Additional Coin Collecting News from across the web presented by CoinLink

Gold - A Fabrication Bottleneck or Something More

The Internet is abuzz with reports that precious metal dealers have stopped selling coins and small bars because they have run out of inventory. For example, Franklin Sanders reports on goldprice.org that his inability to purchase product from his suppliers is something that he has never seen before in his “twenty-eight years of brokering silver and gold.” On Friday afternoon, Kitco posted the following notice: “Due to market volatility and higher demand in the entire industry, we are anticipating delays in supply of all bullion products.”
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In Memory of Jack Lee ….

I write tonight’s blog with a very heavy heart. I was traveling out of the country over the weekend when I heard that my dear friend, Jack Lee, had passed away. Jack has been well known in numismatic circles these past two decades, primarily for the famous Silver dollar collections he assembled.
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PCGS Removes Fake Coins, Dies From Market

As part of its consumer protection measures, Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) has purchased a half dozen coinage dies used to produce counterfeit Chinese coins. The dies will be displayed by PCGS at the Long Beach, California Coin, Stamp and Collectibles Expo, September 18 – 20, 2008, along with numerous counterfeit Chinese coins. The dies and coins were purchased through an on-line auction from a seller based in China.
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Giant Gold Panda in Ponterio #147

Ponterio & Associates always offer a wide selection of numismatic material in their auctions and the upcoming Beverly Hills sale #147 set for September 16 & 17 of this year is no exception.
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Drop offers opportunity

Gold, silver and platinum prices fell substantially during the end of July and beginning of August. In fact, the prices all reached their lowest points of 2008, with gold nearing the $800 per ounce mark, silver falling below $15 per ounce and platinum falling below $1,500 per ounce. Highs this year – reached in March – were about $1,011, $20.92 and $2,273, respectively.
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Medieval Slovak mint strikes first euro coins

KREMNICA, Slovakia (Reuters Life!) - Nestled within the walls of a medieval castle in Slovakia, a 700-year-old mint that once stamped coinage with the faces of European kings and queens produced its first euro coins on Tuesday.
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U.S. Mint picks Austin for promotion of dollar coin”

This trend-setting Hill Country city is one of four communities nationwide that will heavily promote the new $1 coin, a gold-colored alternative to the dollar bill that the government hopes will save money on, well, money.
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ANA Executive Director Larry Shepard sent CoinLink the following email on Sunday afternoon:

“I am sad to pass on the news that Jack Lee died this morning. Jack was not only a numismatic icon, but also one of the finest and most respected individuals ever associated with this hobby. I, for one, will truly miss him.”

Jack Lee was an iconic figure to many , and a fixture on the bourse floor for a generation of collectors and dealers. His renowned eye and judgement for selecting beautiful coins coupled with his friendly demeanor made any encounter with the man both enjoyable and educational.

Jack Lee’s first great collection contained Morgan dollars (business strikes and proofs), Peace dollars, and Walkers and was assembled in the 1980’s and early 90’s.  It was considered one of the all time best collections at the time, and the standard by which all subsequent collections were judged. Jack sold the collection in the 1990’s

However always the collector, Jack started immediately started building another set,  even re-buying and selling many of his “Lee I” coins - sometimes over and over again! His second collection was sold five years later, and Jack Lee II pedigreed coins are still  avidly sought after as are the Jack Lee I.

Finally Jack assembled a third collection which culminated in the Jack Lee III sale by Heritage at the Palm Beach Signature sale in November 2005 . A truly amazing legacy.

Jim Halperin, CEO of Heritage commented, “Regardless of whether a coin is pedigreed to Lee I, II, III - or any combination there are few pedigrees in American numismatics that mean as much to the collecting community as “Ex: Jack Lee.” Those words convey volumes about the quality of the coin, its eye-appeal, and its status as one of the premier examples of the issue. That in itself is a tremendous tribute to this friendly, unassuming collector/dealer.”

Additional Coin Collecting News from across the web presented by CoinLink

The Disconnect Between Supply and Demand in Gold & Silver Markets

There is a huge demand for both gold and silver right now in India and North America. North American shops are completely bare of silver. Indian shops are empty of both silver and gold. Even the Indian banks don’t have any gold or silver.
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New look for Perth Mint

The Perth Mint, proud occupant of the same historic limestone building since its opening in 1899, will take on a new 21st-century look over the next three years.
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Fireproof bunker for Vatican Library

Cardinal Raffaele Farina, prefect of the Vatican Library, gave a progress report on the remodeling project in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
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DGSE Revenues +161% to $59 Million

DGSE Companies, Inc. posted strong quarterly and half year results Wednesday. Revenue in the second quarter totaled $26.38 million, a 111 percent year-over-year increase. For the six-month period income shot up 161 percent to $59.1 million.
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U.S. Mint Marketing to Asian Americans

For too long the U.S. Mint has catered to white middle-aged men, said United States Mint Director Ed Moy during his Aug. 6 visit to the U.S. Mint here. The U.S. Mint serves all Americans, and we want to make it accessible for everyone, including all ethnicities and women.
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Jackson Gold ‘Spouseless’

