I was just browsing by Mark’s Digital Money World Blog and noticed his brief overlook at Crowne Gold and I got the inspiration to write a more detailed review of this wonderful digital gold provider.
Mark mentioned that Crowne Gold is “one of the most experienced digital gold operators in the industry”. I’ll take his word on this one as he has more experience in this arena than me. But what interested me is this bit of info about Crowne Gold:
1. They fought the IRS allegation of being a tax evasion scheme and won
2. Fought the US Federal governments allegation of being an illegal money transmitter, and won
3. Been issued a full compliance on the operational side of issuing a currency secured by gold in the USA
4. Own a mint that will send one troy ounce gold medallions for Crowne Mint to clients who request their physical gold holdings
5. Provides secure server placement in friendly jurisdictions
6. Provides 100% of the business of brokering gold and silver as well as issuance of a digital gold medium of exchange
7. Own the Precious metal seat on the Panama commodity exchange
8. Client gold is subject to monthly audit by both U.S. certified public accountants and internationally certified accountants.
Now let’s get into some more detail. I will do this in FAQ format.
Where is Crowne Gold based?
The company is registered in The Republic of Panama but their customer service center is located in Carson City, Nevada, USA. Should you be concerned about this? No, because Crowne Gold is not under the jurisdiction of the United States. Also, from the above text you can see that Crowne Gold has managed to survive attacks by the United States Government and other meddling government institutions.
Now that I’ve said that, I think all you United States Citizens should read this excerpt taken from Crowne Gold’s website:
Due to increased alarm regarding terrorism, international drug dealing, money laundering, and concerns over untaxed income, the U.S. government has commenced scrutiny of a number of industries not formerly required to provide reporting on the sales activities of U.S. persons. On February 3, 2002 new software programs were installed by Crowne Gold, which will generate 1099-B reports for all U.S. Persons. The U.S. 1099-B form is an Internal Revenue Service document designed to list total annual SALES made through the Crowne Gold system, (not purchases), so in order to determine profits or losses sustained on the annual SALE of gold and silver a separate profit analysis report will be provided to clients of the system.
All account holders, be they U.S. persons or otherwise, will receive an annual profit or loss compilation based upon SALES and the purchase price actually paid for the gold or silver sold. Profit analysis is based on the accounting principal of “first in, first out.”
Please note, that the purchase of precious metal DOES NOT constitute a taxable event, only the SALE of an item triggers the calculation of profit or loss.
Note that this applies to US Citizens only! Despite what the IRS would like to think so, it does NOT have worldwide jurisdiction.
How do I go about funding my Crowne Gold account?
At the moment all transactions are handled via Bank Wire. I did see an option somewhere in their user account panel to fund via credit card but since I see no mention of that on their main website I will assume that the credit card funding options is now defunct. Here are the fees for bank wire funding:
| Purchase | Premium |
| $1,000 up to $50,000 | 5 percent |
| $51,000 up to $250,000 | 4 percent |
| $251,000 or more | 3 percent |
How much does it cost to transfer gold to another Crowne Gold account holder?
Hmm, now this is something that I do not like about Crowne Gold:
When you access the option to Make exchange and move gold to another e-mail address (public account number) a minimum fee of US $7.50 in the equivalent weight of gold at the then current spot price is assessed your gold exchange account. If the amount being transferred is greater than $400, the transfer rate is increased as follows: 0.005 (1/2 of 1%) on the first $75,000; plus 0.0025 (1/4th of 1%) on amounts from $75,000 to $250,000; plus 0.00125 (1/8th of 1%) on amounts that exceed $250,000.
Although this makes small transfers impossible, it does have one additional benefit of making Crowne Gold extremely uneconomical for use by your run-of-the-mill HYIP programs.
Can I take physical delivery of my gold, and if so what are the fees involved?
Yes Sir, you sure can!
The purity rate for gold traded on the world’s commodity markets is .995 and is the standard at which “Spot Price” is determined. The traditional “Spot Price” you see quoted on this site is updated regularly in accordance with world market pressures and constitutes the buying and selling rate (less commissions) for .995 gold. When taking delivery of custom designed coins and small bars there is a premium charged above the spot price to pay for the increased purity of the gold products to .9999 fine; the highest gold purity rate available anywhere in the world. The following bullets reflect the “other” costs embedded in the single add-on charge for each ounce of gold delivered as set forth below:
* Shipping and insurance to the mint from an accredited warehouse of one of the three world commodities markets
* Refined purity upgrade from .995 to .9999
* Fabrication costs charged by the mint for processing gold into medallions and small bars
* Shipping, insurance and vaulting costs to a secure fulfillment center
* Shipping and insurance costs from the fulfillment center to your desired final destinationRates below include all the costs set forth above.
