The Most Misleading Adverts...


Misleading Advertisements Misleading Adverts Chard 24 Carat Home Page

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This is one of a number of pages where we reproduce misleading adverts by our competitors, with our comments about how we believe they misinform.

The Millennium Krugerrand
The world's most famous gold coin, struck in 22 carat gold
Image of Obverse & Reverse of 1998 Quarter Krugerrand
(link to following page:-)


The Millennium Krugerrand

Image of Obverse & Reverse of 1998 Quarter Krugerrand

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:
The Krugerrand is probably the World's most famous coin.
It is the gold coin of folklore and legend and it holds a truly unique position in the history of world coinage. Now you can own the world's most famous gold coin.
Struck by the South African Mint in 22 Carat Gold it features the effigy of Paul Kruger on the obverse and a prancing Springbok of the reverse. With a guaranteed 2000 date, this really is a collector's classic.


ON-LINE PRICE JUST £150.00 (+£2.99 p&p)

Payable in 5 instalments of £30.00

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Diameter: 22mm. 22 ct gold.

This was an extract from a website we saw recently. The top part was on a "Contents" page which contained a link to the "Millennium Krugerrand" page , and the bottom part was the actual page itself.
This price was too good to be true, particularly as it was below the scrap gold value.

Who?
We will allow this company to remain anonymous.

What's Wrong

So what's wrong with the offending advert?
We believe this advert causes problems or harm in at least four different ways:-

  1. What was being offered was not a krugerrand, but a quarter krugerrand, but this is not stated anywhere in the text of the page.
  2. Customers buying as a result of this advert, may order a "Millennium Krugerrand" for £150 mistakenly believing they are buying a krugerrand.
  3. Other dealers may be harmed because people may be mislead into believing that their prices are higher than the advertiser's (Our price at that time for year 2000 coins was £215 for a krugerrand, £115 for a half krugerrand, £65 for a quarter krugerrand, and £30 for a tenth krugerrand.)
  4. The general public may be mislead into believing that the price of krugerrands is around £150.

The Get-Out Clause
The advertiser's legal escape clause may run along these lines:-

  1. The photograph shows a quarter krugerrand.
  2. The diameter is stated as 22 mm.
Our Comments
Krugerrands are a South African gold coin containing one ounce of fine gold. They were first issued in 1967. Fractional sizes were not introduced until 1980, and by then a krugerrand was known universally as a one ounce gold coin.
The first photograph was too small to read the inscription 1/4 KRUGERRAND or FINGOUD 1/4 OZ FINE GOLD.
On the main page photograph the inscription can be made out (we are viewing it on a high quality 19" monitor", but there is no indication that the photograph relates to the coin offered for sale. Indeed the coin photographed is dated 1998 not 2000, so it is clearly not what is on offer.
Most purchasers will not know the specifications of all four sizes of coin in the krugerrand family, therefore quoting the diameter fails to clarify that this is only a quarter krugerrand containing only a quarter ounce of gold.
The price quoted (£150) is closer to the price of a krugerrand than it is to the price of a quarter krugerrand. At the time of writing, the market price of one ounce of fine gold was about £190, so not only was the coin offered grossly overpriced, but also the high pricing may have been part of a deliberate ploy to con the reader into believing that he was being offered a one ounce coin.
The offer to pay in instalments tends to attract customers of lower intelligence for whom the specifications should be even more carefully and clearly labelled.
Because the advertiser knows that there a four sizes of "krugerrands", they should take steps to clearly specify which size is being offered. In the absence of any clear indication to the contrary, any reference to krugerrand should mean a what is says, a "full" one ounce krugerrand, the original and normally accepted meaning of the name.
We believe the description "...probably the World's most famous coin..." is an exaggeration at best, and a misleading and dishonest falsehood at worst. The gold sovereign, to name one coin as an example, has been in existence for over 500 years, and we believe is far more famous.
The claim that it is "...the gold coin of folklore and legend and it holds a truly unique position in the history of world coinage..." is absolutely ridiculous. The krugerrand was only introduced in 1967! Hardly time for it to have entered into folklore and legend. The quarter krugerrand was introduced even later, 1980.

Conclusions
In our opinion, this is a totally and fraudulently misleading and overpriced offer.
Anyone who purchases this item is probable rather stupid, and is certainly not getting a good deal.
Anyone who has seen this offer should be cautious when dealing with the company concerned.


...at the Highest Possible Price

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