In March of 2011, I purchased some Fiji Pacific Gold Sovereigns from Gainesvillecoins.com. The coins were produced by Pamp for the NZ Mint. At the time GP thought it was odd that the purity level and weight were only on the card and not on the coin itself. The Gainesville representative reassured me the coins were genuine. Since then, I have only seen one coin of that year on the internet and it was like mine. I have now found another coin and emailed the seller. The seller assured me that the coin does have the weight and purity level on the coin. However that coin is the type that has a COA and not the assay card version. The seller's listing is below. http://www.coinmerc.com/fiji-2011-2...1oz-gold-proof-bullion-coin.html#!prettyPhoto For the following reasons, I believe the coins are legitimate: 1. The design changed in 2011 and the coins were purchased fairly early in their release. So, it would have been very hard for a counterfeiter to have time to fake the coins and the assay cards. 2. Aside from the weight and purity descriptions, the coins look identical to the stock photos. The assays cards also look identical to the stock photos. 3. The coins were bought from Gainesvillecoins which is a distributor of NZ Mint products. 4. The assay cards are all numbered less than 300, so it is possible a mistake was made and not caught until some of the coins were run. I have decided it is time to determine whether or not the coins are real. Short of taking one of the coins out of the assay card, what are the best ways to determine whether the coins are legitimate? I did a SS search and noticed a discussion about XRF machines. What types of businesses would have one of those machines? If the XRF is not available for me, what are other options? While I would prefer not to, I am willing to take a coin out of its assay card. The follow up question would be how to determine the value of the coins if they are legitimate? Thanks
For my three pence input, never heard any bullion not having weight or purity marked. To answer your XRF question,most decent jewelers have them available in Oz...not sure about USA
Until yesterday, I mistakenly believed that all mints would know what a TROY ounce was :/ http://forums.silverstackers.com/message-387908.html#p387908
BB, I have emailed the NZ Mint several times without a reply. Malachii talked to someone at the NZ Mint on my behalf and to the best of that person's knowledge the weight and purity should be on the coins. However, since my Sovereigns are in Pamp assay cards, I don't know whether it was the NZ Mint or Pamp that minted the coins. I believe I have tried to contact Pamp in the past too, without any results. However, I may try them again. AG, thanks for the jeweler suggestion. I will call the local jewelers next week.
Nevermind. The weight and purity are on the coin. With my eyes, I couldn't see the markings even with a magnifier. With a supermagnifier even the blind man could see the weight and purity. The NZ Mint had two versions of these coins and mine are the assay card version. The Apmex link shows the correct version, but the year is 2009 vs. 2011 http://www.apmex.com/Product/70296/2009_1_oz_Gold_Fiji_100_Pacific_Sovereign_9999_In_Assay_Card.aspx The next link shows photos of the 2011 coin. http://newzealandmint.com/bullion/products/1oz-pacific-sovereign The photo and the coin are very similar. The two major differences are that there are not any clouds on the actual coins and the stock photo has more color variation than the coin.
[imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/525_dscf0884.jpg][/imgz] [imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/525_dscf0887.jpg][/imgz] The coins look much better than this. I am not used to using a digital camera and my friends batteries would only charge for less than 1 minute of use. But at least everyone can get an idea of what the real coins look like.
This is a problem that has haunted me for years. One of my bars is of a design I couldn't readily find on the 'net. Perhaps I will only find out when or if I try to sell them.
