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Archive for March, 2009
Coin News Daily March 31, 2009
Coin News Daily March 31, 2009
Superior Galleries April 2, 2009 Santa Clara Elite Coin Auction
Superior Galleries - Paul Song
This one day event will contain approximately 1,000 lots and continues our proud association with Santa Clara Expo. With several impressive private consignments, this auction promises to be a memorable numismatic event that should not be missed.
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PCGS at Santa Clara and Chicago Shows
PCGS
The Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) will be at the upcoming April 2009 Santa Clara Coin, Stamp & Collectibles Expo and the Chicago International Coin Fair.
PCGS representatives will be available to answer questions and accept submissions for all levels of service, excluding bulk submissions. On-site grading will not be offered at either show.
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2009 Lincoln Cent Prices High
By Al Doyle for COIN VALUES
Enthusiasm for 2009 Lincoln, Childhood cents continues to run high, and prices are often a case of what buyers are willing to pay. Coin World readers and other savvy collectors know the U.S. Mint is offering two-roll sets of 50-piece rolls of Philadelphia and Denver Mint cents at $8.95, a price that some collectors say is unreasonably high. The $4.95 shipping fee remains the same regardless of the size of the order, so larger purchases will have a lower average cost than the $6.90 per roll total for the roll sets.
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BANK OF ENGLAND EXHIBIT: THE TENNER
E-Sylum
The Bank of England Museum was one of my favorite haunts in London. Admission is free, and if you ever get a change to visit, the museum is a must-see. This article from The telegraph review a new exhibit on the ten pound note. Deep in an underground vault bleached by fluorescent light, he pushed the forged bank note towards me. It was a handsome production, dated 1936, a big white tenner, promising to pay the bearer.
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Mints coin it as consumers scramble for gold
Reuters
In the heart of Vienna in a Biedermeier building commissioned by Emperor Franz I, a man wearing a khaki uniform and beret exchanges a wad of euro notes across the counter for a few sparkling gold coins. Guenther Fuchssteiner, 59, is a military doctor who for over 20 years has been coming to the Austrian Mint and exchanging whatever spare money he has for gold, following a habit established by his parents.
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CC museum holds two early errors
By William Robins for Numismatic News
Few numismatic experiences have been more enlightening for me than the two-week internship I spent at the Nevada State Museum this past August. Nevada history has been an area of focused study for me over the past couple of years. The state’s rich history in mining and numismatics correlates perfectly with my interests. The Nevada State Museum itself is even located in the historic Carson City Mint building.
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Social Network for Coins
CoinNetwork.com is a social networking site for coin collectors, sort of a "MySpace" for the numismatic set. Learn about this great Web resource and what the features of this community are.
What is the Motto on a Coin?
Coin motto is defined on tghis coin collecting terms glossary page.
Rare American Coins Feb Update
We’ve updated the Rare American Coin database to include sales data from Feb 2009. The highest priced coin we saw was a 1933 $10 Eagle graded MS-65 by PCGS and described as a “Premium Quality”. It sold for $517,500. Second place belonged to a $4 “Stella” with coiled hair, selling for $304,750. It was judged by NGC to be a PF-63. The third highest seller for Feb was an 1823 cent. The brown colored specimen was graded MS-66 by PCGS, changing owners for $299,000.
Red Spots on coins…very good article
Seeing Spots Is Not Necessarily a Bad Thing
Posted on 3/21/2009
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Coin News March 26, 2009…
Coin News Daily March 26, 2009
Gold bullion dealer sues O.C. men over ‘extortion caper’
Orange County Register, CA
Newport-based Monex seeks damages from father and son who demanded $20 million to halt criticism of firm. Watch what you say about Monex Deposit Co. – the Newport Beach precious metals dealer doesn’t take kindly to insults. Case in point: Richard and Jason Gilliam of Laguna Woods, a father and son who lost $32,000 after investing with the firm, launched a Web site bashing the company and now face a defamation lawsuit seeking $6 million in damages.
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Sunken treasure stirs international booty battle
Today Show - MSNBC
Stemm, the CEO of Odyssey Marine Exploration, does have in a warehouse somewhere in Florida is a haul of hundreds of thousands of coins — gold pieces of eight and silver coins — that the Spanish government says belongs to the people of Spain. A U.S. District Court judge who has been hearing arguments in the case since last year is expected to rule soon on who is the rightful owner of what is reported to be the largest treasure ever recovered from the deep. In an appearance Tuesday on TODAY, Stemm told Ann Curry that his company has already suggested to the court and Spain what it feels is a reasonable solution:
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Lawmaker proposes Medal of Honor coin
Stars and Stripes
A Pennsylvania congressman is pushing for legislation to honor some of America’s most heroic men and women. Congressman Christopher Carney, D-Pa., has proposed the Medal of Honor Commemorative Coin Act of 2009. The bill would require the minting of two commemorative coins — one gold and one silver — in 2011 with designs that recognize the three Medals of Honor. The Army, Navy and Air Force each have separate Medal of Honor designs.
