US Mint and USPS reach new low

I sent this letter to my Congressman and Senators today:.

"I received in the mail today a colorful brochure with the impressive title
"The American President's Collection." It claims it is "An Official
Licensed Program of the United States Mint and the United States Postal
Service Issued under License by Hallmark Group."


What is being offered are 25 silver ingots, plated with gold, in the shape
of a stamp bearing a presidential portrait, and the corresponding small US
Mint presidential medal for that president, also plated in gold. Also
included are a box and a book, gloves and a jewelers cloth and a Certificate
of Authenticity. You can get one of these ingots and the corresponding
medal every month for the price of $139 per ingot and medal. The complete
set would cost $3475.



In other words, every month the purchaser will get perhaps less than an
ounce of silver, less than an ounce of copper and maybe 1/10 oz of gold for
his $139. Value? Maybe $20. No where in the brochure or accompanying
letter does it give the weight of the silver ingot. It does say that it
starts as a 2.2 mm thick ingot before it is struck, but doesn't give the
other dimensions. It does give the weight of the copper medal as 20 grams.



Obviously, this is also a play on the publicity generated by the new
Presidential $1 coin series scheduled for 2007. Why the US Mint and the US
Postal Service would lend their names to such an obvious rip-off is beyond
me. Surely, there are better things for these government agencies to be
doing to make money.



Personally, the Hallmark Group should be allowed to do whatever it pleases.
But it should not have government agencies lending it an air of authenticity
and value.



I can't believe that the Mint and the USPS are involved in this.."


I urge everyone to write to the US Mint and the US Postal Service and your
Congresspersons to express your disapproval of the involvement of these two
agencies in this offer.

The addresses:



The Hon. John E. Potter

Postmaster General and CEO

United States Postal Service

475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW

Washington, DC 20260





The Hon. John W. Snow, Secretary

Department of the Treasury

1500 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20220



http://www.house.gov/writerep/

http://www.senate.gov/




--
Richard
http://www.richlh.com
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in
a pretty and well preserved body. Rather, it's to skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "WOW! What a
Ride!" Albert 'Skip' Rizzo (1954 - )

Richard L. Hall wrote:
I sent this letter to my Congressman and Senators today:.

"I received in the mail today a colorful brochure with the impressive title
"The American President's Collection." It claims it is "An Official
Licensed Program of the United States Mint and the United States Postal
Service Issued under License by Hallmark Group."


What is being offered are 25 silver ingots, plated with gold, in the shape
of a stamp bearing a presidential portrait, and the corresponding small US
Mint presidential medal for that president, also plated in gold. Also
included are a box and a book, gloves and a jewelers cloth and a Certificate
of Authenticity. You can get one of these ingots and the corresponding
medal every month for the price of $139 per ingot and medal. The complete
set would cost $3475.



In other words, every month the purchaser will get perhaps less than an
ounce of silver, less than an ounce of copper and maybe 1/10 oz of gold for
his $139. Value? Maybe $20. No where in the brochure or accompanying
letter does it give the weight of the silver ingot. It does say that it
starts as a 2.2 mm thick ingot before it is struck, but doesn't give the
other dimensions. It does give the weight of the copper medal as 20 grams.



Obviously, this is also a play on the publicity generated by the new
Presidential $1 coin series scheduled for 2007. Why the US Mint and the US
Postal Service would lend their names to such an obvious rip-off is beyond
me. Surely, there are better things for these government agencies to be
doing to make money.



Personally, the Hallmark Group should be allowed to do whatever it pleases.
But it should not have government agencies lending it an air of authenticity
and value.



I can't believe that the Mint and the USPS are involved in this.."


I urge everyone to write to the US Mint and the US Postal Service and your
Congresspersons to express your disapproval of the involvement of these two
agencies in this offer.

The addresses:



The Hon. John E. Potter

Postmaster General and CEO

United States Postal Service

475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW

Washington, DC 20260





The Hon. John W. Snow, Secretary

Department of the Treasury

1500 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20220



http://www.house.gov/writerep/

http://www.senate.gov/





http://www.uspresidentscollection.com/

On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 21:41:07 -0500, "Richard L. Hall"
wrote:

I sent this letter to my Congressman and Senators today:.

"I received in the mail today a colorful brochure with the impressive title
"The American President's Collection." It claims it is "An Official
Licensed Program of the United States Mint and the United States Postal
Service Issued under License by Hallmark Group."........

It's a British company....here's the offer on the web:

http://www.uspresidentscollection.com/

They also have similar products based on US Stamps and their fine
print does claim:

"This website is owned and operated by Hallmark Group, LTD and is not
affiliated with the U.S. Government. Hallmark Group, LTD is an
Official Licensee of the U.S. Postal Service and the United States
Mint. ©2005 Hallmark Group, LTD. Logos, symbols, and trademarks of the
U.S. Postal Service and the United States Mint used under license. All
rights reserved."

