As reported on December 18th, all of the assets of PCI Coin Grading Service were to have been auctioned off on January 16th, however the sale has been rescheduled for February 16th. No reason was given for the change.

The auction will be conducted by Gravitt Auctions and includes:”…all assets of PCI, Inc., tangible and intangible, are to be sold to the highest bidder at “Absolute Public Auction”, all for one bid!!! including: Name, Registered Service Mark, Web Site, Toll Free Number, Safes and Office Equipment,Customer List, Approximately 13,000 - 14,000 Names”

John Graham Pollard, numismatist, museum curator and civic campaigner died on 17 December 2007.

Graham Pollard was the leading authority on Italian Renaissance medals in the post-war period. He will be best remembered as the author of the multi-volume catalogues of two of the greatest collections in the world, those of the Bargello Museum in Florence and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. But as a curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge – whose coin and medal collection he did much to enhance – his influence was far wider, as he shared his knowledge and judgement with students, scholars, collectors and dealers. Read Full Obituary

A new set of coins depicting wildlife has been minted by the National Bank of Poland. The fresh mint consists of a silver twenty zloty coin and a two zloty coin, both depicting the peregrine falcon, a bird which is slowly coming back to Poland after a prolonged absence…

Queues outside the National Bank of Poland snaked around the square yesterday, as many Poles were eager to get their hands on one of the most coveted coins to be minted in the “world animals” series presented by the Bank.

“The coin of the Peregrine Falcon was very popular, as I know all these coins were sold yesterday. The first day, and the coin was introduced into circulation on the 16th January. We didn’t expect that it will be so popular but from the other hand we are happy to see so many people interested in this coin.” (more…)

SPIEGEL ONLINE - Germany

Deep beneath London’s streets lies a treasure greater than anything that even the Bank of England possesses: Thousands of gold ingots, each weighing in at more than 12 kilograms (26 pounds). The ingots, neatly arranged on wooden pallets and stacked high to the ceiling, glow softly in the dim neon light of the vault. And every week a forklift adds new stacks of ingots to the existing inventory.

Financial services provider StreetTracks Gold Shares uses the heavily secured and guarded vaults to store unimaginable quantities of the precious metal for its customers. The vaults already contain more than 641 tons of gold, with a market value, at today’s prices, of more than $18 billion (€12 billion). Read Full Story