Topic: HyperionGold 2018 Republic of Chad Four Guardians "Loaded" Coin -SCAM (Read 471 times)

Repost From Collectibles thread ( https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5212244.new#new ): "It has been 10 days now since I emailed Hyperion's main email (since the redemption email does not work anymore) and I've still yet to hear back.  I emailed them in both English and Korean so that they wouldn't have any excuses.  I will be launching a full on attack as much as I can now to expose these scumbags ( hoping they have social media sites etc ), but I just wanted to pass along this information.  This is a confirmed 100% SCAM".

Edit: 8/16/21 ..still no response.  These coins were supposed to be a 3 coins set, this being the first.  No wonder they never ended up making the 2nd and 3rd.

EDIT (Aug 23rd 2024)- just to put a cap on this..proven to be 100% a SCAM.  Hyperion lied about being able to redeem the btc supposedly on these coins, and the site is dead, emails don't work etc.  I spoke with Scottsdale Mint whom told me that had planned on doing several coins series with them, but that something along the lines of they stopped responding to them as well, and that they would take note of them scamming people/wont mint for them again ( I'll try to dig up the email )  But yeah, 100% a SCAM.  Just added to an ever growing list.

Mints have no way to know what will happen to coins after they're minted.  They'll pretty much mint anything no questions asked.  I don't think you can hold them responsible or expect them to have any way to enforce what happens after the coins leave their possession.  They're paid to stamp metal with a die, not validate design claims.  It's like grading services...  They have no idea if the coins are loaded, how to check, if addresses have been duplicated, etc.  So you have to be knowledgeable to know what to trust.  

Scottsdale Mint isn't cheap either.  They're probably one of, if not the most expensive mint you can use for a project like this.  I'm a bit surprised they would use this mint to pull a scam given the added expense, but maybe they didn't start out wanting to scam but got tempted by the Bitcoin value, or they just figured since it's a scam anyway who cares how much money they waste on the production process.

Be careful when it comes to trusting coin makers.  There is no substitute for longevity.

I finally decided to try and redeem these coins.  I just sent an email per the instructions you can see below, and it bounced back.  That alone almost constitutes a scam itself.  Why would they delete the email for the redemption process?!  I have now forwarded the email to the email listed on the company's homepage - https://hyperiongold.com/ .  I wrote the email in both English and Korean, so they can't use the excuse of not being able to read English ( even though the coin and instruction pages themselves, the creator of the coin Scottsdale Mint, are all in English/English speaking company).

https://hyperiongold.com/untitled-27

Huh.  I've been following this drama since this thread got started, and normally I don't comment in the Collectibles section.  But Scottsdale is a very reputable firm and I'm surprised they'd risk their reputation on something like this.  I know the bitcoin funding part isn't their fault, but they are associated with the coin one way or another.

That sounds like a load of BS to me, and there's no way I'd feel comfortable stashing any of these coins away knowing that the redemption of the bitcoin was dependent on a company that may or may not be around in a few years.  Either put the private key on the coin itself or don't mint it, that's my opinion.  This is bitcoin we're talking about, and we all know how many scammers there are.  This redemption process sounds like it was designed from the start to be to Hyperiongold's advantage, because they must know that they can abscond with the money at any time and they're probably expecting some coins to never get redeemed, at least not by the time they go out of business.

Exceedingly sketchy if you ask me, which no one did but I'm volunteering my blabbermouth opinion anyway.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I find it funny they won’t reply in English considering the coins themselves contain mostly English. I will try and do the same and see what comes of it.

Nick from hyperiongold replied to my email (requesting redemption info about the blue dragon coin) . Prolly the fact that I sent the email also in the Korean language (both traditional and simplified) helped  

The fact that I got a reply is possitive, it doesn't prove if it is a scam or not, hence proceed with caution. Personally speaking, I am not quite sure if I am willing to provide all those personal info, & go through all this hassle, just to receive 0.001 btc back.

(I removed the Korean language part sections of the email)

Hello This is nick from hyperiongold.

How to convert your Cryptocurrencies

Hyperiongold will not be liable to the conversion method other than introduced method or unfavorable disposition of transactions may arise.

Step1. 요청하기 Requisition


Please submit the serial and product number of the coin, picture of the coin product and your personal information (address, phone number), along with address of your electronic purse via email to [email protected]

 

Step2. 인증하기 Certification


Hyperiongold requires certification procedures by phone or email within 1~2 business days after the step 1.  The procedure includes overall security check and validation process of the coin and its holder.

 

Step3. 송부완료 Forward


After completion of Step 2, the amount will be transfer to your electronic purse within 2~3 business days by Hyperiongold.  Check the website at Hyperiongold to see if the cryptocurrency is converted.

​
Please be aware that the current conversion rate is 0.001 bit per transaction. Since our one silver hybrid coin contains 0.001bit.

we strongly suggest you to convert multiple coins instead of one coin at a time.

I am confirming that these coins appear to be unfunded.  I bought 3 of them to try them out as they are sharp designs and the Scottsdale Mint does nice work.  There is no private key that comes with the coin.  The redemption process is to email hyperiongold to get the btc.  This does not seem to work so, yes, scam.



Republic of Chad is the sovereign entity for the denomination.  I think this is similar to the Somalia Elephants or all the Tuvalu coins in that the soveign nation "rents" out the right to mint coins denominated in their currency.  

I did reach out to Scottsdale; they minted these coins as a custom order for their client Hyperiongold.  They know nothing of the btc "funding" of the coins.

Oh it's all good. I bought them, as I often do with collectible crypto items, with the expectation that I would never see the bitcoin promised with coin.  Yes, Scottsdale minted these. I'm not sure if you need any sort of special licensing to be a non governmental mint whom can produce legal tender coins, but I do believe I've seen others do the same.  However I can't think of any off the top of my head (will look in to this).

Sorry to hear that, I hope it works out for you. Curious though, the Scottsdale Mint made these coins? Do they have the legal authority to put a fiat denomination on the coins? I know some countries have agreements with other government mints to produce coins for them, like the Somalian Elephant series comes out of the Bavarian State Mint, but I didn't think anyone but government mints or foreign government mints with permission from the original country could mark fiat denominations. I suppose Scottsdale would probably have not made them if they weren't legally allowed to, but I find that odd.

HyperionGold is a coin dealer in South Korea whom worked with the Scottsdale Mint in the U.S. to create these coins.  There are 3 coins in total, a silver bullion, a silver proof, and a fine gold coin all equaling 1 oz of it's stated metal content.  These coins are also advertised to be "loaded" with 1mBTC worth of BTC.  As we've seen with other similar scams (prypto cryptoscratchcards for example) the redemption process is not simply peeling the coin to reveal private keys.  

Here is what Hyperion states as their redemption process ( https://hyperiongold.com/untitled-27 ). I have tried this multiple times with no response. I have contacted Hyperion directly multiple times and received no response ( [email protected] ).  I have also tried contacting the coin/bullion dealer Aurinum.de where I purchased the coins about the matter, with zero response.

As of right now, I would consider these coins as NOT loaded, and that Hyperion has pulled a scam with the whole redemption process.  An important reminder that if any collectible has some sort of odd redemption process (Prypto/Hyperion)there is a decent chance it's some sort of scam.

I will continue to look further in to this, and will update as needed.