Controversy
In 2004, State Supreme Court Justice Thomas J. McNamara fined the National Collector’s Mint for engaging in false advertising and deceptive business practices when issuing their Freedom Tower Silver Dollar coins.
Sales of the Freedom Tower Silver Dollar coins were halted by a court order in October 2004 at the request then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. The company received approval from the officials of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to produce legal tender coinage on their behalf. 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. A judge ruled in 2004 that the company was guilty of fraud, false advertising and deceptive business. Current ads for the new Freedom Tower coins indicate the actual silver weight (45 mg, or 0.00145 troy oz.) rather than the thickness of silver in mils used.
Freedom Tower coins were plated using silver collected from the destroyed World Trade Center after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Bank of Nova Scotia had silver and gold bullion stored underneath the World Trade Center at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks. This gold and silver was later sold to individuals and companies. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler said the "recovered from the vaults beneath the ashes of Ground Zero" claim cannot be substantiated, and called on the Federal Trade Commission to stop National Collector's Mint from selling the Sept. 11 coins, which are seen as taking sales away from an official Sept. 11 medal that benefits the National September 11 Memorial & Museum being built at the World Trade Center site.
National Collector's Mint website claims their customers have donated over $1,900,000 to charities, including Official September 11 charities, and associates these donations with NCM corporate giving, though it is not stated whether any significant amount was actually contributed by National Collectors Mint or its owner. It is also not stated what role NCM played in soliciting these charitable donations from their customers. In one instance a donation from the company was refused.
Read more about this topic: National Collector's Mint
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