It wouldn’t fit in anyone’s pocket. Nobody took home the big Canadian $1 million gold coin offered in Teletrade’s Aug. 16 auction. “While the big Canadian coin did not sell  it came very close  the reserve was $2 million, and the bid was up to $1,950,000,” reported Teletrade President Ian Russell. The 100-kilogram coin, created by the Royal Canadian Mint in part to highlight availability of .99999 fine gold in its Maple Leaf bullion coin offerings, contains more than $2 million in gold.

WASHINGTON - The United States Mint announced today that the 2007 United States Mint Silver Proof SetTM will be released Thursday, August 23, 2007, at 12:00 noon (ET) The 2007 United States Mint Silver Proof Set, priced at $44.95, features proof versions of the five quarters issued in the United States Mint’s 50 State Quarters® Program, the Kennedy half-dollar, and the Roosevelt dime, all composed of 90 percent silver. The set also includes proof versions of the Golden Dollar featuring Sacagawea, the Jefferson 5-cent coin (nickel), the Lincoln one-cent coin, and for the first time, the new Presidential $1 Coins honoring the first four Presidents of the United States.

A recent ad by an antique dealer in a leading antique publication inspired this month’s column by suggesting that the role of the dealer is heading towards extinction.

The advertisement in question starts off by saying “yes, we are dinosaurs.” It goes on to define dealers not as large prehistoric creatures feared by small mammals and loved by children, but as a species who has acquired specialized skills and knowledge and who “grew up buying, owning and selling objects.” It follows that for dinosaurs (also known as dealers), their judgment has “been honed and tempered in the heat of risked money.”

(Santa Ana, California)  Collector’s Corner (www.CollectorsCorner.com), a service exclusively for collectors and part of the largest dealer-to-dealer online website, The Certified Coin Exchange (CCE), has launched a convenient, new “Wish List”service. It connects collectors with more than 110,000 coins already listed online.

“Collectors looking for a specific coin or coins can post their requests online in the Collector’s Corner Wish List. We will promptly notify them by e-mail when the item or items are located on the CollectorsCorner.com web site. There’s no need for a collector to repeatedly check the web site or search through all the listings because we do it for them everyday,” explained Cassi East, President of CCE, a division of Collectors Universe, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLCT). (more…)