Burks Posted September 8, 2006 Report Share Posted September 8, 2006 As we draw closer to September 11th I've noticed an increase in commercials about "actual silver coins recovered from Ground Zero" and junk. I do believe most of those claims have been proven false. Then there are those dumb commems that flip up. Well today was about all the more I could take it. On Shop NBC they basically had a "whore the 9/11 tragedy with coins" thing on. They had one large coin, made into a necklace, that commemorated 9/11. Guess who was on the obverse? Queen Elizabeth.... Then there are, again, those coins recovered from Ground Zero with some kind of lithograph going for $2,000. Yes let us all remember 9/11 through coins while destroying the memories of those lost and replace them with "hey check out this cool coin!". Worst part is some of my good buddies are getting into coin collecting and bought some of those 9/11 things. Had to break it to them that the U.S. Mint did not make those and I highly doubt they are .999 silver. If they are silver, still a rip-off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted September 8, 2006 Report Share Posted September 8, 2006 If people buy it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted September 8, 2006 Report Share Posted September 8, 2006 One ad I saw never did actually say how much. Just that it had silver from there. Could be plated only. And they will sell millions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted September 8, 2006 Report Share Posted September 8, 2006 People like to buy this kind of stuff. They'll never achieve any "financial" gain but if it makes them feel good, let them go for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doogy Posted September 8, 2006 Report Share Posted September 8, 2006 As we draw closer to September 11th I've noticed an increase in commercials about "actual silver coins recovered from Ground Zero" and junk. I do believe most of those claims have been proven false. Then there are those dumb commems that flip up. Well today was about all the more I could take it. On Shop NBC they basically had a "whore the 9/11 tragedy with coins" thing on. They had one large coin, made into a necklace, that commemorated 9/11. Guess who was on the obverse? Queen Elizabeth.... Then there are, again, those coins recovered from Ground Zero with some kind of lithograph going for $2,000. Yes let us all remember 9/11 through coins while destroying the memories of those lost and replace them with "hey check out this cool coin!". Worst part is some of my good buddies are getting into coin collecting and bought some of those 9/11 things. Had to break it to them that the U.S. Mint did not make those and I highly doubt they are .999 silver. If they are silver, still a rip-off. PCGS did slab a whole bunch of coins (mostly bullion) with the slab reading that it was recovered in the World Trade Center buildings. I have mostly seen ASE, AGE, Krugerrands, and others. I started noticing a few of these turn up, and posted a question on PCGS's US coin forum where i was quickly informed that this has been a subject of contention with the coin collecting community. I guess PCGS was blasted by quite a few collectors, as these were considered "death coins". PCGS's David Hall responded that a portion/majority of grading fees went to the 9-11 family charities. from what i remember, the coins were in vaults from an adjacent building to the World Trade Center towers that fell, and the building containing the coins didn't fall but was damaged. Personally, i don't know how to feel about these slabbed coins, but there will probably be a lot of hucksters trying to make bucks off the anniversary this year. Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burks Posted September 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 I'll never buy any of those coins. They weren't in the World Trade Center as advertised. Close, but not IN the building. I know that left a sore spot with a few collectors I've chatted with. Some haven't bought a PCGS coin since then. One even quit sending coins to PCGS because of that reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbvenman Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 I remembered hearing how the claims made by most of the commercials were proven false, so I listened to the commercials more closely. This commercial was for the bimetallic coin and the commercial said they were using silver recovered from vaults below New York City's granite. All in all, I think it is a disgrace to try to profit from this disaster and I hope that their promise to donate $5 from each coin to a victim's fund is actually true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuldFartte Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 Whoa I had no idea those ASE's from PCGS were NOT from one of the towers ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doogy Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 Whoa I had no idea those ASE's from PCGS were NOT from one of the towers ... from what i seem to recall, those coins were recovered in vaults from the WTC complex, but not the twin towers themselves. I think one of the reports mentioned