Advice Need Re: 50 Dollar Buffalo

Just another comment on that commecial. The 1st shot of the coin was the real one, no?

I made a mistake thinking the word "copy" was on the reverse. I was thinking of another fake coin.
Does anyone know which part of our government requires fake coins to me marked as copy? I think they are negligent in letting this scam take advantage of people that are unaware of whats happening. I've noticed the word "copy" is always placed on coins at a place that tends to camouflage the word. It is so inconspicuous that you have to search to find it.

This part of the regulation *might* come into play tnwalker10:

"The word "COPY" shall be marked upon the item legibly, conspicuously, and nondeceptively, and in accordance with the further requirements of these regulations."

If you think the word copy is not written conspicuously and nondeceptively then you could write to the FTC. They are unlikely to do anything without a complaint, but if you do complain and they agree you could be the person to get that ad off the air! That being said, I'll bet the word copy is fairly easy to spot if you have the coin in hand. The ad itself does everything it can to hide the word copy on the coin, but that itself probably isn't against the rules.

The Coin has no denomination on it and therefore is not required to carry the word copy I believe.

You'll be paying around 1800% mark for a coin that has $1.09 worth of gold on the surface.

Umm, maybe because it is a cheaply plated piece of junk that has no real numismatic value Medals are certainly worthy of collecting as they have their own artistic merit, I own quite a few myself, but this abomination(along with the rest of the dreck put out by NCM) is a Cracker Jack box reject not worthy of being called a medal.

I own a few NCM replicas. The proof quality and sculpting is top notch. The strike quality of these pieces is every bit as good as that of a US commem silver dollar. But its base metal...well copper which isn't bad itself...for $9.95. Thats a reasonable price for a medal thats not precious metal. NCM items are professionally minted by Sunshine Mint whose replica quality is the best. Yes the advertising is rather tacky but the piece itself is top-notch. Compare this to a sorry bronze medal struck by the US mint for the same price. The NC Mint pieces are professionaly minted with fully sculpted proof dies. $9.95 - $19.95 is a worthy price...I have seen this piece at both price points. Hey, the US mint also sells dollar covers for $19.95 like other private companies do for the same price. I buy coins from the US Mint but they are way behind the creative offerings of RCM, Royal Mint, and Perth Mint. There are so many finishes, colors, etc that can be interesting on a coin. Coin collecting should be about the art of minting in addition to historical significance. Just because someone buys a replica rather than spending thousands on the real deal doesn't make them a sucker.

To the original poster...if you collect because you enjoy the piece and like they way it looks, that is all that masters. Collecting is not about investment.

And to the poster that said you are paying 1800% markup for the amount of gold on the replica that is absurd. The gold plating is probably the smallest part of the cost of this coin. The tooling, striking, sculpting is where the value is. The gold plating is just for affect...you are not buying this for the gold content.

Again...why are private mint, medal, or replica collectors unsuspecting people. I choose to collect medals and privately minted pieces. I do not consider them a substitute for a real US coin. The ad states its a gold plated replica...for $9.95. There is nothing rip-off about that. Its a replica...a medal....for the price of a handful of groceries. Rip off would be a fake being passd off as the real coin at the price of the real coin.