I just saw a commercial (an ad) of a company selling those collectibles, a ‘special’ golden coin and it’s got a small silver replica of the Twin Towers that can pop up so it turns into a little statue. They advertised that the coin was .999 pure carat gold and was extracted from ground zero from 9/11 terrorist attack.
That weird voice you’ve heard before in an ad announces, “Oooh it was planned to be sold for 59.99 but for this special offer, we will sell it for ONLY 39.99! Due to the scarcity of this product, we limit only 5 orders per customer!”
I’m not sure why I found this disturbing but does anyone else feel the same way?
I find it disturbing. There are more than 5 young children in my family and Christmas is right around the corner.
In a way, it is refreshing. Kitsch memorabilia has long been part of the American landscape and these coins are proof that the American core was left intact after 9/11. I have a BIL that I can not mention this offer to under any circumstances. He will buy absolutely anything stamped “limited edition”, “rare”, or “24K”.
I just thought it was messed up that they are making money off scavenged gold pieces from ground zero. It was a golden coin except the replica part that popped up was silver.
That commercial has been running for at least a couple of years. One wonders how much gold was recovered from the site, that they have such an unlimited “limited supply” of these beautiful memorial coins. Sure it’s tacky, but it’s no tackier than “These colors don’t run” bumper stickers or the WTC coffee table book industry that sprang up about three months after 9/11 or Toby Keith.
More power to them (the company selling the coins). I’d probably feel slightly scuzzy trying to make money that way, and would not want to own such a coin–and I’m not sure how I’d feel if someone I knew bought such a coin and had it on display prominently. But I’m really not seeing that it’s an unforgivable act to take gold/silver from the 9/11 site and turn it into souvenirs for suckers (or whoever is buying these coins).
If I’m reading the description of the coins from Duckster’s link correctly, they don’t contain any gold salvaged from the WTC; the Twin Towers replica on them is clad in silver “miraculously recovered from a bank vault found under tons of debris at Ground Zero” There is no mention of any gold from Ground Zero being used in the production of the coins. Which means that even more coins could be made from a single silver bar.
On reading LurkMeister’s post, I want to clarify my thoughts a little bit.
I do not approve of misleading advertising, promoting the idea that the gold or silver in these coins is more special than it actually is. And I think products like these coins are very commonly promoted as though the product were more unique, rare, and valuable than they actually are.
But I don’t have a problem in principle with gold or silver from the WTC being used to make “collectable” coins or selling them.
I don’t want to own these coins myself, but I don’t object to their manufacture, just the advertising.
Many of those gold coin companies verge on being scam artists. A purchase from them will leave you open to being constantly hounded by them for future purchases.
Oh, I agree that most of these gold coin companies are little more than scams. Advertising things as “collectibles” and either implying that they make excellent investments (unlikely, considering the number of them that are sold) or will be “treasured mementos” (more likely will collect dust in a drawer or be lost.
This Sunday’s Parade Magazine had a two-page ad from some place called the World Reserve Money Exchange. It was disguised as an article from the Universal Media Syndicate, and a little Internet research reveals that the websites for both of these are registered to the same person in the Canton OH area. This particular ad was selling “sealed vault tubes” of President coins, but in the past they have also sold uncut sheets of dollar bills that are “so rare, banks don’t even have them.” :rolleyes:
I seriously doubt that there was any scavenging involved. All the gold and silver in those vaults belonged to somebody, and that wouldn’t have changed when the towers collapsed. Most likely the company used metal that they already owned, and had been storing in the WTC, or they bought it from whoever did own it.
This isn’t really a new phenomenon either. In the early 1970’s(I think), the Franklin Mint made and sold a shit-pot full of mini silver “coins” made from silver that had traveled to the Moon.
Of course, the astronauts took only a once ounce bar, and when it was brought home, the Franklin Mint tossed it into a giant vat of silver, and then made itty bitty mini coins, much smaller than a US dime. Then sold them for stupid prices to collectors, saying it contained silver that had gone to the Moon. Sure, perhaps a few atoms.
I always thought the hucksters would run out of victims, but I’ll be worm food long over if it ever happens.
The National Collector’s Mint used to claim that these coins were official currency, or government-authorized, by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands But as the islands aren’t authorized to issue currency, so the State of New York sued the company for fraud. And I think one of the 9/11 charities to which they attempted to donate money refused it.
Most importantly, these coins are really tacky and ugly.
