I'm seeing a lot of ads for ASE's with privy marks. Some are small eagles and some are small stars. The US Mint shows no reference to minting coins with these privy marks. Any thoughts? Are these coins for real?
I don't have any interest in this stuff but apparently the mint is doing special privy mark promotions for certain entities? https://www.usmint.gov/coins-precious-metal-coins/bullion-coin-privy/ says "These coins are not available directly from the United States Mint but may be won, earned, or bought from Nice Gang [apparently a gaming company] or purchased from the Mint’s network of Authorized Purchasers of bullion coins and the secondary market." Those were the 2024 star privy marks. https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/13934/ indicates a connection with the same gaming company for 2025.
They’re legit. I played the Eighth Era game for a few hours and unlocked a link to purchase the privy eagles.
Then I would consider them damaged or assign them the status of tokens. This is exactly why I gave up on new coins from the US Mint. The US Mint is shoveling out ballast and the USPS is rolling out wallpaper.
Okay, I was skeptical about any link between the Superman medals and the movie release, but this REALLY smells. Heck, I don't approve of the "Authorized Purchasers" program. But making an issue available available only as a promotion from a private company? The only game this makes me want to play is "find the greasiest palms".
And if you read the NGC link, Mark Salzberg is a co-founder of CCG and is now a co-founder of Nice Gang. But hey, they're only doing half a million of them, what a rarity.