* Gold Internet Dollar coin shipped within U.S.: Spot Price + 20%
* Gold ten-ounce bars shipped within the U.S.: Spot Price + 20%
* Gold Internet Dollar coin shipped outside U.S.: Spot Price + 25% *
* Gold ten-ounce bars shipped outside the U.S.: Spot Price + 25% ** Duty, custom, or import charges are the responsibility of the receiver
How much does it cost to store my gold with Crowne Gold?
Gold is stored under Crowne Gold’s third-party vaulting arrangements for 1% per annum. The annual fee is divided into 12 parts and assessed monthly.
How much does it cost to exchange my gold to national currency?
Sell your gold at the quoted gold spot price when you place your sell order. A minor 0.005 service fee (1/2 of 1%) is assessed at the time of sale leaving 99.5% of your cash balance available to you for payout via check, money order, or wire transfer. Bank fees and air courier charges for any form of exchange other than a normal check sent by mail will be passed on as required.
*Outgoing wires are $35 plus bank service charges. *
As far as I can tell this by far the cheapest way to “out exchange” your digital gold holdings. With most e-currency exchangers you pay fees in the range of 1-5% !
Now for a slightly minor issue. In my humble opinion Crowne Gold’s user interface could use a bit of an “face lift”. Another thing that sort of caught my attention is that their website has a template that looks suspiciously like one used by a former producer of e-currency exchange software called Gold-PHP (they used to provide some software called EXS Pro). That company has long since disappeared, and it turns out that they were a bunch of crooks. They ran with $2000 of my funds! So I hope that indeed they did not get that company to code their backend because I would be suspect them of leaving a nice backdoor, but I guess this is just my paranoia talking.
In conclusion, I think it may be safe to characterize Crowne Gold as sort of like BullionVault but with the ability to transfer gold to other accounts slapped on.
That does it for another one of my reviews. I hope you found it informative and if you wish to open an account with Crowne Gold just click on any of the links in this review, or if you’re too lazy to scroll up, then click over here. What can I say, I’m a big referral whore – lool!
;)
Cheers everyone!
Alan out – beam me up Scotty.
Related posts:
- Crowne-Gold in serious financial trouble?
- New kid on the Digital Gold Currency block: c-gold
- e-gold: 100% gold backed digital currency
- Crowne-Gold Gets a New Debit Card
- 9 Popular Digital Currency Myths
December 1st, 2007 at 7:04 pm
I have been told by Crowne Gold that that they have had their assets seized by the I.R.S which includes my acct.
December 1st, 2007 at 7:09 pm
hmmm..can you back this claim? I checked out the crowne-gold website and I see no mention of such an event.
December 1st, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Thanks for the review. I appreciate your comments and your criticism has been taken constructively.
I would like to ask how we can become a provider for your site? All the links you provide in your comment section are nice however they would be far better if they were to Crowne Gold. We offer a nice referral program and network affiliate program for motivated people like you.
One other note, our compliance does not authorize us to issue a gold “currency”. You may call it that we merely call it the legal ability for clients to exchange their gold. : )
December 1st, 2007 at 11:09 pm
Your assets may have been seized by the IRS. They seized gold and silver in 2002 from us, then again in 2005 they seized another two bank accounts in their alleged claims. Both are being fought for right now.
We have learned immense amounts of knowledge from these attacks, yet we did not fold or flee. We feel we will finish our fight by the end of APril 2008. At that time hopefully we will be completely audited and will have been reviewed by the IRS and Dept of Justice.
No one knows if the assets will be returned or not, but rest assured, YOUR PRIVATE CLIENT DATA HAS NEVER BEEN DELIVERED OR DOWNLOADED TO THEM.
That is a claim no other in this business can claim for their clients.
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:25 am
Response to comment #1:
Hmm, I see. I’ll change all references to “currency” and have it say “digital gold”. I think the issue of what to call your service is slightly academic. If we were to take the strict legal viewpoint, then Crowne-Gold would not be called “currency”. Here is what wikipedia has to say on this matter:
“unit of exchange, facilitating the transfer of goods and/or services. It is one form of money, where money is anything that serves as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a standard of value. A currency is the dominant medium of exchange”
“In most cases, each country has monopoly control over the supply and production of its own currency”
From what viewpoint I would agree that you can’t call crowne-gold a “currency”. From a more practical point of view people are still going to call it currency mainly because it fulfills pretty much all the functions of a currency.
