Dec
2008
The Obama Coin Collection Just Finally Went Too Far
Yet another television ad to toss on the ever-growing pile of ones I hate. The newest one to join the ranks is the Obama Presidential Coin Collection. This has nothing to do with politics, but just being plain shady on the parts of the sellers, and how gullible the consumer can be.
If you haven’t seen this commercial yet, former talk show host Montel Williams talks to you about how you can commemorate the election of Obama to the office of President of the United States by buying commemorative coins that documents different times in his life. There is a quarter for Illinois for where he was senator, a quarter for Hawaii where he was born, and there are also a Washington Dollar and a Kennedy Half Dollar. Each comes with a full-color image on it corresponding to the coin, and you will also receive a certificate of authenticity (CoA) for each. As a bonus, you also get a display to place the four coins in.
So, in other words, you are paying $19.95 for $2 worth of coins some yahoo has put colored stickers on, and then he’ll give you CoAs saying, “Hey, yep, these are the coins I put the colored stickers on!”
I always love these coin and money deals you see on TV, like the one to mark the anniversary of 9/11 that had the pop-up twin towers on it. True class. I think this one hits a new low, though. It’s four colored stickers on some normal coins! I tell ya what, if you want to pay me $19.95 for $2 worth of coins with some worthless stickers on them, I’ll sit here and make them all dang day long for you.
So here are my proposed coin series you will soon be able to order
- Great Moments in Web 2.0 – Who can forget classic sites like Muxtape or Global Pandora? Sites that lasted but like a blip in a moment of time will have their logos lovingly reproduced on these commemorative coins. Never will we forget how Global Pandora brought music to the masses of the world, and now you can make sure even your grandchildren will remember!
- New Coke Remembered – New Coke was built to take over the world, but, alas, it never did, and was eventually usurped by its predecessor, Classic Coke. Remember the packing of all the various New Coke containers such as the 12 oz can and the 2 liter bottle!
You get the idea… anything silly I can put on a quarter sized decal, I’m doin’ it!
If you have ever been tempted to order crap fine products such as these, please don’t. All you end up doing is making me weep for humanity, and you end up with $2 in change after the decals finally fall off one day due to what is probably substandard glue.
In case you were wondering, I am intentionally not linking to their website, but you can find it without much effort… but please don’t.
On FriendFeed, this post was liked by 0 people and commented on 0 times 
coin collecting | December 31st, 2008 at 7:23 am #
I didn't see the tv commercial but all of my coin sites have been overrun by Adsense ads for this or similar coins. Not really something that coin collectors would be interested in. I finally filtered them all out.
Jack | December 31st, 2008 at 7:37 am #
Generally when I make a comment on Sean's blog, it's to pull back from rant-mode in an attempt to understand whatever he's posted about from a more anthropological perspective.
I'm not doing that this time. I mean, I could; the people marketing this crap are con men, and con men are trickster figures, and trickster figures are fun in myth (Coyote, Anansi, Loki, &c) and pop cult (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, &c). But trickster figures are only fun when 1) they're successfully tricking people who deserve it or 2) they're trying to trick an innocent and they catch themselves in their own wiles (or otherwise get the tables turned upon them). Neither applies here.
The Obama coin-sticker purveyors aren't particularly interesting or competent tricksters. Clearly they've embraced the PT Barnum notion of America (and ethics), but not in a clever way. I guess that's my major gripe here–not that they're trying to put one over on people, but that this is so transparently idiotic and uncreative.
In short, amen, brother.
seanpaune | December 31st, 2008 at 7:43 am #
YAY! I finally got one! :P This really is the lowest of the low.
Jo at Jo's Cafe | December 31st, 2008 at 10:58 am #
One word – gag
Patrick Synnott | January 19th, 2009 at 11:06 am #
One thing obamagoldcoins.com (operated by Winston, Elizabeth and Windsor) does not do is trick people into believing their coins are anything more than commemorative items.
Infact WEW was the 1st company to mint coins with the legend "The President of the United States".. that was back in August when they minted their first coins for the DNC.
The company never produced their coins looking to cash in – it was made for such an important event in history and (at the time) no-one else was producing such items… eventually others appeared with the colour stickers on legal U.S. tender and the advertising blitz of the "official" (loose term) Obama coin was on.
Patrick Synnott | January 19th, 2009 at 11:07 am #
WEW have not advertised – on television or in any print medium. All of the business performed by WEW is by word of mouth. A rough video commercial was produced but never released due to the overwhelming number of companies releasing their coins and WEW did not want to be part of that scene.
Ultimately business-is-business although not originally produced for financial reasons, the obvious benefit is that money goes hand-in-hand.
From their first coin, in August 2008 through to their recent incarnation – for the Inauguration – WEW continues to produced memorabilia to commemorate an event that will collate in the books of history.
Obama Coins Round 2 - SeanPAune.com | February 7th, 2009 at 3:16 am #
[...] the Obama Coin Collection I ranted about? You know, the one Montel Williams was hawking on TV, and I was complaining about [...]