$100 for $100 coin

[barrytrot]

http://www.mint.ca/store/coin/coin-prod ... ZV1c7Vwrng

I didn't see a post of this here. Similar to the successful $20 for $20 coin.

[Diggin4copper]

seems like it has jumped the shark.. I think someone tried to turn one in a while ago and no bank would take it.. (a 20 for 20 coin) I have a bunch of the 20coins put away,but I wont buy 100s..

[Rodebaugh]

I like the looks of the coin.......BUT These are not accepted or payable at face value .....So what we have here folks is just overpriced bullion.

Props to the RCM on finding a way to fluff up a super cool idea.

[henrysmedford]

seems like it has jumped the shark.. I think someone tried to turn one in a while ago and no bank would take it.. (a 20 for 20 coin) I have a bunch of the 20coins put away,but I wont buy 100s..

Toronto Star
Business
Coin collector learns the difference between legal tender and spending money the hard way
Coin collector Orest Fokine learned the hard way that just because a coin is legal tender doesn't mean you can spend it anywhere. Like some banks, for example.
Coin collector learns the difference between legal tender and spending money the hard way

The Royal Canadian Mint's $20 silver Queen's Diamond Jubilee commemorative coin is legal tender, but you can't always use it as cash.
By: Morgan Campbell Business, Published on Thu Jul 05 2012

What’s the difference between legal tender and spending money?

A big headache for a Scarborough man who learned the hard way that banks aren’t obligated to honour collector’s coins at face value, even if they come from the Royal Canadian Mint.

Two months ago 32-year-old Orest Fokine took advantage of a deal on a new silver coin the mint had stamped to commemorate Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee.

The coin retails for $25, but Fokine was able to buy more than 30 of them at their $20 face value.

On Tuesday he needed money quickly, and with no cash at hand he headed to a CIBC branch near Kingston Rd. and Midland Rd. with one of his silver coins, hoping to exchange it for cash or deposit it into his account.

But the teller there told him he could do neither, rejecting Fokine’s silver coin.

When he appealed to the manager he was again told he couldn’t exchange the coin for cash.

When he tried a nearby Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal branches and heard the same answer, he got steamed. He had bought the coin legitimately and had been assured it was legal tender, so he couldn’t figure out why the banks wouldn’t recognize his coin as real money.

“This is the most ridiculous explanation I’ve ever heard in my life,” Fokine says. “Nothing in the description of this coin states it’s not currency.”

So who is right, the customer with the legal tender coin or the banks who kept rejecting it?

They’re both correct, says Royal Canadian Mint Alex Reeves.

He explains all coins produced by the mint are legal tender – meaning they can be exchanged for goods or services at face value – but only circulating legal tender can be readily spent and traded at business and banks.

Non-circulating legal tender refers to items like Fokine’s silver coins and designated collectibles. Reeves says business can accept the money at face value if they choose, but they’re also free to reject it.

“There’s nothing forcing a bank or a business to accept (the coin),” Reeves says. “If someone offers me a gold Maple Leaf (coin) for $50 face value I’d be crazy not to take it, but it’s still a coin that’s not destined for circulation.”

Reeves points out banks all have procedures by which customers can convert collectible coins to cash but acknowledges staff aren’t always aware of them. In that case he suggests having the branch manager call the Mint so they can work through the conversion process.

Managers at the RBC branch Fokine visited have arranged to meet with him to discuss the coin. And by Wednesday afternoon Fokine says CIBC had offered to
convert the coin to cash, but only after keeping it on hold for six months.

But on Tuesday Fokine wasn’t aware of those avenues, or that the Mint could have interevened. Out of options, he called a friend and borrowed some cash.

[fasteddy]

No purchase for me....way overpriced bullion. Learned my lesson with the US mint hockey pucks.

[Morsecode]

Ripe for a class action lawsuit. Doesn't pass the smell test.

If banks are going to summarily reject them, then why would any business ever consider them legal tender? And the statement that coins not in current circulation don't have to be accepted is just nuts. Banks don't get to decide what is money and what isn't.

[Hawkeye]

That's weird. I guess I assumed that legal tender is legal tender and had to be accepted as such. Businesses can accept or reject whatever they want (large bills, piles of pennies, etc.) - I understand that. But I wouldn't think that a bank would be able to pick and choose what they took. I love the design of the $100 coin, but there is no way I'd pay $100 for it. Maybe since it's in a gray area of "legal tender status" it will go on sale.

[henrysmedford]

In 1964 who would have thought that someone would pay over face for a silver coin. So when silver hits a $100 this coin will have been a great deal.

[knibloe]

I don't know how they can be sold and distributed as legal tender one month and declared as non-circulating.

I originally thought that they were a cool idea, but I agree they are just over priced bullion.

[TwoPenniesEarned]

In 1964 who would have thought that someone would pay over face for a silver coin. So when silver hits a $100 this coin will have been a great deal.

When silver hits $100 you could have bought $400 in silver for what you paid. So definitely not a good deal.

[TwoPenniesEarned]

What this does represent is a good example of how government could cost effectively back the currency with PM's. If they circulated and vendors were forced to accept them as legal tender, the gov't could set a face value well above melt and it would still be way better than paper.

[everything]

It's like the mint's own version of the dinar/dirham, except they say they'll back the value of the metal since they stamped it as such, typical BS that you would expect from a government owned entity.