World Trade Center Coins Who Knows What

I would love to have an explanation from the person that deleted it, how the original post here was acceptable, whence in fact it is quite tasteless. Yet the phrase "abhorrently macabre" is in someone's estimation a personal vendetta? I believe perhaps it is more a matter of someone not being able to ascertain the meaning of the said offending phrase.

Frankly someone around here, whom seemingly lurks in the shadows, cannot come out and admit something. I find it rather offensive and telling and quite the unbecoming of a professional association such as Cointalk to engage in such petty editing whence it is determinately not necessary because of someone's misunderstanding of a simple yet impersonal opin.

 

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Right on my friend. I have been there six months later, and it really really happened, and a lot of people died there. It is on the same scale as those profiteering on stolen gold from WWII. Just completely crass and tasteless.

 

I remember similar arguments made in a thread discussing the ethics of collecting or not collecting coins minted by Nazi Germany. My belief was (and still is) that the regime has already come and gone, and collecting such things can not possibly support the toppled regime nor should automatically be considered an endorsement of it. It's just history, for better or worse, and pretending history we don't like didn't happen doesn't change anything.

Honestly I think the same thing here... while I can understand your point about disdaining those who profit from tragedy, these coins are a part of history now. You can look at it as profiting from a tragedy, or honoring those who died in it, or just a coin that happened to be in a historic location. People died in the sinking of the USS Central America in 1857... do you have a problem with people buying coins from that shipwreck? Not many objections were raised over that as I can recall. Perhaps the more time passes since 2001 these coins will be thought of in a similar way. Just something to think about...

 

Actually, it is illegal to own and market such things in Germany, and frankly, this stunt is nothing like that anyway. These are just like normal US coins, and the slabbing company, who never went to the world trade center, was never at the site when the buildings capable of housing nearly 100,000 people on a typical work day, and which utterly destroyed Manhattan when they were destroyed, is turning over a quick dollar by wrapping normal US coins in plastic. What possible collecting fantasy can this involve? If your to believe this story, which I tend to believe is a con anyway, some grading company slabs them as 'authenticated from the massacre of the World Trade Center' and turns over a tidy profit out in Dumbtown, California on the fasination that some small number of neurotic morons have because these coins "survived" the 9-11 attacks. This doesn't even rank with a ship wreck treasure. If you wanted to compare it, it is like selling the soap made from human flesh from the Nazi the crematorias, or selling the lamp shades from the hair of Jewish women who were gased, not some Nazi coin. After the destruction of the Twin Towers a white ash blanketed the entire area, 2-4 inches deep. Some people scooped it up and kept it as a memorance. This I understood because of the deeply profound and emotional experience that the obliteration of the towers had on everyone involved. But selling these coins is just turning a cheap, and is an immoral con. And you can bet in over 100 years nobody will see it any differently.

You want to buy something, I'll sell you my ripped shirt torn from the debris raining down on me that day. I'll send it to PGCS and bidding starts at $50,000. It still has my sweat and blood all over it and I'll autograph it for you as well.

That has more historical significance that owning one of the hundreds of thousands of coins that were stored at the WTC vaults, maybe half the silver and gold in the city was stored there.


Ruben

 

This guy is answering his own questions. And for what it is worth, I ran it against my spam filter and it failed. It comes up as a plus 4.5 out of 5 on the spam algorithm, and the algorithm doesn't lie. Its mathematically valid based on over 50,000 spam messages. He's obviously marketing these coins.

OTOH, that being said, its your call. But this is not just expressing an opinion, like I express an opinion on the marketing of 9-11 trinkets or you express an opinion on Austrian Ducats.

This is a classic example of guerrilla marketing.

Ruben

 

Let me ask you a question Doug. Honestly, what does this sentence mean to you?

Is this spontaneous conversation or crafted catalog talk? From now on should everyone on cointalk talks when mentioning the grading companies be required to use superfluous adjectives as "the world renowned" ANA, or the "Universally Recognized Experts" SGA?

I know we've had more than a few terse discussions of this sort when we've disagreed, and you may even consider me a PIA, but I have no objection to discussing these coins that were in theory salvaged from the WTC site until he hit this mark, both answering his own questions and using obvious marketing lingo in his presentation. You might not feel that this is enough to have that one post removed, but you have to concede that I'm making a rational point here, and that comparing what I've written to what he wrote may not be the best of analogies.
FTIW, I'd still trust you with my children, but I strongly disagree with your analysis.

It's alright, the sun will still rise tomorrow.


Ruben

 

FWIW, I strongly doubt that Doug would do that. He's a fair man and an excellent moderator. And take my word, I've come under moderator ire occasionally.

