I won an Foreclosure auction on a 1 oz Sterling Silver coin. After weighing it, it is not anywhere near one ounce or one ounce troy. After checking the calibration of my scale the coin weighed: 0.820 troy oz 0.900 oz 25.5 grams The piece was advertised " Limited Edition 10Z Silver Coin". I don't believe it is a coin. I believe it is a commemorative medal. Should I return it or just chalk it up to learning the hard way.
Was it worth what you paid before you weighed it? Have you checked your scale on a known weight coin? Sorry, meant to ask how you checked it? Have you web searched the piece? Zach
Foreclosure auction = "Buyer beware" You should bear in mind that foreclosure auctions are often run by people who have no clue about numismatics. Any metal disk with some design stamped on it is a "coin" to them, and anything that looks like a silver round is going to "weigh" one ounce.
I suspect there are collectors of this type of numismatic souvenir. Looks in good shape for the age. Jim
I checked the scale with a known 100 gram weight. I checked it on grams, ounces, troy ounces, carats, and pounds. Compared all readings using weight tables provided by a conversion site. I felt that I spent too much on this medal. I misread the information thinking it was a 10 OZ Sterling silver commemorative coin. When it dawned on me that it was only 1 OZ I felt and still feel that I was very careless and stupid. Here is the break- down on the cost of this thing: Winning Bid = $66 12% Buyers Premium = $7.92 Shipping = $18 Total = $91.92 I now know through your comments that foreclosure items may not be accurately described. Also I feel relieved that I could have bid $300 for what I thought was a 10 OZ coin/medal. So for over paying by only $40 is not too bad for a lesson well learned. I did research this medal before and after I won it and could not find very much info on it. I found out it was minted in 1973. I contacted the Franklin Mint and was told their information only goes back about twenty years or so. I don't know how to contact the Miami Coin show people for any kind of information they could offer. I don't trust any info about this medal. For example there is no Cert. of Authenticity. The label says Sterling but I don't trust that now because of the weight of it. All though it kind of makes sense that it weighs less than one troy ounce because Sterling is 92.5% pure silver as compared to a silver coin of only 90% silver????? Disregard this last statement it doesn't make sense. I feel this medal is worth about $45 now. I look around and see what dealers, and CT members say. Hopefully what DESERTGEM said is true and I could get maybe get $50 or more for it. So I won't try to return it. I feel I should honor my bid now and take my lumps.
---------- Yup, we all pay for our educations one way or another. This was a cheap lesson really and it is possible that there is a coin collector who would esteem it. It's in great shape and they still hold FUN shows so you can probably retreive half of your investment. -- COAs were not common until fairly recently so there may never have been one originally. Yes, auctioneers can sometimes enlarge the description of an item, innocently or otherwise. Our job as buyers is to be sceptical. As you admit, you were careless, perhaps due to thinking 10 ounces for the price of 1 or 2 or maybe plain old auction fever ( you should see some of the nutty stuff I've come home with, need a hayhook? I got one in Kansas, carried it all the way back to the mountains of Colorado in the back seat of a Toyota Corolla and to this day still wonder why). Keep your souvenir, it will make a great reminder in the years to come and may well save you a fortune as such.
I think Franklin Mint silver in the '70s was sterling. I have a set of FM sterling silver ingots that was begun in 1978, and the weight of each ingot is only 26 grams or so.
Zeke, I think we're all guilty of it. I've had to start reviewing the entire catalog before placing the first bid, then making a list of interest items, googling them(Except for the ones I'm familiar with) Then placing my pre-bids with buyers premium+S&H in mind, & finally walking away to wait for the auction to close or an invoice. There was one yesterday from a company which had around 30 nickel lots(Buffalo, Vs, Jeffs, Rolls) & everything pre-64 was listed as "Silver nickels" I just bit my tongue & stuck to the 65-70 Halfs which were obviously thought to be worthless. Point is, whatever the auctioneer says, writes, etc. They generally have a disclaimer at the registration page saying that all descriptions are made by the consigner & that the bidder is responsible for determining the accuracy or e-mailing the auction house before bidding. But I still think it is a very beautiful frosty piece from nearly 40 years ago.
Yes, you are correct about the disclaimers on auctions. On this same site, FBA Auctions, they described some coins while showing pictures of different coins. I emailed them and they corrected the situation. I wonder what would have happened if a buyer had bid on the description and won but received something totally different? I'll check all my P's and Q's on my next bid. I hope you won those ' worthless halves' that you mentioned.
Franklin mint stuff is RARELY a full ounce... and almost always no 2 of the same pieces weigh exactly the same. The stuff that is a full ounce that I have seen is always marked on the coin as one ounce.
Try Googling FBA auction. I just stick to proxibid so I'm not familiar with FBA. There are quite a few interweb auction houses out there that specialize in coins, foreclosed property, consigned, estate, etc. hear good things about heritage but like to find the unknown low lot numbers ones on proxibid to score better coin with less competition
I should have recognized that it didn't have a weight on it. Again I thought it was a 10 oz medal and I thought I was going to win it. Dumb! I don't know anything about Proxibids. I'll Google too.
Proxibid is a web auction host that lists virtual catalogs for hundreds of independent auction houses. There are at least 10-20 live auctions in coin category alone each week. You just create an acct & start searching auctions of interest. I subscribe to the weekly coin auction email. From there you pick which auctions you wish to bid in(anywhere from 100-1000 lots), registering for each auction takes about 30 seconds due to the fact that proxibid already has your card on file, then you can pre-bid as stated above or bid live(which can get expensive if you catch the fever). After the auction you get an invoice email & your coins come within a week or two.
I checked Proxibids and it is very similar to FBA Auction and other sites. You must be alert and be aware of buyers fees and S&H fees.
You can be pretty confident that the piece IS sterling silver. The Franklin mint material was often made in weights that seem odd today. In the case of your piece, with the weight you gave for it, and it being sterling silver, it works out ot 3/4 oz pure silver
Here's a site I found that's been useful to me in IDing Franklin Mint medals. You might find yours listed there. http://franklin-mint-silver.com/franklin-mint-silver-home.htm