When the Andrew Jackson First Spouse gold coins go on sale at noon Eastern Time Aug. 28, collectors will have an opportunity to purchase a Capped Bust Liberty design.
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THE LATEST BOWERS SERIES BOOK, “A GUIDE BOOK OF GOLD DOLLARS”

The latest entry in Whitman’s Bowers Series. It includes a chronicle of the nation’s smallest gold coin; an inside look at mints and the minting process; discussion of Proofs; advice on collecting gold dollars; tips on how to be a smart buyer; full-color illustrations; a coin-by-coin study of Type I, Type II, and Type III gold dollars
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Additional Coin Collecting News from across the web presented by CoinLink

U.S. mint suspends gold coin sales

The U.S. Mint has suspended sales of American eagle gold coins and is refusing orders from dealers, two coin and bullion dealers confirmed Thursday.The mint’s suspension of gold coin sales follows its tight rationing of sales of silver eagle coins, begun in May, when sales to the public were terminated and sales to the mint’s 13 authorized dealers were tightly limited.
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Stage two of the gold bull market is just beginning

A war breaks out in the Caucasus, pitting Russia against a close ally of the United States. Inflation reaches a new peak in the euro-zone. The CPI reaches the highest in Britain since Bank of England independence. Rampant inflation sweeps the developing world.
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ANA Recognizes Exhibitors at World’s Fair of Money in Baltimore

The American Numismatic Association presented 71 competitive exhibit awards at the 2008
World’s Fair of Money® in Baltimore. Winners were announced at the Exhibit Awards
Presentation and Reception on Aug. 2.
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US Mint Introduces New Andrew Jackson Presidential $1 Coin

Hundreds of people gathered today at The Hermitage, the historic home of President Andrew Jackson, outside Nashville, Tenn., to see the new Andrew Jackson Presidential $1 Coin ceremonially released into circulation.
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Pre-U.S. Mint releases include unauthorized issues

Before the Philadelphia Mint began to produce the first of the nation’s regular issue circulating coinage in 1793, multiple series of coins and tokens – some of them unauthorized, some even counterfeit – circulated on American soil.
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Third Party Grading, Visited

I was asked a very interesting and challenging question today by Steve T., a collector of certified U.S. coins and customer of ours for just over 2 years. First, Steve was disappointed because he had cracked an NGC MS61 gold piece out of its holder and submitted it PCGS — and it graded AU58.
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Add Edge Slippage to Error List

Blame it on an errant dot. In the July 29 issue of Numismatic News I reported on a shifted edge inscription error found on a George Washington Presidential dollar.
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Spanish Coins Face Stealth Sale by Secret Museum, Frank Lorenzo Is Said to Change Hispanic Society of America

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press, in NYC: News Analysis

NEW YORK, August 6 — Under a leaking ceiling on 155th Street in West Harlem, paintings by Goya and Velasquez hang in near obscurity in the Hispanic Society of America. Surrounded by the vacant shells left by museums which have decamped to lower Manhattan, and with controversial airline investor Frank Lorenzo now taking a leading role on the board of trustees, the Hispanic Society has taken to selling off the treasures collected by its founder, Archer Milton Huntington. Last year a 13th century Koran was sold in London.

On August 6, Sotheby’s began cataloguing for immanent auction a collection of 38,000 coins which Huntington lent to the American Numismatic Society. The HSA’s board of trustees have assumed unfettered discretion to under-promote, under-protect and ultimately sell off Huntington’s collection, in a process some analogize to Lorenzo’s treatment of airlines during his heyday.

“This is to cry,” a Spanish art lover sighed during a recent visit. It didn’t have to be this way — and the coin sale could still be stopped. Potential bidders should be aware of the history, particularly how the sale may run counter to not only the spirit but also the letter of Huntington’s intent.

Despite Huntington’s transfer of the coins to the American Numismatic Society being described as a “permanent” loan, the HSA has fought and litigated to regain the coins, but only for the purpose of selling them, not for display. In early 2007, the HSA drafted a Loan Agreement which gave it the right to cancel Huntington’s transfer. In response to persistent questions from the New York correspondent of the Madrid newspaper La Razon, HSA management denied the intent to sell the coins. But in a contemporaneous series of court filings and letters to the New York State Attorney General viewed by Inner City Press, the HSA refers to its board of trustee’s January 23, 2008 resolution to “deaccession” the collection — museum terminology for selling off. Then Sotheby’s today began cataloguing the coins for sale.

During an August 6 visit to the American Numismatic Society’s new location at 75 Varrick Street, Inner City Press observed a team from Sotheby’s and a spin-off company specializing in coin sales, Morton & Eden, preparing to catalogue the coins, which number 38,000. A sworn affidavit by Sotheby’s David Redden spells out the auction house’s demands during the cataloguing process: a separate, carpeted room to which they will have their own key, Internet access and, strangely, the right to bring in their own food. Once catalogued, the coins will be sold the highest bidders. Pending a legislative proposal in New York State, A995A, which would limit the uses of “deaccession” profits, the Lorenzo-led Hispanic Society of America could put the proceeds to any use whatsoever. (more…)