I read other numismatic blogs to see if they find anything interesting. Sometimes, I will do additional research and write my own entry. But there was a posting on one blog that I could not write better. The writer of the Coin Collecting (and other Numismatic Interests) Through the Eyes of a Beginner blog wrote an interesting entry about the actual worth of the gold and silver in the tribute “coins” a private mint is advertising as struck using gold and silver recovered from the World Trade Center. In his blog entry How much is the gold or silver worth in that coin or medallion?, Arlington calculates the actual value of precious metals in those over-hyped medallions. The math is very easy to follow and concludes thatt the real value of precious metals in that medallion is 30-cents!
I have purchase silver rounds and commemoratives from other private mints. These purchases were from private mints that fairly represented their products and did not try to mislead me by using linguistic twists to make their products sound like something it is not.
Before you buy from a private mint, understand exactly what you are buying! As Arlington demonstrates in his blog entry, you should buy the steak, not the sizzle!