Watch out! Deceptively marked, government minted gold coins

I bet a lot of people here already know about these, but I came very close to buying an intentionally deceptive gold coin. I wanted to post because they almost fooled me, and they did fool my local shop!

I called today looking for a 1/2 Oz of gold to pay back my father-in-law for some shared trip expenses. He did not care what type if I got a good price. Pickings were slim as far as low-premium stuff under an ounce, but they told me about a Cook Islands 1/2 Oz $25 "United States Tribute" coin, and quoted me the low -- for these days -- premium above melt. Great, because I was not looking for anything too particular, just weight. It sounded legitimate since it had a face value, I knew already that Cook Islands issued silver and gold coins, and there are certainly lots of commemorative issues in gold that I'm not familiar with.

I was set to go pick it up and went to find a picture first, just to show what I was getting.

The marking ".24 Pure Gold" was immediately suspicious being a very odd way to describe 24k gold, and with that TINY decimal point in front. A moment of reading revealed an intentionally misleading coin. Sure enough, this is a 24% pure 1/2 Oz coin, so actually 0.12 OzT pure!

I called my shop back to confirm the purity marking on the coin they were holding for me, and being told that indeed it said ".24 Pure Gold", I informed them about what I had found out and that I was no longer interested in that coin, but that I wanted to keep my appointment to visit and browse for something else.

When I went in, the Cook Islands coins had been pulled from the case, and both of the people I had spoken to on the phone apologized for the close-call and thanked me for catching them before any had gone out the door! They had recently purchased the coins based on weight, as if they were 24k. They did not see the small decimal point. They know who brought them in though; I wonder how something like that gets resolved. For all I know the person who sold to them may not have even known.

These coins are VERY sneaky, since at first glance, ".24 Pure Gold" could easily be interpreted by a lot of people as 24-karat gold.

Here is a 1/10 Oz version:



Here's some more reading: http://about.ag/FakeCookIslands24Gold.htm

A nice thing about this is seeing how honest my shop is. This post is so people watch out for sneaky coins, and not at all a complaint about them. They did not take offense at all when I called them back to cancel my purchase based on what I had found. So far I'm finding that if mistakes are made, they make it right without question. a short while back I found a 40% Kennedy in a bag of 90% halves. Rather than drive all the way back to the shop about a ~$5 difference, I just chalked it up to an honest oversight. The next time I was in, mentioned I'd like to check the Kennedy's before leaving due to finding a single 1966 in the last bag. They apologized right away though I insisted it wasn't a very big deal, and told me to bring it back whenever I came in again so they could exchange it, which they made good on. I like that they trusted my report, as I feel some companies would argue that there could be no mistake in their process, or suspect that I was trying to "upgrade" my own 40% half to 90% on their dime!

This is also a good reminder that even a reputable shop can have something slip by once in a rare while, so be familiar with any coin you are planning to buy based on a description. For those wondering why on earth I'd set up purchases over the phone sight-unseen, my local shop is very small inside and can only fit a couple of people while following COVID guidelines. Visiting by appointment and having what you want set aside allows them to get customers through right now. I do miss the days of just walking in to browse.

 

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I was taught by and had this reinforced by a mathematics instructor to always write out the "0" in front of a decimal that is below one whole unit. I have been vigilant about this ever since in my writing and I am keen to notice when units of measurement are lacking a zero when written by others.

Unfortunately, much of the populace is oblivious about the importance of writing a zero before a decimal that is below one whole unit and is otherwise content to just write a decimal and omit the zero.

The company or whomever produced these coins has essentially exploited this mentality knowing it is a very easy oversight to make and look over. They would have no doubt liked to have omitted the decimal point completely but included it to stay within legal boundaries and not get accused of outright fraud and get shutdown or taken to court.

 

Good to hear that they aren't selling them anymore. Lots of shops would just sell them to someone that doesn't know better asap.

I also wonder how they are going to resolve that. Unless they spent a whole lot on them, they will sadly probably have to just take the loss on them.

 

That's a horrible scam, gotta wonder how many older guys fall for it.

Take this as a sign that you have a good reputable coin shop. You should ALWAYS be able to get your money back on fake/deceptive coins, just be ready to prove your case.

I hope your shop can recover any losses they might have taken from this incident. Thanks for the PSA.

 

Yep, there have been threads here before about those. I may have started one myself. Good on your local store for standing up; too bad they had to take a loss. I put it partly on them, but largely on the people behind this "Cook Islands issue", which is clearly designed from the ground up as a scam.

 

They're sold by the National Collectors Mint: https://ncmint.com/2021-cook-islands-statue-of-liberty-24-pure-gold-5-coin/
There's other "coins" just like the one posted by the OP. They must know there's not a 1/10 oz of gold in them because the price is $99.00
IMO very deceptive.

 

Cook Islands, that should be your first clue just get him an AGE and call it a day !

 

This one has been airing in my area.

 

this is why I don't mess with roosevelt dimes, washington quarters or kennedy halves

I go for mercs, standing liberty, franklin, barber etc

 

I remember a couple of dealers went to court over something like this. The silver piece was marked ".999 Fine Silver", but the gold piece was marked ".999% Fine Gold". The seller won, even though the buyer paid too much because he didn't know, and sold it as marked.
Tricky stuff out there.

 

It is so confusing, you think your getting a great deal on gold, they even taught it
in the add, since all monetary copies have to have the word "COPY" on it they actually sneak this in on the Indians hair, thats why they dont show the front of the
coin that often in the video, very deceptive advertising.