"Plata" means silver, "Oro" means gold.

[Robert]

Coin World reports that gold-plated silver Onzas are being passed off as gold bullion coins. Both coins look reasonably similar, like the 1883 Racketeer nickels and gold $5 Liberties do.

The silver Onzas (KM 494.1) are silver and have a picture of "Victory" (winged angel/ lady) between the words "1 Onza" (one ounce) on the left and "Plata Pura" (pure silver) on the right side of the obverse. Onza reverses show the typical eagle-in-profile-eating-a-snake-in-the-cactus motif.

The one ounce GOLD onza (KM 489) has the samereverse as the silver Onza and a very similarobverse. The gold onza says "1 Onza Oro Puro" on the left of the angel/lady and the date is on the right side of her.


I can see how an unsuspecting dealer might be taken by this due to lack of attention. Don't make a $300 mistake! Know what you're buying!

There is ALSO a 50 peso gold coins (KM 482) to make things more confusing. These are a little heavier (1.2057 oz) and have a VERY similar obverse. They have the same angel/lady but with the dates "1821" and "1921" at the bottom. Also it says "50 pesos" and "37.5 gr oro puro" (37.5 grams of pure gold) on either side of the angel/lady. The reverse has the old-style eagle and snake where you see both eagle wings equally and the snake covers part of the eagle's chest.

[Gabe]

I found the article a bit interesting, me being a fluent spanish speaker, I did notice in a second that the picture in the first page of the silver coin plated with gold was wrong.

If Im not mistaken, all Mexican coins minted with bullion (since the 1920's) have marked in the coin how pure the bullion content is. And this is also true for many South American countries. "Ley .999" means the bullion content is 99.9% pure, ley means "law" in spanish. Other South American countries also follow this practive, like Venezuela. For some reason Venezuela puts "Lei .999" (for example) to show that the coin is 99.9% pure. I have no idea why they use the "i" to replace the "y".

Anyways, I believe that these sorts of problems are cuased by not knowing what your buying. When buying bullion coins, especially gold, a dealer (or anyone) should go to a reference book to be sure that everything is ok. If people stuck to what they knew, these sorts of things wouldnt happen. Even if you dont know, do research, because "Oro puro, Una onza, Ley .999" is worth about $350 and "Plata Pura, Una onz, Ley .999"is worth about $5.

[Robert]

I'm trying to learn some Spanish myself. I pick up a word or two here and there but I have a long way to go in order to be even functional in Spanish.

Pop quiz... on a Mexican 8 reales coin, what does "10 Ds 20 Gs" mean? It took me a while to figure that out.

[Gabe]

Thats an easy one... "10 dinero, 20 granos" 10 money, 20 grains.

If Im not mistaken, using this information, one can figure out the actuall coposition of silver in the coin. For example, using the 8 reales, the formula woudl be as follows: (10 + 20/24) / 12 = 902,8 ‰)

PS- I knew the meanings of the words, but went online to figure out the formula.

[Robert]

Ding Ding Ding!

You're exactly right.


Usted es el hombre!

[coppercoins]

Light years ahead of me. Good going Gabe!

[Gabe]

[Art]

Very interesting. I had never heard of the formula before.

I think that a dealer should know better than to purchase gold-plated libertads as gold pesos. It makes me wonder what the real story is. Most cons are only accomplished because the party who is taken is so busy trying to take the seller that they fail to exercise due dilligence. Perhaps this person should not be a coin dealer.

[smed]

Speaking of failing to excercise due dilligence, a pawn shop owner told me this one.

He was very busy one day and a guy came in with some coins. One of the items was a roll of (supposedly) buffalo nickels. The dealer looked at both ends of the roll, saw buffs, and gave the guy some money -- I don't recall what else he had or any other details.

Turns out 34 of the coins were common Jeffs and only 3 buffs on each end.

But...

One of the buffs was a 37-D 3 leg...

[SteveAZ]

that's great for the shop owner and as for the guy who sold the coins, serves him right for trying to be dishonest. this is proof that karma works.

[smed]

excercise?? I can't believe I did that... LMAO!