Copyright Theft
Perhaps we should be flattered by the number of people including dealers who continually infringe our IP (Intellectual Property) rights by using our copyright images, but we do not find it amusing, and will take legal action against any copyright thieves.
LondonMintOffice.org The London Mint Office is just one of the many coin dealers, bloggers & websites worldwide who commit copyright theft by using our copyright images without our permission. On their page site, a page of which we reproduce here, they are clearly using our 1918 King George V Sovereign obverse and our 1912 King George V Sovereign reverse photographs. They are full sovereign images used to sell their half sovereign coins.
Warning
We have made our views about the London Mint Office clear on a number of our websites. This blatant use of copyrighted images just reinforces our opinion of them.
Sample Text
Own an original gold half sovereign of George V
The only London Mint George V Half Sovereign
Related terms: gold, half sovereign, 1911-1915, george v, london mint.
The King George V Half Sovereign is an original British gold coin, minted between 1911-1915. It was struck by The Royal Mint in solid 22 carat gold, and portraits Saint George Slaying the Dragon.
- Original British gold half sovereign
- Solid 22 carat gold
- Only limited numbers available
Issued by The London Mint
What’s Wrong?
It is dishonest and unethical to pirate and steal other people’s work by using high quality copyright photographs without the owner’s consent. We can partially understand why they do it; it is quick and easy (but then so is robbing people).
Full Sovereign or Half Sovereign
Perhaps the London Mint Office employee who created their web page was not aware that there are design differences between sovereigns and half sovereigns. or perhaps they don’t care, and don’t expect their customers to know any difference. We can tell, and so could most educated collectors or enthusiasts.
We would recommend nobody to deal with a company like LMO who either don’t know or don’t care about the difference.
In any case, their price for a half sovereign is similar to what we charge for a full sovereign. It make sense to buy from a real, proper, knowledgeable coin dealer than one of the coin marketing companies like London Mint Office.
£24 Million Sales – £13 Million Profit
Why would a company with £24 million sales and £13 million gross profit need to steal our photos instead of paying somebody to take their own?
Laziness?
Ignorance?
Unprofessionalism?
Penny Penching?
Dishonesty?
53% Gross Profit Margin?
Wow! When you consider that they deal in gold sovereigns, that is a very impressively high profit margin. We often work on single digit gross margins, in fact ours is about 6%. Perhaps we are too cheap?
Negative Nett Worth? – Trading Loss?
Their 2011 accounts show a pre-tax loss of £580,000, and an adverse nett worth of £280,000. Both these figures are surprising and unusual. We can only guess that the directors and owners take out every penny (and more) of income. This must leave creditors on something of a limb.
The Samlerhuset Group
The London Mint Office Limited is owned by Samlerhuset Group B.V.
According to its website:
The Samlerhuset Group B.V. is headquartered in Almere, the Netherlands, and is currently active through its subsidiaries in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and China.
Samlerhuset Norge
Národní Pokladnice
Mynthuset Sverige
The Dublin Mint Office
Suomen Moneta
Latvijas Monetu nams
Mønthuset Danmark
Monetu namai
Národní Pokladnice
Het Nederlandsche Muntenhuis
Skarbnica Narodowa
Het Belgische Munthuis/La Maison de la Monnaie Belge
Národná Pokladnica
Magyar Kincstár
Eesti Mündiäri
Samlerhuset Trading Co. LTD
The London Mint Office
Samlerhuset on Wikipedia
The Samlerhuset Group is a Norwegian-owned, international mail order company headquartered in Almere. The company sells mainly traditional collectibles such as coins, medals, stamps, banknotes and coin-letters. The Samlerhuset Group has subsidiaries in 16 countries. The company had 400 employees in 2010 and a turnover of 160 million euro.[1] Samlerhuset is a part owner of the Berlin coin fair and of the Norwegian Mint, the producer of all the Nobel Prize medals [2][3] and of legal tender coinage for Norway and other countries.
Much of the Wikipedia article about Samlerhuset Group reads like an advert. We did however note the following paragraph:
Controversy
The company advertising campaigns and sales methods have been criticized by some collectors, magazines and consumer protection authorities in the past. Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman. They have raised concerns over the use of misleading advertisements, and customers receiving goods they have not ordered. Samlerhuset have prices 2-3 times that of others. In April 2011 the Norwegian TV channel TV2 aired the program TV2 hjelper deg (English translation: TV2 helps you) about Samlerhuset. It showed an elderly man who had bought coins and medals for NOK 450,000 (about US$80,000, £52,000), with the coins’ value being 80-90.000NOK (US$15–16,000, £9-10,000).
Update – 24/01/13
As of 16:14 today, the company appear to have removed the image from their page. We are awaiting to hear from them.
London Mint Office
Unsolicited GoodsSave £70 – A Deceptive Offer from the London Mint Office
