Picture this: A fellow drives into a gas station with his Mercedes, fills its tank, and checks its oil. It’s a quart low, so he goes into the station and inquires what brands they carry. The clerk says, “We have Valvoline, Pennzoil, and our station brand, which is the same as the other two, but a lot cheaper.” Which would you choose? Would you believe that the ‘station brand’ was indeed the same as the Valvoline or Pennzoil? I wouldn’t, even if they were the same. A brand name gives me confidence.
You go to the super market for the week’s groceries. Would you buy “Hawaiian canned pineapple,” or “Dole?” Would you buy unknown brands of anything? After all, the food goes into your stomach, just like the motor oil goes into your Mercedes. Why take a chance over something that is very important? Ever notice that the super market checks to see if your hundred-dollar bill is counterfeit? If the cashier lets a bad one go by, it will be taken out of his or her paycheck.
The term “Hallmark” is what we use in the precious metals business. Hallmark means almost the same as “brand name,” and it guarantees the manufacturer’s weight and purity. I have in my desk a silver bar which I bought from a miner in Silverton, Colorado when I had hotels there. It is marked “150 GR.” I bought it from him, and never even thought about who made it or whether it was pure or not. I figured it was silver, and it must have come from Standard Metals, the local mine, so why not buy it? Surely I could always sell it if I needed money, couldn’t I? Would you buy it? I’m an honest guy, and I would never cheat anyone, and the miner from whom I bought it, was a good friend of mine. Anything wrong with that? Yes there is. If you bought your silver from a miner at far less than the spot price, maybe, but even then you may never be able to sell it at a decent price because it has no hallmark. Just like motor oil or pineapple, a guarantee of the purity of the pineapple or oil is its hallmark or brand name.
There are many fakes of everything in the world. Real antiques or fake antiques? A few decades ago, communist China was making fake American Gold Eagles, and it was difficult to tell the difference. I haven’t seen one in several decades, but even though it looked real and was even made of gold, the source from which someone buys gold and silver is important. Colorado Gold has always uses the largest distributor of metals in the world. We’ve been through their vaults, offices, and entire operation. All four of us. They know us so well, that our voices tell them who we are when we call. No fake anything ever comes from us or our supplier!
Which brings us to another item about hallmarks. We at Colorado Gold have been around since November, 1977, and have had an A+ Better Business Rating ever since. We do no advertising, so you didn’t find out about us through a TV advertisement, but undoubtedly through a recommendation, reading my columns, or whatever. Who do you think pays for TV advertising? The customer, of course. We have no employees, and work out of our own homes, in New York, Wisconsin or Colorado, and only sell legitimate, well-known hallmarks.
Obviously, you will never sell your motor oil or pineapple, but you might well want to sell your gold or silver if hard times come. With a great hallmark, you will have no trouble. If you bought them from us, there is only a $25 charge. And incidentally, that’s the trouble with U.S. silver quarters, dimes, and half dollars. The hallmark may be OK, but the coins have no weight engraved on them, so how does anyone know how much they weigh? That’s assuming you can convince them they’re real silver, because the last one made was in 1964, before many of us were born.
I have a little round gold ‘button,’ I bought from someone a long time ago, and have no idea what I paid for it. Compared to a penny or postage stamp, it’s microscopic. I know it's real gold, but I have no idea of its purity or weight. It’s just a cute little fun piece. Jewelry generally has the gold weight in karats engraved on it; pure gold being 24 karats. A “karat” is a means of labeling the purity of gold. 24 karat is pure. Few pieces of jewelry are 24 karat, because pure gold is very soft and easily bent or scratched. Most jewelry is from 10 to 18 karat, making it not susceptible to bending or scratching. The Canadian Maple Leaf is .9999 pure, and weighs exactly one troy ounce. The American Gold Eagle, which is more expensive than the Maple Leaf, weighs 1.09 Troy ounces and has one ounce of pure gold in it, but an additional .09 ounce of copper and silver, which makes it strong, un-bendable and scratch resistant.
Like the Gold Eagle, the South African Krugerrand weighs 1.09 ounces, because of the alloy added to one ounce of pure gold. When I started doing metals, The ‘Krug’ is all I had. The term Krugerrand is composed of two words. “Krug” is the South African money, similar to the American dollar. “Rand” is the name of the first president of South Africa, and a Krugerrand, might be the same as a ‘Washington dollar’ in America. Paul Kruger, believe it or not, actually believed that the world was flat. I used to carry a Krugerrand in my pocket at one time a long time ago, but I lost it and have never done that again.
A brand name is on something you consume, and a hallmark is on something you will keep as an investment. Some like bars rather than coins. One-ounce bars, properly labeled, and with a good hallmark such as Credit Suisse, are fine as are ten-ounce bars, gold or silver. Some like hundred-ounce bars, which weigh in at about six pounds. I have a customer who has a thousand-ounce silver bar weighing about 63 pounds. He has it painted black and uses it as a door stop.
Don Stott- don@coloradogold.com