What is a 12 carat AGE?
 

My mother went to coin shop.
She wanted to buy a 1 oz AGE.
The owner said that AGEs were sold by carats
12 or 24 carat.
I never heard of it.
I thought that 1 oz AGE came in one and only one purity?
What is going on?
Be well.

Re: What is a 12 carat AGE?
 

someone is confused.
Either the coin shop dealer is mis infromed, or your mother has misunderstood.
gold American eagle coins are available in tenth, quarter, half and one ounce denominations, and are all composed of the same alloy of 22 KARAT gold ( that is KARAT with a K)
equivalent fraction is .9167 parts gold. balance is silver and copper, unknown proportion.

Re: What is a 12 carat AGE?
 

I see that the confusion is spreading.
Allow me to repeat:
The Gold Eagle is 22 karat gold, that is the GOLD portion of the coin's alloy is the fraction 22/24 pure gold.
91.67% gold expressed another way.

Re: What is a 12 carat AGE?
 

I looked it up on Wikipedia:
Carat is a term w two meanings:

A) Carat (mass), a unit of mass for gemstones, equal to 0.2 gram
B) Carat (purity) or karat, a unit of purity for gold

But by no defintion could I find a 12 or 24 Karat AGE.

My Mom asked for 1 oz AGEs and only AGEs.
I don't understand what the coin dealer meant.

My best guess is that he was calling the 1 oz coin a "24 Karat" and the 1/2 oz a "12" Carat, but that is plain wrong.

Be well.

Re: What is a 12 carat AGE?
 

The dealer is being shady.... No reason why he should be confused

Re: What is a 12 carat AGE?
 

Lets just say he is 10 karats short of a full bunch.

Or, perhaps you mother misunderstood. Then again, maybe it was the "jeweler's" first day on the job.

Re: What is a 12 carat AGE?
 

I deleted my post- but I was saying the same thing too.........she was buying coins - not jewelery...........

He knew - he figured she was a newbie and could scam her!

Re: What is a 12 carat AGE?
 

I'm probably going to step on some toes here but...

My experience with dealers is that if they don't know you and you don't immediately appear to be knowledgable they often try to take advantage of you.

Many of these dealers are "wheeler dealers" and make $$ buying items way under market or selling to newbies.

While I'm not a PM expert I do know when someone is trying to screw me. I'll spend my $$ with a reputable online dealer while the local dealer is busy scamming old ladys.

Re: What is a 12 carat AGE?
 

My guess is that your mother misheard the dealer. I am going to assume that the dealer was trying to explain to your mother that she could get a 24K Buffalo or a 22K AGE. Since the Buffalo are fairly new I think the dealer was just trying to give options.

I can see a dealer assuming that AGE means gold coin. Just like a $20 St. Gaudens and $20 Liberty Head are both "double eagles".

65GT350

Re: What is a 12 carat AGE?
 

I would ask him if the 1 ounce 12K GAE was cheaper than the 1 ounce 22K GAE and then if the answer was yes, I would buy them all up :D

Re: What is a 12 carat AGE?
 

lol...that would be great

Re: What is a 12 carat AGE?
 

I'm guessing your mom misunderstood or he wasn't explaining things very well... or he may have just been confused.

Altho, I HAVE seen 10 karat Mexican 50 Peso reproductions, to be used as jewelry (pretty gaudy in my opinion, but what do I know?). Plenty of them in downtown L.A. jewelry district, for example. (The 10K coin would obviously be cheaper and lighter... less neck strain, lol.) Luckily, the dealer I asked was honest and told me they were just 10K reproductions... but I'm sure some are passed off as the real thing.

Now, since this was a coin shop and not a jewelry shop, and since I haven't heard of 12K Gold Eagles, I dunno what is going on. Perhaps he was talking about a bezel around the coin so it could be worn as a pendant? I dunno, just throwing out ideas at this point, lol.