Misleading Cook Islands gold coins
goldrealmoney79
Posts: 417 ✭✭✭
These coins are so misleading, buyer may think theyre getting 24k pure gold coin but they're not, the .24 pure gold can mislead novice buyers. While the seller isn;t doing anything outright malicious, i feel they could do better job of describing the coin contents than what they are doing.
Check em out heres a couple
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2020-5-Flowing-Hair-Liberty-24-Pure-1-10-oz-Gold-collectible-coin-/293548475034?hash=item4458da429a%3Ag%3AFRIAAOSwbyheXOT3&nma=true&si=1b%252FeRiFEdCHsyzdp2lF1eTe7pY8%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
And another for $200+
You see what I mean? people are getting burnt, what a travesty. Why does ebay not police for dishonest sellers? Is the almighty buck worth more than your reputation??
Comments
Many misleading items in the coins and bullion business, actually hard to think of any business that is more shady, maybe dealing crack or perhaps politics/organized religion. Anyway always do your due diligence before you buy.
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
I understand your concern .... but....
In the cases given, the seller does not seem to have misrepresented the coins. The purity and the weight is in the description, however brief. And... one can look at the photos and see both the purity and weight also.
So... it appears to me the buyers are doing it to themselves. At some point, buyers have to be responsible for themselves to read descriptions, look at photos.... and do their own due diligence.
If the seller had described it as a 1/10th ounce gold coin... but did not show or disclose the purity was only .24, then that would be deceptive and taking buyers for a ride. But in the cases given, the fault does not seem to be with the seller. JMHO.
I will add though.... the fact that Cook Islands issuing such coins with low percentages of gold yet putting 1/10 ounce on them can be misleading and confusing... not sure why they (and others) would issue such coins.
They sell for $69.00 from The National Collectors Mint. They make the coins and pay the Cook Islands to use their name on the coins.
Though I would not purchase one of these 'coins', I can see both sides of the issues...Yes, the seller is not fraudulently representing the product...it is, what he says it is. Yes, a novice buyer could easily purchase this, thinking they were getting something more valuable. Caveat Emptor.... Cheers, RickO
Isn't that the same outfit that received a Restraining Order for questionable sales practices from either the FTC or NY State?
If true (and I have no reason to doubt you)... that is where the real scam is.
Edited:
I think that eBay could regulate these listings and make sure they are listed in the section that the majority of the metal content represents. In this case, .76 copper makes it a copper coin with an estimated 6k gold alloy mixed in?
These sellers are not stating copper in the description, they know what they are doing.
I remember a number of years ago when I bid on what I thought was a silver round, because it was listed on the bullion section as a '1oz Silver Round, Capsule.' I checked later and noticed that I had bid on a capsule, the round was inside the capsule image. The seller had listed some of the capsules in bullion, most in supplies. I sent them a message and retracted my bid. I did not read beyond the subject line or the images before I bid. Some sellers do this to take advantage of snipers that do not leave themselves time to read into the auction.
Bidiots buy this stuff without even researching it - fools and their monies are parted.
I'm still not certain what .24 means for those 1/10th oz coins. Does it mean 1/4 of 1/10 oz gold ( 1/25 oz)? Or is it: 1/10 ounce of 24% gold..... Plated items do not indicate .24
The below website explains it all....
http://about.ag/FakeCookIslands24Gold.htm
.24 indicates gold content, versus .999. 24k is .999, .24 is approximately 6k. So, if .24 of 1/10th ounce of AU is .75 grams, about $36 worth of gold. A refiner might pay $30 for it?
24% gold (5.76 karat, or .240 pure). That means that they contain 0.024 ounces of gold (about 1/42 ounce of gold), or just under 3/4 of a gram. Yup approx $40 worth of gold based on $1714 spot.
Thanks for that link. The "Are These Intentionally Deceptive?" section is a good read.
The "How can I honestly sell these?" section is pretty good too.
Collector, occasional seller
Yes, that website explains it very well. After reading that, there is no doubt whatsoever these were only creatively designed to confuse and deceive inexperienced buyers. Even the COA wording is deceptive (given the number of dots and their spacing, it can easily be thought to be 24k gold):
Total Weight ...................... .100 ozt
Strike...Individually struck proof Gold purity ....................... .24 Fine
While I still maintain the ebay auctions noted by the OP gave an 'accurate' description, and thus legal and legit... these are items that I would not be comfortable selling myself.
I have reported these...but potential $2000 mistakes in the offing...these are flat out fraud as the description, on at least one, reads "1oz pure gold"
https://ebay.com/itm/115268183288?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3Db10ae980f70c4966b5cb385a41b83b71%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D334029284801%26itm%3D115268183288%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26brand%3DU.S.+Mint&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A0d6612dc-9833-11ec-9b76-2ef06338c613%7Cparentrq%3A3ddfe4c617f0a45f0da9edb3fffac0be%7Ciid%3A1://
https://ebay.com/itm/115267137107?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3Db10ae980f70c4966b5cb385a41b83b71%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D334029284801%26itm%3D115267137107%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26brand%3DU.S.+Mint&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A0d6612dc-9833-11ec-9b76-2ef06338c613%7Cparentrq%3A3ddfe4c617f0a45f0da9edb3fffac0be%7Ciid%3A1
Unfortunately, eBay became and has remained fraud central for nearly two decades. You can't even report something as fraudulent with an opportunity to explain why. You have to simply hope someone at eBay is competent AND honest enough to investigate the auctions you have flagged. The first one is highly deceptive simply based on the starting price, and the 2nd is pure fraud stating 1oz pure gold as @lermish points out. Have to wonder how some of these sellers manage to keep 100% positive feedback. To eBay, $300 or $400 in seller fees across the two $10 tributes may be too hard to pass up. Sad.
I tried to report two suspicious auctions by a seller last month. One was for rhodium "buttons" of several ounces that were reported as "99.2%" pure when the lab analysis photo that was provided in the auction stated that the samples were between 92% and 99% pure. A second auction by the same seller was for 6400+ ounces of silver. The photos depicted a little over 6000 GRAMS on a digital scale. There was also a photo of a man holding a huge loaf of metal. I sent seller a message asking if the loaf was part of the silver being offered. He said no, it contained 11 oz od palladium and platinum, but he would consider an offer. Maybe it was clad, lol, because if it were Pt it would have weighed more like 60 lbs. It's unfortunate, but there are plenty of people out there that will fall prey to these scams with little or no repercussion to the perpetrators.
There is only 1 reason to manufacture a " .24 pure gold" coin, and that is to purposely mislead
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Makes me want to avoid any coin with the words 'Cook Islands' on it.
Just look at this trash. $50 for a fifth of a gram au.
https://ncmint.com/search.php?search_query=cook islands&section=product