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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Blasty, post: 7509095, member: 38375&quot;]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!</p><p><br /></p><p>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 &quot;United States Tribute&quot; 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&#039;m not familiar with.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was set to go pick it up and went to find a picture first, just to show what I was getting. </p><p><br /></p><p>The marking &quot;.24 Pure Gold&quot; 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!</p><p><br /></p><p>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 &quot;.24 Pure Gold&quot;, 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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>These coins are VERY sneaky, since at first glance, &quot;.24 Pure Gold&quot; could easily be interpreted by a lot of people as 24-karat gold.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is a 1/10 Oz version:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/24goldobv-jpg.1297476/?temp_hash=f58551e3eba291f1ffc351e75301caeb" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/24goldrev-jpg.1297477/?temp_hash=f58551e3eba291f1ffc351e75301caeb" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s some more reading: <a href="http://about.ag/FakeCookIslands24Gold.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://about.ag/FakeCookIslands24Gold.htm" rel="nofollow">http://about.ag/FakeCookIslands24Gold.htm</a></p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;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&#039;d like to check the Kennedy&#039;s before leaving due to finding a single 1966 in the last bag. They apologized right away though I insisted it wasn&#039;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 &quot;upgrade&quot; my own 40% half to 90% on their dime!</p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;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.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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