I was thinking perhaps calling it “gold barter money” might be better.
Now as for the links. Well, as you can see at the top of this post there are two links that point to Crowne-Gold’s website. I am merely using a redirect, or what I call “[x] recommends redirect”. I will link all mention of Crowne-Gold to your website though.
Thanks for reading my blog and I much appreciate the comment. Wishing you the best of luck with your business.
Sincerely,
Alan
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:43 am
Response to comment #2:
All I can say is that what the IRS is doing is unconstitutional and I fully support you company’s fight for economic freedom and independence. I wish you success in your case! One a slightly different issue, I am wondering if you company has considered moving completely offshore.
December 14th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
In answer to #4 according to the first issue of DGC online magazine all issues charges were dropped by the I.R.S. as stated by you. Why then are my funds still being held or blocked from being sent from my account?
Please explain. Were can I verify the status this issue.
December 14th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Hmm,interesting. I hope Mr. Sean Trainor has a chance to answer your question.
January 24th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
FYI..I sold my digital gold about a week ago..yesterday sent wire transfer isntructions to Crowne Gold to have the USD funds transfer to a checking account…and received this reply:
Crowne Gold Inc is currently experiencing liquidity difficulties as a result or unlawfull seizures of Gold, Silver and Cash by the IRS. We had hoped this would be a temporary situation
> and would be resolved but it has not. We wish we had better news but this is the current situation. At this point it may be better to cancel your wire transfer request and submit again when we are better able to fund your request, hopefully in the near future. Please contact Jim Schilling in Customer Services at 503-657-2942 or jim@crowne-gold.com with any questions regarding your account.
doesn’t sound very promising does it…and there is no information on the Crowne Gold website to warn clients.
January 24th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
ouch…hmm..I’m going to publish this if you don’t mind…I think other people should know about this. I was under the impression that the IRS issue wasn’t affecting crowne-gold *that* much and that they would still be able to honor the requests of their clients..I thought wrong..now that I think about it seems maybe the IRS took ALL their assets..hmm, who knows?
I know Sean Trainor has responded over here in the past, so perhaps he will comment again.
First e-gold, then Liberty Reserve, now Crowne-Gold…I guess the US Government means business – they don’t mess around.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I too am getting the same story as Don from Crowne.
The amount in question was deposited in May of 2006 and when I tried to move it Sept. 2007 they could not honor the request. Repeated inquiries have only resulted in the IRS seized a bunch of assets. As of yet I can’t verify that this is even the case and I am not a US citizen, so why is the IRS touching anything that I have with Crowne.
January 25th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
…..Please contact Jim Schilling in Customer Services at 503-657-2942 or jim@crowne-gold.com with any questions regarding your account….I called the number and it is disconnected.
Please do publish this information…there is nothing on the website to indicate liquidity problems…and people need to be aware that they are putting their money down the toilet….it is not a secure investment.
January 25th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
[...] You can read the original comments for yourself by visiting this post. [...]
January 25th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Hello folks. I have posted both your comments for the world to see in a fresh blog post. Hopefully we will receive some sort of official response from Crowne-Gold personnel.
February 18th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I am pleased to say that as a result of pointing out the dissatisfaction expressed on this blog by some account holders at Crowne Gold. Sean Trainor did contact me and gave me some direction as to where to inquire about the holdings of my account that were included in the seizure of Gold assets, the IRS and the US Justice Dept. 9th district. The hearing has been held over to fall of 2008.
I strongly suggested to him, that Crowne should at least keep the affected clients informed on a regular basis as to the progress being made. Maybe that could prevent the displeasure and concern expressed by others in this blog chain.
Like I said before, I am not an American citizen and never have been, so why is the IRS touching my legal investment in gold.
Allan, maybe you can challenge Sean to directly give you a response, he sited privacy concerns in issuing a statement to your blog.
February 18th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Great! I’m very glad to hear that. I agree Glen, communication is very important, and I think that people are usually pretty understanding and forgiving IF they are kept informed and up-to-date on the latest happenings – it’s not knowing that we humans hate most.
I was thinking of writing an e-mail to Sean with exactly that suggestion, or at the very least issue a new release on THEIR website. As for privacy concerns, I’m not sure I understand why he would feel that way. Granted this is a publicly available blog but it’s not like I would go and distribute his statement to the IRS or whatever other agencies one can think of – I’m not even an US Citizen to begin with (I’m Canadian).
