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- - Silver Eagles not assayed! (http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=328215)

mboo42 | 12-04-2008 02:32 PM
Silver Eagles not assayed! http://bullion.nwtmint.com/silver_americaneagle.php "U.S. Government Guarantee The American Eagle is uniquely the only silver bullion coin whose weight, content, and purity is guaranteed by the United States Government. Requiring no assaying, American Eagles are easily converted to cash at any time." Does this seem odd to anyone? I guess someone has had their eagles assayed and that they are .999 pure silver? We are to trust the government?

RealJack | 12-04-2008 02:58 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Yes, GovCorp. guarantees every Silver Eagle to contain $1 worth of silver.

madfranks | 12-04-2008 03:02 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Oh man, can you imagine if someone took a dozen or so SAEs to test them and they came out with an average below one ounce of silver each?!? Woah let's not go there...

Jack London | 12-04-2008 03:23 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! I think you may be misunderstanding them. They are saying that because the coins are guaranteed by the US government to contain 1 troy ounce of pure silver, there is no need to have them assayed each time you sell them. Other bullion products may not be so well trusted. For example, if you were offered 20 1 ounce silver rounds at a fair price, but when you saw them they were from a private mint you had never heard of and had a picture of Santa on them, you might be inclined to ask that they be assayed prior to making the transaction. The same goes for silver and gold bars. Gold bar sales on large scale always have an assay done (at the seller's expense) if the bars have left a secure custody chain. This is why so much of the international gold sales are done on paper with the bars being moved from room to room at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. To answer the next question, the penalty for making a fake SAE is actually counterfeiting US money and is a federal offense. Making a fake private mint silver round is still fraud, but not nearly as risky.

Turner-son | 12-04-2008 04:38 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack London (Post 1449392) I think you may be misunderstanding them. They are saying that because the coins are guaranteed by the US government to contain 1 troy ounce of pure silver, there is no need to have them assayed each time you sell them. Other bullion products may not be so well trusted. For example, if you were offered 20 1 ounce silver rounds at a fair price, but when you saw them they were from a private mint you had never heard of and had a picture of Santa on them, you might be inclined to ask that they be assayed prior to making the transaction. The same goes for silver and gold bars. Gold bar sales on large scale always have an assay done (at the seller's expense) if the bars have left a secure custody chain. This is why so much of the international gold sales are done on paper with the bars being moved from room to room at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. To answer the next question, the penalty for making a fake SAE is actually counterfeiting US money and is a federal offense. Making a fake private mint silver round is still fraud, but not nearly as risky.
Exactly. Also, the US Government doesn't actually produce the blanks, they just stamp them. The blanks are made by the Sunshine Mint.

DrillAndFill | 12-04-2008 04:44 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Has anyone ever heard of a U.S. government agency making a mistake, or failing to uphold a guarantee?

mamboni | 12-04-2008 04:48 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Quote:
Originally Posted by DrillAndFill (Post 1449582) Has anyone ever heard of a U.S. government agency making a mistake, or failing to uphold a guarantee?
:clap2::clap2::rofl::rofl::coolbeer::rofl::rofl: :clap2::clap2: You hit that lob of lobs clear out of the park!

silverwine | 12-04-2008 05:05 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Quote:
Originally Posted by DrillAndFill (Post 1449582) Has anyone ever heard of a U.S. government agency making a mistake, or failing to uphold a guarantee?
Damit, Drill, now I'm tempted to break the seal on my monster box...

mboo42 | 12-04-2008 05:14 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Quote:
Originally Posted by Turner-son (Post 1449561) Exactly. Also, the US Government doesn't actually produce the blanks, they just stamp them. The blanks are made by the Sunshine Mint.
That makes sense.

TomD | 12-04-2008 05:20 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! The actual silver content of silver Eagles is far enough down my list of worries that I'll get around to it somewhere around the time the sun turns into a red giant.

mboo42 | 12-04-2008 05:21 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Although it doesn't say .999 anywhere on it.

SLV>GLD | 12-04-2008 05:24 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Quote:
Originally Posted by mboo42 (Post 1449671) Although it doesn't say .999 anywhere on it.
Fine silver means .999 minimum. It is the definition with no room for foul play.

Twisted Avatar | 12-04-2008 05:29 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Quote:
Originally Posted by silverwine (Post 1449638) Damit, Drill, now I'm tempted to break the seal on my monster box...
You should do that IMMEDIATELY and inspect your product........ I use to think there was a big fat premium for sealed monsters too. No such premium exists. I have personally looked at monsters and the only thing "offical" is the lead and cooper twist with the year of issue. The plastics straps holding the seal in place can be bought be the reel right at the home depo dirt cheap. Some one could bust that box open cherry pick the best and close it back and nobody would be none the wiser or leave you with a hunk of lead.:36_1_25: Inspect your product. NOW. T

argentos | 12-04-2008 06:13 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Does anybody officially check the US Mint's coins? Over here we have the arcane procedure of The Trial of The Pyx. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_the_Pyx It strikes me that the deficiency in it is that "The Deputy Master of the Mint must, throughout the year, randomly select several thousand sample coins and place them aside for the Trial" which puts a great deal of trust in that one person. In practical terms I don't suppose he could get away with it though!

phideaux | 12-04-2008 06:20 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Since I've never had anything assayed, let me ask this: don't the assayers have to take a tiny hunk out of the coin body to make the sample that they test? Wouldn't that like drop the condition by about 5 grades? Or is it done by spectral analysis or some other non-damaging method?

TomD | 12-04-2008 06:30 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! If you've ever read a government procurement contract, you can just bet that Silvertown has to "adequately" demonstrate the purity of the supplied blanks. Honestly guys this isn't one to worry about. In all the years, someone would have made a stink.

mboo42 | 12-05-2008 02:49 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! This may be off topic but in researching the Sunshine mint, I came across the following. It is a year old so it may have been discussed before but I thought it interesting. http://anotheropinionatedyouth.wordp...berty-dollars/ "At 8 AM Wednesday, November 14, the FBI assaulted the Sunshine Mint in an effort to control the distribution of the massively-popular Liberty Dollar. In short, the Liberty Dollar is money which is completely inflation-proof, and 100% backed by gold and/or silver. Their main goal is education of the Federal Reserve and the distribution of real, gold-backed currency. In the raid, the FBI stole the plates from the mint, the dies, the paper, all the money in-house, and the gold and silver it was backed with, essentially neutering them. They are currently setting up a defense fund, as they are effectivly broke now, and have gotten major support in their efforts for justice."

HistoryStudent | 12-05-2008 03:41 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Quote:
Originally Posted by silverwine (Post 1449638) Damit, Drill, now I'm tempted to break the seal on my monster box...
Don't worry send the box to me and I'll guarantee that I'll send you ONE stinkin' US FRN dollar for each ONE! banchabancha:111:bancha:111:bancha:111:

Saul Mine | 12-05-2008 05:27 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! The government's guarantee is worthless in any practical setting. How would you collect on it? The only practical guarantee is familiarity. You know how an SAE looks and sounds, and that is your assurance that it is pure silver. The same is true of any other silver coin, even if you never saw the design before.

californiaprospector | 12-05-2008 07:47 PM
Re: Silver Eagles not assayed! Quote:
Originally Posted by DrillAndFill (Post 1449582) Has anyone ever heard of a U.S. government agency making a mistake, or failing to uphold a guarantee?
No, never. And it's un-American to imply it's possible.

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