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Seeing Spots Is Not Necessarily a Bad Thing
NGC
The experts at NGC share their thoughts about copper spots on gold coins, including how these spots can affect a coin’s grade and what can be done about them. This article originally appeared in the Professional Numismatists Guild’s quarterly newsletter. Buyers of gold coins, unless they are seasoned numismatists, are frequently puzzled by the appearance of reddish spots or streaks on vintage gold pieces. Known in the coin business as “copper spots,” .
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Escala Group Announces Settlement of SEC Investigation
Yahoo Finance
Escala Group (ESCL.PK), announced that it has reached a settlement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), resolving charges filed today against the Company in connection with the SEC’s investigation into the Company’s historical transactions with its majority-owned shareholder, Afinsa Bienes Tangibles, S.A. Greg Roberts, Escala Group’s President and CEO, said, “We are very pleased with this resolution of the SEC investigation as it relates to the Company. We are continuing to focus on the future of Escala Group,
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2009 United States Mint Presidential $1 Coin and First Spouse Medal Set™ (William Henry Harrison) Available April 7
US Mint
The United States Mint will begin accepting orders for the 2009 United States Mint Presidential $1 Coin and First Spouse Medal Set (William Henry Harrison) on April 7, 2009. The set includes an uncirculated William Henry Harrison Presidential $1 Coin and a bronze medal bearing the portrait of Anna Harrison featured on the First Spouse Gold Coin struck in her honor.
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Soaring gold price tempts Desperate Underground
South Africa: Soaring Gold Price Tempts the Desperate Underground
Charlotte Mathews
16 March 2009
Johannesburg — LACK OF job opportunities and a soaring rand gold price are tempting more people into the hard and dangerous world of illegal mining.
The rand gold price has surged to unprecedented levels of more than R320000/kg this year, largely because the rand has weakened about 25% against the dollar since mid-September.
In the past months 20 illegal miners have died at the Consort mine, part of Pan African’s Barberton Mines, when a fire broke out underground. Sapa reported that at the company’s nearby Sheba Mine, 86 illegal miners were arrested a few days ago after a police raid. At Harmony Gold Mining’s Free State operations, 114 people were arrested in a raid last week, including about 90 illegal miners and some of Harmony’s own and contractor employees.
Illegal mining takes place wherever criminals are able to get into disused shafts, and the problem is not confined to SA. Illegal mining is widespread in Africa, often because local communities, warlords or crime syndicates were making a living for decades out of deposits near the surface where ownership was unclear, until increasingly politically stable governments started to grant licences to foreign companies.
A report two years ago by nongovernmental organisation Communities and Small-Scale Miners (CASM) suggested there were between 6-million and 8-million illegal miners in Africa. CASM, which is sponsored by the UK’s Department for International Development and the World Bank, was working with multinationals to draw up guidelines on how to tackle illegal mining.
Harmony CEO Graham Briggs said part of the problem was legitimate employees aiding and abetting the criminals by lending them passes or breaching security measures. Although Harmony also had some illegal mining in other operations, in the Free State the abandoned working areas were not particularly deep, and trespassers were able to get access through a network of tunnels between both Harmony’s and other mining companies’ operations. Harmony has taken measures to improve security.
Briggs said like any criminal activity, illegal mining was driven by the lack of employment opportunities and by the price of the product. Until recently, theft of copper cable was widespread because of the high copper price. That had come down and theft of gold was more attractive.
Pan African CEO Jan Nelson said illegal miners in SA tended to concentrate on high-grade areas, where there was visible gold. The Barberton Mines are more than 100 years old with multiple entry points. “We plug what we can and patrol, but illegals still get in.”
For mining companies, illegal mining is not just about the theft of ore and equipment. It is also a public relations headache as the mine owners are sometimes depicted as responsible for the deaths of the trespassers, despite systems to protect their own employees.
Nelson said the recent incident at the Barberton Mines had created a difficult situation for Pan African, which is listed in SA and London. Although South African shareholders understood more of the issues around illegal mining, UK and US investors did not.
For illegal miners, the dangers of entering disused shafts, mining at depth in unsafe conditions and inhaling mercury and cyanide fumes from primitive refining methods are not necessarily fully compensated by a high gold price as the labourers are often employed by crime syndicates.
“There is a whole chain, and as you move up the chain, people are paid more,” Nelson said. “I feel sorry for the illegal miners because they are being exploited. It is not just that they are paid very little but they are also working in very dangerous conditions.”
Copyright © 2009 Business Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
Adams Presidential Dollar Doubled Die Reverse
Adams Presidential Dollar Doubled Die Reverse
A Readable Commemorative
In a ceremony earlier today at the National Foundation for the Blind headquarters in Baltimore, US Mint Director Ed Moy and NFB President Marc Maurer introduced the nation’s first coin with readable braille. the 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar.“For the first time in history, the United States has a coin with readable Braille,” Director Moy told the audience. “The 2009 Louis Braille