Wikinvest Wire

More shiny coins from the government

Thursday, November 29, 2007

On page A13 of today's Wall Street Journal is a full-page advertisement for 50 Presidential Dollar Coins in a "ballistic roll" from the World Reserve Monetary Exchange - it can be yours for just a $98 "vault release fee" and perhaps some shipping charges.

You must act within the next 72 hours to get these "free coins" - call the toll free number.

Either that or you can go to their website, skip the "release fee", and pay $99 for $50 worth of fiat money inside a clear plastic tube.

A quick check at Coinflation shows the dollars to be 88.5% copper, 6% zinc, 3.5% manganese, and 2% nickel where the manganese brass outer layer is what makes the coins so shiny.

Does anybody really think this sealed tube will be worth more than $100 someday?

More importantly, is the WSJ the right place to put an ad like this? Maseratis and luxury real estate make sense, but wouldn't the demographics indicate that this would be better suited to something like the Parade pullout in Sunday morning papers alongside those painted plates and Cuckoo clocks.

If this ad is directed toward the WSJ reader who is a novelty gift buyer during the holiday season, perhaps a more suitable product offering would be a single U.S. $50 gold coin that could be exchanged for about 800 of these copper dollars.

That would be a great novelty Christmas gift and its value would be much more likely to go "ballistic" than this tube full of base metals.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link, Tim. The trinkets sold at that site are rivaled only by the laughable rhetoric used to peddle them.

Not sure what's more attractive, "ballistic tubes" or the various "vault" products, complete with faux gun cases.

Or whatever those are. Gah!

EconomicDisconnect said...

This just in:
AP
Bernanke Caught in rare Gaffe
New York-7:30pm
Ben Bernanke during a break in his speech tonight, failed to key off his microphone during an exchange with an aid. Bernanke was heard by all 300 attendees to remark "I cannot believe these guys eat this spin up! Do you think the line about doing all that is necessary to ensure price stability is still good? Do we have enough Vodka for the flight tonight?"
Attendees were aghast at the comments, but waited for the speech to conclude for any hint of a rate cut coming in December.
Joe Schmoe reporting

ABOVE IS A JOKE!
Now quick quiz!
Would a story like the one I fabricated above really shock you? The answer to that question tells you how silly things are by themselves without comic addition.

Aaron Krowne said...

Are they calling these coins "golden" yet??

God, they're ugly!

Anonymous said...

"Because the government will stop minting these coins forever...." Promises, promises.

Anonymous said...

Does anybody really think this sealed tube will be worth more than $100 someday?

The way the dollar is headed I think that tube might be worth more than $100 as soon as next year!

Okay, maybe not!

Anonymous said...

What's even funnier is that you can go down to your local bank and pick up 50 uncirculated dollars for (gasp!) $50.

And surely the WSJ crowd knows that...

Anonymous said...

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