National Collector's Mint

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National Collector's Mint, Inc. is a company based in Port Chester, New York that creates solid bullion and bullion-clad commemoratives, either as novelties or as legal tender coins in countries other than the United States. Such coins are commonly designated non-circulating legal tender (NCLT) issues. The company is a trusted licensee for coin and coin-related products of the General Motors Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Chrysler Corporation, and The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation.

By Federal law the coins produced by National Collector's Mint, or any other private company, cannot be legal tender in the United States or its territories. The production of legal tender coinage in the United States falls to the United States Mint alone. National Collector's Mint is not affiliated with, endorsed, or licensed by the U.S. government. It does, however, sell U.S. mint produced coins, and other foreign issued and ancient coins along with its own manufactured commemoratives. This has caused confusion in the past because some of the company's advertisements, and the tribute coins themselves which were often designed to mimic official U.S. coinage, gave the impression that the company was producing legal tender issues.

Sales of the company's "Freedom Tower" commemorative coins were halted by a court order in October 2004 at the request then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.[1] The company received approval from the officials of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to produce legal tender coinage on their behalf[1]. Spitzer noted that the Commonwealth is not authorized to issue its own currency. It was also indicated that the exact amount of silver contained in the commemorative was not clear to customers. The company also claimed the coins were made using pure silver collected from the destroyed World Trade Center after the September 11, 2001 attacks. A judge ruled in 2004 that the company was guilty of fraud, false advertising and deceptive business.[2] However, the use of silver recovered at the World Trade Center has not been directly challenged. Recent ads for the new Freedom Tower coin continue clarify the actual silver weight (45 mg, or 0.00145 troy oz.) rather than the thickness of silver in mils used. The Bank of Nova Scotia had silver and gold bullion stored underneath the World Trade Center[2] at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks. This gold and silver was later sold to individuals and companies.

National Collector's Mint indicates on its website that it has donated over $1,900,000 to Official September 11th charities[3], although in at least one instance a donation from the company has been refused.[4] The company has an unsatisfactory record with the Better Business Bureau, of which it is not a member. In the past year, sixteen complaints have been registered with the BBB in numerous areas of its business practices.[5]

National Collector's Mint, Inc. is owned by Avram C. Freedberg, who is also the owner of Maximum Entertainment Productions, LLC. Barry Goldwater Jr., former United States Congressman[3] is a member of National Collector's Mint's board of directors, as indicated on his website under 'Corporate Affiliations'[4] and is a spokesman for the company.[6]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

  • National Collector's Mint (Javascript must be enabled)
  • U.S. Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr.[5]
  • Corporate Affiliations of Barry Goldwater, Jr.[6]
  • Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands athorization [7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Court Order Halts Sales of "Freedom Tower Silver Dollars". New York Department of Law (October 13, 2004). Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
  2. ^ Medina, Jennifer. "Judge Rules 9/11 Coin Ads Were Deceptive", The New York Times, October 14, 2004. Retrieved on 2006-12-29. 
  3. ^ National Collectors Mint - Corporate donations. Retrieved on 2008-02-12.
  4. ^ Seifman, David. "30G WTC Donation Nixed", The New York Post, February 5, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-07-11. 
  5. ^ [http://search.newyork.bbb.org/reports.aspx?pid=44&page=1&id=40483 New York BBB Reliability Report for National Collector's Mint] (2007-11-28). Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
  6. ^ National Collectors Mint - About Us. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.


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