Hello, I am a newbie to collecting silver coins and therefore I was happy to obtain a 1kg silver coin for as low as under $500 (it felt a bit weird but I thought given the early hours the auction ended, maybe not too many people were up and bidding). Before I pay I took a good look at the coin and found it a bit weird looking, also all internet searches turned out zero results plus this thing is in none of the known world coin catalogues. Can you please take a look at it and tell me if it's real or not? Source: eBay Source: eBay The auction description was: ca. 100 mm diameter Weight: ca. 1084 g with capsule Silver 999/1000 - proof - not full silver Front: Mouse 1000g Thanks guys and girls! Dennis
Hi and welcome to the forum its a real medal, said nothing about being silver on the coin and clearly said not full silver in the descriptions...
The coin's certificate has been indicated 99.9% Silver and also stamped Ag 999 on Coin. It was released as a "legal Tender" silver coin but seller said "Medal" and "not full silver'...........HAHAHA!!!!!!
Welcome to the forum, denno. It's a neat looking medal and I can see why you would have jumped on buying it. My guess is that it is plated silver, not solid silver. But the COA appears to indicate that it's solid....doesn't mean that it actually is though. You may want to sign up here http://china-mint.info/forum and try to get opinions/feedback from some of the very knowledgeable people on that forum. Most medals won't be found in coin catalogues anywhere, especially if they are not produced by one of the 3 official mints in China. Medals are not coins and this item appears to be not a legal tender coin. I'd be suspicious about the solid silver nature of this piece. Did you directly ask the seller if it is solid .999 silver? .
Someone that writes a description "Silver 999/1000 - proof - not full silver" can only be a scammer. Even a 999 grammes silver containing kilocoin can be declared as "not full silver" due to the remaining 1/1000. An honest seller would never use "999/1000" in a description of a plated object. And Flyinfree said: "The coin's certificate has been indicated 99.9% Silver and also stamped Ag 999 on Coin. It was released as a "legal Tender" silver coin but seller said "Medal" and "not full silver'..." So also the coin producing company/whatever can only be a scammer, producing things for scammers. There is no need to ask that seller anything, he's a scammer period. And more general, who else but a scammer would purposely buy a kilo / any weight coin of base metal (the silver content of "plated" is not worth the word "silver")? That "999 ag" and "99.9% silver" and are just attempts to get a ridiculous high price for base metal objects. Such a scammer can sell a dozen of these to a dozen people, refund 11, and still make profit on that single un/too late aware buyer.
btw, a coin err medal put in a plastic bag inside a metal/wood(?) box, how common is that? I don't remember ever seeing such, often such "luxe boxes" have their coin inside a capsule. If they already save on a capsule I wonder about the material of that box.
It's a shame that ebay allows 999/1000 silver in a description of a kilo object that contains a couple grammes silver.
Hi denno, you have your answer pretty much from the above comments mate. Interestingly whilst the actual item itself is stamped with 999 silver the buck stops with the sellers description who just covers his butt with "not full silver". Of course the price also - if it's too good to be true it probably isn't. As he is technically not passing it off as the real deal I wonder if people have any recourse as he has made the not real silver disclosure? Definitely a buyer beware situation and kudos to you for asking the SS community before committing to what is nothing more than a pretty paperweight!
Rule #1, when it sounds Too good to be true, it is false. It is fake, you can even tell from the description.