What of other metals sites, ie. Goldback. com?

[coppernickel]

What is your opinion on the other bullion sites and communities? Goldback. com

Recently I heard an add for a new currency. Goldback .com was giving away free gold. I signed up and received the "gold note coin." It is larger than a debit card, flexible, and reads 1/1000th of an ounce of gold. They have other denominations.

It reminds me very much of the "Liberty Dollar Warehouse Certificates." I have a sample of their note also. The Liberty Dollar movement came, and ....

AOCS descended from the Liberty Dollar movement. They included the Lakota bank and a few other ventures before meeting an ignominious end. I have a few copper ounces with The "AOCS approved" mark.

The new Liberty Dollar movement has inherited some prestige from the original.

These tout the bullion talk, but they are beyond my line of safety.

On the side of the White Knights are communities like RealCent and BullionStacker who focus on trading the metals. I am semi-active on both sites.

If you don't mind, are there more? Do you belong to more than RealCent?

What are your thoughts?

[pmbug]

I searched realcent for "goldback" and this was the only thread found, so sorry for the "necrobump"...

I was recently gifted a 1 Utah Goldback. It's an interesting item. Apparently they use some form of electrolysis to coat 24K gold onto a form (gold foil). They add some security measures and serial number and then sandwich the whole thing in a couple layers of polymer.

The note contains a single image/design that is visible with shadows/colors (ink) on the front side. The back side is not doctored up - it's just like the back side of a metal stamping.

The front of the note feels smooth to the touch. The back side lets you feel the design. I wonder if blind people could differentiate the notes/designs or not.

The note is pretty. It's a shiny golden ticket.

The note is very bendable and flexible. I can easily bend the top of the note to touch the bottom (forming a circle) and release it back to a flat state, but I'm hesitant to fold it in half flat like I would with a paper dollar because I'm afraid that doing so would crimp it.

The 1 Goldback note is purportedly 1/1000 troy ounce of gold. Roughly US$1.50 worth of gold (divide spot by 1000), but there is a decent premium on these notes ($2 per note from what I saw) because the manufacturing process is a bit more involved than minting coins.

I could see these notes working well as an exchangeable currency if legal tender laws, capital gains taxes, etc. weren't tilting the playing field. I would certainly be more comfortable dealing with notes like these than 1/10th toz AGEs (which are sooooo tiny and easy to lose) or bits of those Valcambi CombiBars.

The only real downside I see to the goldback is the inability of owners to verify the gold content of the note(s). With coins/rounds/bars, you can measure size and weight and run other tests to verify the gold content. These notes don't seem to be conducive to testing. Maybe they are though and I just don't realize it.

It's an innovative idea for producing small denomination gold suitable for commercial exchange. If the verification issue can be satisfied, I'd love to see Utah lead the way in monetary reform like Ron Paul's old competing currency bills to make them practical for every day use.

...
On the side of the White Knights are communities like RealCent and BullionStacker who focus on trading the metals. I am semi-active on both sites.

If you don't mind, are there more? Do you belong to more than RealCent? ...

There were several around back in 2007/2008 or so. Most have faded away. In addition to the two you listed, there is also goldismoney2.com (seems to be a lot of right wing political talk), silverstackers.com (Australian site - I like it) and pmbug.com (which I own and is very small ... err exclusive... yeah, that's the ticket). Cointalk.com has a bullion investing forum room, but it's not the main focus of the site.

[shinnosuke]

Since I am only recently returned to Realcent, I am hesitant to say anything. However, I am an authorized dealer of Goldbacks and the guy who gave one to PMBUG. I have sold a bunch on BullionStacker. A bunch! PMBUG's description is quite good. For the average Joe, trust is required when it comes to verification of the amount and purity of the gold in the various denominations (1,5,10,25 and 50).

If there is any interest here (for those of you not on BullionStacker), I can sell here as well.

[coppernickel]

If there is any interest here (for those of you not on BullionStacker), I can sell here as well.

I have interest, and would like a reliable source.

Right now silver is my priority. With the gold:silver ratio near 1:100, silver is clearly the better choice.