World Trade Center tower 5 or 7, not the main towers 1 or 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conder101 Posted September 13, 2006 Report Share Posted September 13, 2006 These comments are from the slabbook and deal with the "death coins" PCGS 6N4 These slabs, although in PCGS shells, were actually produced for their parent company Collectors Universe. The CU logo and hologram appear on the back of the slab instead of the PCGS versions. The coins and other items were recovered from the Comex vaults in the WTC complex. All of the items are graded as “Gem Uncirculated”. So far I have seen the following in these slabs. Silver eagles, Silver Maple Leafs, 1961 Uruguay 10 pesos, all fractions of Gold US Eagles, 1 oz gold maple leaf, 1/4, ½ and 1 oz Australian gold bullion coins, Mexican 50 pesos gold, and one oz gold bars. All of the coins except the Uruguay and Mexican pieces have been various dates. See next. PCGS 6N5 After the PCGS 6N4 became a market success PCGS decided they needed a piece of the action for themselves and they began slabbing WTC recovered coins under their own name. In order to keep the tie in a little more obvious though, PCGS only slabbed 2001 Silver Eagles. All of them are graded MS-69 and they have the PCGS logo and hologram on the back. It says a lot for brand names that after these came out the PCGS 6N4 with the CU logo slabs dropped in value by 2/3rds and these took off. As of 11/24/02 this variety has expanded with a large number of new items being slabbed in this holder variety. For months, as mentioned above, the only item seen in this holder were MS-69 2001 silver eagles. Suddenly MS-68's are appearing along with 1991 silver eagles (MS-69), 1/10 oz gold eagles dates 98, 99, and 01, and the first platinum coin I have seen in any of the WTC holders a one oz 2001. In addition I have seen some “limited edition” versions of this slab variety, A 2001 MS-69 listed on the holder as being 1 of 1000, a 2001 MS-69 1/10 oz gold also listed on the holder as 1 of 1000, and another 2001 MS-69 silver eagle with 1 of 1440 on the label. I get the feeling that every piece in those “limited editions” will be labeled “1 of” instead of an actual number and eventually they will be showing up being hawked as “low numbered!” And of course once an “edition” sells out, they just submit another “limited edition” It turns out I was right about the "Limited Edition" slabs, all of them are #1. <<As we draw closer to September 11th I've noticed an increase in commercials about "actual silver coins recovered from Ground Zero" and junk. I do believe most of those claims have been proven false.>> Actually they never did prove them false, they requested the conpanies to prove that the silver did come for the WTC and they didn't provide evidence. That is not proof that that the claims were false. Frankly considering how easy it is to get silver from the WTC it wouldn't make sense to risk the embarrassment of being found out. Those Popup "commems" are plated not solid. The little silver WTC figure has 15 milligrams of silver on it. So a thousand of them would be 15 grams or 2000 of them could be made from the silver from one of the "death coins" And that is if you only used WTC silver. Nothing in their ads claims that use JUST WTC silver. It says that it CONTAINS silver from the WTC. So say you could have 1 "death coin" and 9 oz of other silver. Now you can make 20,000 of the commems from one oz of WTC silver. Every coin will contain WTC silver, .0015 grams of it. All of the WTC commems that have been made over the years have been pretty ethically disgusting, but none of the companies that have made them have lied about what they are, and in my opinion none of them have been fraudulent. Misleading? Maybe. But if you READ their sales pitches and think about them you will find that they pretty much deliver what they claim. My only complaint against them is their use of the term mil to mean millionth rather than the normal definition of thousandth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
28Plain Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Personally, i don't know how to feel about these slabbed coins, but there will probably be a lot of hucksters trying to make bucks off the anniversary this year. "Hucksters" is the word that comes to mind when I hear anyone mention PCGS. It's a shame that so many publications tout PCGS as one of the most trusted and reputable of the TPG outfits when their graders are inconsistent, their standards are elastic and their president is such a transparently obvious rube-hustler. I've seen so many AU58 Morgans in MS63 PCGS slabs that it isn't even funny. The fact that they assign MS grades to chopmarked US Trade Dollars should alert anyone to the fact that they refuse to honor the meaning of the term "Mint State". Now, to read that their carnival barker of a president pulled such an odious scam with "ground zero" coins simply makes me say that this kind of obnoxious behavior doesn't belong in the collectible coin industry and should not be tolerated by any of us who value this hobby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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