Dubai Debt Issues Push Stocks Down
GMA: Adam Lambert, No; Chris Brown, Yes
Report: Wife Scratched Tiger Woods' Face, Chased His SUV; Update: Police Unable To Interview Couple Today
Family Gets Early Christmas Gift From Ellen DeGeneres
Street Artist Proposes on Subway Signage
Those horrible coins, touting to be "mined" from silver found at Ground Zero, will hopefully be no more as NY State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has obtained a court order suspending their sale. Thank goodness - these coins make us ill when we see those ads on TV. Calling them a "shameless attempt to profit from a national tragedy," Spitzer says the coins are a scam (Was it really silver mined from a vault from Ground Zero? How did they get the silver? Aren't these just silver-plated?) and an investigation is underway. National Collectors Mint says they stand by their product and claim they have donated over $1.5 million to September 11 charities.
Spitzer will be looking for restitution for consumers (suckers that they are) as well as to permanently stop the sale of coins. The Attorney General's office says consumers can file a complaint by going to their website or calling 800-771-7755. And our sharp readers suggested to others outraged by the coins could write to the manufacturer, as well as wondered if Spitzer could investigate the matter.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
While the coin makers certainly took profiting off 9/11 to anew level, they really are just taking it to a new level. Everyone, and I mean everyone, seems to have purchased FDNY hats in the subsequent period after 9/11, In most cases, none of that money has gone to any kind of charity (as the coin makers claim to have done) and few have complained that vendors selling FDNY stuff are profiting off 9/11. Why’s that?
Also, please note that Spitzer was very careful to say that the coin makers’ claims were “misleading” and not “untrue.” I have seen the commercial many times and the ad itself claims that the coins are only plated, not solid. I have a feeling that Spitzer’s only case is that this sale is “yucky”, but yucky does not equal illegal and I think he knows it.
The towers were a temple to sheer capitalism (where I am sure many “yucky” practices were undertaken in the name of money. In their afterlife, why is anyone surprised that they are simply fulfilling the a similar role?
The Times, I think it was Joyce Purnick, had a great article about these coins and their creator in Saturday's paper. Check it out.
Hypocricity SOOO works for National Collectors Mint.