White spots on silver bullion coins have been a known issue in the global bullion market for years. While white spots do not change the purity or composition of bullion coins, investors have expressed concerns about their impact on the coins’ aesthetic quality — a fact that presented a challenge for the R&D and engineering teams at the Royal Canadian Mint.

The Mint’s research concluded there is no single cause of white spots. Multiple factors have an impact, including the way silver reacts with contaminants in processing, handling, and storage.  The Royal Canadian Mint states that all Silver Maple Leaf bullion coins dated 2018 and later will now be protected with MINTSHIELD, significantly reducing the occurrence of white spots.

Many collectors of modern silver bullion coins are familiar with the occurrence of white spots, or “milk spots” as they are often called in numismatic vernacular. These white spots can sometimes develop on a variety of modern silver bullion coins from around the world including American Silver Eagles, Chinese Silver Pandas and Canadian Maple Leafs.  NGC has a page speaking to this subject and how the grading is done.

It can be read here in its entirety.  White Spots on Modern Silver Coins.

Photo shown courtesy of Coin Talk. For more details on the report, visit the Coin Update page.

Source: Solving the silver bullion white spot problem | Coin Update