Gilkes
Coin World
Senior Staff Writer

ebizgobro

I also have received proof sets of poor quality. The lenses with the four Lincoln cents and with the half and presidential dollars have been the most problematic with noticeable scratches.
Since you can only return complete sets, I have returned them for replacements.

DBSTrader2

I lucked-out. Mine were nice (at least to the visible eye) for saving 1 per kid as a gift. Not sure what I'd find if I magnified the life out of them, however................


BUT...... has anyone ever asked the Mint DIRECTLY what the reason is behind all the spots and RECEIVED any answer?


- - Dave