Ruben

 

The marked difference betwixt the SS Central America and the WTC tragedies are that the former was a so referred "Act of God" whilst the latter was an act of hell bent fanatics.

My main objection to said SS Central America is the crass marketing, and the merest fact that the coins are exorbitantly priced in comparison to what the market should duly accommodate price wise.

I have no objection to people collecting coins from Nazi Germany, frankly they are not for me. But conversely I find it disturbing that there are a few people that collect the Swiss 20chf coins from 1935LB and 1947 because they have minute traces of mercury in them, which could have most likely sourced from one seized item - dental gold

That said, I concur with the opin offered here by Mr. Brooklyn that the originating post is nothing more than spam.

 

Here's an interesting link on his website

It makes me wonder if you're correct in your belief that he isn't selling anything.

Those auctions are current.

 

Smells disturbingly commercial to me too.

 

I don't have objections against the site. Is it numismatics? Unfortunately yes. Bullion coins.

Although I do have an issue that it seems to be commercialized which may violate against the forum rules here.

 

Who are the ones who owned these coins/bullion in the first place? It would be my understanding that if a bank in (insert place here) had coins/bullion stored in a building (in this case the WTC) then the property would still remain theirs...wouldn't it? Who exactly is selling these items? and how did they come too own said property from this disaster? I am well aware of the sunken ship treasure (finders keepers law) but I cant imagine that this would apply too the WTC in any way.
Also on a side note, My opinion of all of this is pretty much in line with all the other members here, as too it is highly unethical too profit off such a disaster.
Here is a hypothetical analogy
If you find a person laying in an alley dead and they have a whole bunch of jewelery on would you steal it and sell it on ebay?

I know this is a little far from this situation but that is the same principles too which these people are following, (profiting off of someone else's misfortune)

If this is not a marketing scheme then tell me why this is so highly priced? (compare it too this one which is not a WTC scam) I will tell you, it is because people like you are misguiding the mass millions that have no clue and toying with other peoples emotions.

 

I refuse to collect coins from Mongolia until the Mongolian govenment
apologizes for war crimes committed by Ghengiz Khan.

 

I agree that this is probably just another scheme to scam the public.
What is World Trade # 4 ? and how does it fit into the desolation of the Twin Towers and World Trade # 7 which was the FBI Headquarters and the only three buildings in the area to have been affected. These three buildings had enough heat to bring them down to a pool of molted mass metal, including the steal framing. If WT Center # 4 Building is to be included, how could the safe or the coins have ever survived the type of heat that melted steel ?

 

Here ya go bud

 

First of all to defend my site and myself the EBay auction is only there to give people reference prices as I am not supplying any on the site. My eBay user name is wtc911coins and I have only been buying coins for my collection never selling any. So the site is only made as a reference to all the WTC coin collectors out there that do not have any PCGS population numbers or any information from PCGS on what coins were found in the vault.

To the question on who sold the coins, that was The Toronto Bank that owned the vault under World Trade center #4 to who they sold the coins the only thing I can says is 3 or 4 (money Men) where involved and I do not have names or anything to back this up with.

Where these people trying to profit on a disaster? Yes absolutely and that is terrible and disgusting I agree with all that people are saying.

Now the coins are out of the vault and PCGS has certified the coins. The money men are gone they have made their millions and give 6-12% of net sales to World Trade Center help organizations. So now what? We hate the coins or we hate the people behind the coins?

I see them as historic coins that now are in public hands and now I see them as what they are coins from a vault deep down under the world trade center that survived that terrible day.



John P

 

Well it is certainly your prerogative to enjoy these pieces, as noted above, I have even heard of a certain fringe that like those Swiss 20CHF coins that have traces of mercury in them.

See this:

http://www.ushmm.org/assets/state/report.htm

 

This is about as low as a TPGing Company can get. And, the fact it's PCGS tells me alot about how the parent companies (CLCT) stock is doing, not so well for those who didn't already know. Please 'can' this thread or move it to the OPEN Forum. I've never seen such a blatant disregard for the feelings of those who's families lives were shattered on that day. It is Abhorrently Macabre, Disturbing, and Sickening to say the least. To say how I really feel about this marketing ploy would get me banned...

Ben

 

Can you imagine if we had websites during the 1906 San Fransico earthquake? Or the Pearl Harbor attack? ''These Walking Liberty half dollars were found in the pockets of dead sailors only days ago. And kept hidden until now!''.

 

WYC 4 and WTC 5 were courts, and customs. They were smaller buildings along Church Street.

Ruben