February 18th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
You know folks, one thing is not 100% clear for me, and I would really like it if Sean Trainor would jump in here and clarify this for me. In my post I mention that Crowne-Gold is registered in Panama, yet here: http://www.crowne-gold.com/aboutcrowne.aspx
it says Crowne-Gold Inc. is registered in the United States.
here:
http://www.crowne-gold.com/terms_conditions.aspx
” “Crowne Gold” refers to a group of multi-jurisdictional companies incorporated in various locations around the world as Crowne Gold, Inc., Crowne Gold, Ltd, Crowne Gold S.A., Crowne Gold A.G.”
So how is Crowne-Gold really structured? I do NOT want to misinform people here, so I would really like to know the truth.
In the January issue of DGC Magazine Sean says that his company “primarily operates from the United States and Panama”
Now I’m wondering, does the US based corporation own all other international subsidiaries? If so clearly I should change my post to say that Crowne-Gold is legally based in the United States and fully subject to the laws of the United States and hence vulnerable to US Government seizures of its assets.
Sean, could you please clarify this issue for me if you can.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Alan per #5.
You may believe it academic on what we claim our system to represent. The US Justice system does not. They have rules, regs, laws and agents that can allege anything under the sun, deem you guilty until you prove your innocense. So this lesson that Crowne has learned at the end of the stick, (or barrel) clearly shows Crownes use of terminology is crucial.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
#6. Offshore is a myth. If you are using dollars to transact with, then all transactions flow through the US. If you can not operate within the US systems then it is far more complicated to operate in another jurisdiction. If you are operating in another jurisdiction and this operational entity is owned by US persons then this company is basically the same as a US corporation.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
#7 if you are a Crowne Gold client there is a secure message system provided for you inside the secure servers operated by CG. We would be happy to discuss you account with you, however our privacy policy restricts my abilitys to discuss publicly what you allege.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
#8 see #7
#9 see #7 response.
All clients have the same choice that Crowne has, you can contact the IRS and the Dept of Justice in the 9th district and ask them how to regain your assets. Many who did in the early days were told they had no standing, the Dept of Justice settled with us yet stole 300+ ounces of gold. The IRS re siezed assets after the Federal case was settled, which still hinders us today.
We apologize for this however we will not take blame for this conduct exerted by the US government and its agencies. If you are a US citizen I might suggest voting for a president like Ron Paul, writing your congressperson or contacting the current administration for a possible better solution. We are doing everything in our means to provide positive solutions.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
#10 The clients effected by the challenges CG has faced are old clients whose accounts were impacted (including myself) by these seizures. Currently Crowne Gold has no liquidity challenges whatsoever with clients who were not effected by the US government actions.
To suggest all of our assets are frozen or seized is far fetched. We are doing more business daily now then we used to do in 6 months time in the early 90’s. Our business model has produced 2007 revenues 300% yoy 2006, and we are already at 70% of 2007 revenues this year.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
#17
When Crowne was attacked by the US government and its agencies, we were a US based corp. Our choice was to stay a US based corp and fight the allegations brought upon us. Of course we could have closed the business left the account holders (whether American or not) out to dry, and of course the US government would have claimed we were what they alleged, and now are criminals running around the world trying to hide from them.
Clearly for the long term success of the operations, this was not the correct path to take. Granted this path damaged some account holders, Crowne and myself. However we now have a model that has withstood these attacls and is operational. Our goal is to conclude our legal struggle, then move all international operations to Panama, Hong Kong and Switzerland. Until these legal challenges are concluded we remain a US based (legally regulated) gold and silver broker.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Thank you all for your interest in Crowne GOld. We hope your understanding will allow you to stay a client and help us bring about a true alternative to the fiat money system. No one ever said it would be easy. No one ever said there would not be losses. However we are doing the best we can to fight this fight in the legal systems of the US as that system dictates to the rest of the world.
February 21st, 2008 at 7:17 am
“Our goal is to conclude our legal struggle, then move all international operations to Panama, Hong Kong and Switzerland. Until these legal challenges are concluded we remain a US based (legally regulated) gold and silver broker.”
Excellent! I may not be a legal expert, but I do believe that you’ve made a wise decision.
One thing I’d like to ask. Would you object to me posting your answers in a separate post? I’d like to have it all organized in one neat post just to clear things up for folks.
Also I’d like to thank you for taking the time out of your no doubt busy schedule to visit my humble blog and taking care of the questions addressed by your customers.
Cheer, and I wish you and your company all the best!
March 1st, 2008 at 6:56 am
[...] while back I posted review of Crowne-Gold over here. Now at the time I was not aware that Crowne-Gold has some issues with the IRS (read the comments [...]