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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dcarr, post: 149206, member: 4781&quot;]Well, I know a little bit about this &quot;coin&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; I&#039;ll try and rely the (brief) history here.</p><p><br /></p><p>National Collectors Mint is a coin marketing company.&nbsp;&nbsp; They hire outside contractors to design and mint the items they sell.&nbsp;&nbsp; At one time, I was the contracted artist who designed the coins &amp; medals they marketed.&nbsp;&nbsp; I designed fantasy state quarters for them - namely Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was also contracted to design the &quot;Freedom Tower Silver Dollar&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; There were three basic designs minted.</p><p><br /></p><p>The first design showed a small Statue of Liberty and an image of the actual (proposed) Freedom Tower building.&nbsp;&nbsp; This issue was produced in silver &quot;clad&quot; (plated), and 1/4 troy ounce gold.&nbsp;&nbsp; This issue was claimed to be &quot;Government-Issue Legal Tender&quot; (from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands).</p><p><br /></p><p>The second design showed a larger Statue of Liberty and the Freedom Tower building image was changed on the coin so that it would not resemble the real proposed building.&nbsp;&nbsp; This design was also claimed to be &quot;Government-Issue Legal Tender&quot; (again from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands).&nbsp;&nbsp; As far as I know, this design was only issued in 1/4 troy ounce gold form.</p><p><br /></p><p>Shortly after these two designs came out, the office of New York Attourney General Elliot Spitzer began receiving complaints about the marketing of the coins.&nbsp;&nbsp; People took offense (rightly so) to the blatant claims of &quot;Government-Issue Legal Tender&quot; and &quot;Pure silver 50 mil proof&quot; (implying the coins were solid silver when they weren&#039;t).&nbsp;&nbsp; The ads also stated that the silver recovered from the WTC was used in making the coins.&nbsp;&nbsp; The fine print in the ads actually stated &quot;created with&quot; just above the big &quot;silver recovered from the WTC&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; Legally, this could mean that they melted one WTC recovery Silver Eagle into the entire batch of silver and so &quot;created with&quot; statement would be technically accurate.</p><p><br /></p><p>So you can blame me for the artwork.&nbsp;&nbsp; But you can blame them for the concept and marketing.&nbsp;&nbsp; At this point, I&#039;d finally had enough and I quit doing any business with National Collectors Mint.&nbsp;&nbsp; Elliot Spitzer slapped them with a huge fine and they were forced to stop selling the coins.&nbsp;&nbsp; I also found out that the owner of National Collectors Mint had (in a previous life) pled guilty to pornography charges (sending pornography through the mail or something).</p><p><br /></p><p>But they found a way around the injunction and came out with a third design.&nbsp; &nbsp; The third design was similar to the second, except that it was now issued through the independent Cook Islands, rather than the US possession of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.&nbsp;&nbsp; As far as I know, the third design was issued in .999 solid silver, and silver clad (plated).</p><p><br /></p><p>With that said, these pieces certainly do come with some noteriety.&nbsp;&nbsp; Are they a good invesment ?&nbsp;&nbsp; I wouldn&#039;t think so, but I&#039;ve been wrong before.&nbsp;&nbsp; I agree with the previous sentiments expressed here that if you like the &quot;coin&quot;, go ahead and get it - but don&#039;t <i>expect</i> to make a profit on it.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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