LONDON (Reuters) - When gold reached dizzying heights above $800 a troy ounce in recent weeks, it cast a spotlight on a ritual that has taken place in London for the past 88 years.

Twice a day, representatives of five banks pick up the phone to trade physical gold and arrive at the London “fixing” price, which then becomes a benchmark for gold around the world.

As the clock in the vast Barclays Capital trading room in London ticks towards 3 p.m., attention turns to Marc Booker, the bank’s head of spot gold trading.

Booker joins a conference call with the four other banks who take part in the fixing. The chairman, from Deutsche Bank, suggests an opening price and Booker relays it to his trading room and customers. Booker and the other participants say whether they are buyers or sellers at that price, and the chairman adjusts the price until the buyers and sellers are in balance.

It usually takes between five and 15 minutes to fix the price, longer when the market is volatile. Read Full Story

Editors Note: Below is a glimpse into the $30 Million dollar Legend Numismatics Pattern Deal posted on the “Hot Topics” section of the Legend Numismatics Web Site. Congratulations to both George and Laura, as well as both the Buyer and Seller. A remarkable collection.

” First I’d like thank our customer who has the resources, love of coins, and vision for allowing us to work with him and build his already great collection into one of the greatest collections ever formed. We view his legacy as our legacy as well and have always worked hard to make his collection the best it can be while letting him enjoy the thrill of building it. He has been a good friend to Legend and it has been a dream to work with him. We are proud to have worked with him on this recent acquisition of a major Pattern collection that is valued well in excess of $30,000,000.00!

Our friend began collecting Patterns about 4 years ago. A Stacks Rothschild Collection catalog with some Amazonian silver patterns caught his eye. So he directed me to attend, evaluate, and buy them (the sale was all raw coins). We did very well and got the grades we calculated. I think his favorite coin purchased was a silver Amazonian Half in GEM. The Bickford $10 Gold Pattern (which he now owns) was one of the highlights of the sale, but he was not focused at the time on Gold Patterns.

Between then and now, when really rare and pretty Patterns came up, we’d be instructed to view them and buy them if we liked them. The majority of Patterns we bought were copper. We would “cherry pick” through major Pattern auctions (like the Millennium Sale and this years FUN Sale) to get the best pieces. We’d figure our numbers, but in the end, we’d always stretch to buy the really special pieces. Before we bought this huge collection of 1000 pieces, we had already built a collection with 400 coins. (more…)

Gold ended the week with a loss of more than $47, shaking investor confidence. But the correction was an expected move in the market following gold’s significant run-up in the past months, said MarketWatch.

“Gold’s close below $790 resulted in some technical damage and may result in gold challenging support at the 50 day moving average at $767,” said Mark O’Byrne, director at Gold and Silver Investments Ltd.

“We continue to believe that gold is unlikely to fall below $750 per ounce given the increasing macroeconomic and systemic risk in the world,” O’Byrne said. “A sell-off was expected and given the size of the recent move, it is normal that there be a period of correction and consolidation.”
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The Hawaii Dala, an alternative currency launched here in August, was one of the targets of a raid by federal agents on the Indiana headquarters of the group that promotes Liberty Dollars, a court warrant indicates.

But Bernard von NotHaus, the architect of both currencies and former mintmaster at the Royal Hawaiian Mint, says the two are completely different. He says holders of Hawaii Dalas have nothing to worry about.

He also insists there is nothing illegal about the Liberty Dollar, but is battling the government in court over the issue.

The FBI warrant for the Indiana raid on Thursday listed the Hawaii Dala among the items forfeitable to the U.S. under laws which govern money laundering, mail fraud and wire fraud.

Pat Breeden, chief executive of Royal Hawaiian Heritage Jewelry, one of only a handful of distributors Hawaii Dalas here, says the coins are more of a collector’s item than a true currency. He said yesterday he has had no contact from federal agents.

Hawaii Dalas were minted as silver coins in denominations of $20, $10 and $5, along with a $1 Hawaii Dala silver certificate. von NotHaus could not say how many Hawaii Dalas were currently in circulation, but estimated the total amount to be in the thousands. Read Full Story