I'm not 100% sure, but I really think your estimate of the value of
the gold plating is way too high. Everywhere I have seen gold plated
silver products discussed, the value of the gold involved was in term
of cents, not dollars.
I thoroughly agree with your assessment, otherwise. I think the same
kind of issue has been raised regarding the ANA giving its blessing
(for a fee) to a private entity putting on a coin show. In Las Vegas,
IIRC.
Aram.
===================
On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 21:41:07 -0500, "Richard L. Hall"
wrote:

I sent this letter to my Congressman and Senators today:.

"I received in the mail today a colorful brochure with the impressive title
"The American President's Collection." It claims it is "An Official
Licensed Program of the United States Mint and the United States Postal
Service Issued under License by Hallmark Group."


What is being offered are 25 silver ingots, plated with gold, in the shape
of a stamp bearing a presidential portrait, and the corresponding small US
Mint presidential medal for that president, also plated in gold. Also
included are a box and a book, gloves and a jewelers cloth and a Certificate
of Authenticity. You can get one of these ingots and the corresponding
medal every month for the price of $139 per ingot and medal. The complete
set would cost $3475.



In other words, every month the purchaser will get perhaps less than an
ounce of silver, less than an ounce of copper and maybe 1/10 oz of gold for
his $139. Value? Maybe $20. No where in the brochure or accompanying
letter does it give the weight of the silver ingot. It does say that it
starts as a 2.2 mm thick ingot before it is struck, but doesn't give the
other dimensions. It does give the weight of the copper medal as 20 grams.



Obviously, this is also a play on the publicity generated by the new
Presidential $1 coin series scheduled for 2007. Why the US Mint and the US
Postal Service would lend their names to such an obvious rip-off is beyond
me. Surely, there are better things for these government agencies to be
doing to make money.



Personally, the Hallmark Group should be allowed to do whatever it pleases.
But it should not have government agencies lending it an air of authenticity
and value.



I can't believe that the Mint and the USPS are involved in this.."


I urge everyone to write to the US Mint and the US Postal Service and your
Congresspersons to express your disapproval of the involvement of these two
agencies in this offer.

The addresses:



The Hon. John E. Potter

Postmaster General and CEO

United States Postal Service

475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW

Washington, DC 20260





The Hon. John W. Snow, Secretary

Department of the Treasury

1500 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20220



http://www.house.gov/writerep/

http://www.senate.gov/

"Aram H. Haroutunian" wrote in message
...
I'm not 100% sure, but I really think your estimate of the value of
the gold plating is way too high. Everywhere I have seen gold plated
silver products discussed, the value of the gold involved was in term
of cents, not dollars.
I thoroughly agree with your assessment, otherwise. I think the same
kind of issue has been raised regarding the ANA giving its blessing
(for a fee) to a private entity putting on a coin show. In Las Vegas,
IIRC.
Aram.

Gold and silver plate used to not be worth anything. It was just decoration.
From what I understand, electroplated gold and silver are not considered
precious. If this is true, it is misleading to advertise an electroplated
coin as having any mass of gold. Electroplate is often separated from salts
of gold and silver, and not the metal ores, which is supposed to be why it
wasn't considered as precious metal. I don't know if this is true or not --
I've not heard it discussed again and I often pick up trinkets of wrong
information. If it is true, electroplate should just be considered like
painting -- nice to look at, but of no real value.

Anita

In article ,
wrote:

"Aram H. Haroutunian" wrote in message
...
I'm not 100% sure, but I really think your estimate of the value of
the gold plating is way too high. Everywhere I have seen gold plated
silver products discussed, the value of the gold involved was in term
of cents, not dollars.
I thoroughly agree with your assessment, otherwise. I think the same
kind of issue has been raised regarding the ANA giving its blessing
(for a fee) to a private entity putting on a coin show. In Las Vegas,
IIRC.
Aram.

Gold and silver plate used to not be worth anything. It was just decoration.
From what I understand, electroplated gold and silver are not considered
precious. If this is true, it is misleading to advertise an electroplated
coin as having any mass of gold. Electroplate is often separated from salts
of gold and silver, and not the metal ores, which is supposed to be why it
wasn't considered as precious metal. I don't know if this is true or not --
I've not heard it discussed again and I often pick up trinkets of wrong
information. If it is true, electroplate should just be considered like
painting -- nice to look at, but of no real value.

Anita


The reason for the lack of value in gold/silver plating is that both
can be incredibly thin. With gold, you might get literally a few
atoms' worth of a layer. There's just pretty much nothing there to
evaluate.