World Trade Center gold

northcoin

PCGS has encapsulated various denominations of modern gold coins and bars from the World Trade Center Recovery. Any opinions on the investment potential of these coins? What are they being offered for outside of ebay by dealers? What is a fair markup over the bullion price of the coins. (PCGS merely identifies the majority of them as gem, but doesn't assign a specific grade)

ricko

Welcome aboard Northcoin.... good question.. I do not have an answer... just offering a welcome. Cheers, RickO

mrdq

Welcome!

Those coins have been nicknamed "Death Coins" by someone and it kind of stuck here. Some people HATE THEM some don't mind them and others just ignore them. Go to the top of your screen and hit SEARCH.. then enter DEATH in the subject, then go down and UNCHECK announcements and CHECK us coin forum and hit search. You'll see quite a few discussions on this topic that can help you out.

tom

RLinn

Welcome to the forum, Northcoin.

BillJones

I don’t think that the coins should be destroyed, but I don’t think that they are worth any more than any other similar coin that had nothing to do with that tragedy. Unfortunately some people do not agree with me. To me the premiums that people pay for them are foolish and have the look of blood money.

kieferscoins

One Death Coin Thread

Cameron Kiefer

LanLord

After reading that entire thread what would be good is for Clankeye to do a recap on it like the one he did on the rudeness that occured over this past weekend. Now that was the funniest read I've seen in a while

jtryka

Before you go jumping on these coins, you should be aware of the true source of the coins. These coins were not in the towers, but were actually in the ScotiaBank vault in 5 WTC, which was one of the shorter black buildings in front of the towers. These coins were in a vault with about $250 million in bullion, mostly bars used for commodities settlements. The vault was actually found in fairly good shape, and when they resored power to it, the security system and lights came on just like it was Sept. 10th. They removed all the bullion, and that was the end of the story. But some of these companies are making this out to be coins found in the rubble etc, but that is not true. So if you want them, buy them, but realize they are not the historic pieces that the marketers want you to believe.

lordmarcovan

I suppose the same phenomenon that has lumps of coal salvaged from the wreck of the Titanic currently selling for 10 to 15 bucks a whack (and not for a big lump, either) is at work here. People are fascinated by tragedy. It is a bizarre but undeniable aspect of human nature. Does this make the WTC "Death" coins more valuable? Maybe. A little bit, to the right buyers- but not a very significant premium.

Would I spend any serious investment dollars on them?

Nope.

If I want "death" coins, they'll look more like this.

(In fact, that one might yet become mine. I'm working a deal with that same seller on some other stuff, now that I've established who she is and have gotten over the "zero feedback" jitters I had...)

1jester

Welcome, Northcoin.

wallstreetman

They said the Gold came from a Comex vault and were buried under the WTC rubble, this is not a false statement! Obviously the vaults did their job or the Bullion would not be in the shape its in(Eagles grading MS69).

wallstreetman

I own a few of them and glad I do, they help you remember and they make great conversation pieces!

jtryka

WSM, Technically they are correct in that statement, but it is just not complete. The gold was in a vault constructed under 4 WTC (I was mistaken before, 5 WTC is the black building on the northeast side of the complex, corner of Church and Vesey, 4 WTC is to the east of the south tower aka 2 WTC, on the corner of Church and Liberty). The vault was owned by the Bank of Nova Scotia (aka Scotia Bank) and was used in settlements for Comex transactions. The vault was buried under some debris, but mostly debris from 4 WTC and the underground mall. The building was heavily damaged when 2 WTC collapsed, but was not completely buried in rubble. The contents of the vault were removed near the end of October. If it is a helpful reminder of the attack, then that's fine for you. Personally, I have lots of photos I've taken over the years, and that's how I choose to remember it.