Some of Canada’s greatest numismatic rarities have remained in Canadian hands. This happened when after a staggering five British Columbia (B.C.) patterns changed hands in a million-dollar deal.

At the end of August, Ian Laing of Gatewest Coin Ltd. in Winnipeg, Man., and Sandy Campbell of Proof Positive, from Baddeck, NS, jointly bought a silver $10 and $20 coin, a gold $10 and two gold $20 patterns from Sid and Alicia Belzberg. The Belzberg Canadian collection was noted for having one of everything, patterns included, but excluded the modern era.

The private treaty sale was brokered by Heritage Galleries, who conducted the Belzberg sale in New York City in 2003. With the exception of one of the $20 gold patterns, the B.C. coins were included in that sale, but did not make the reserve. All the patterns are dated 1862.

In mid-September, Tony Mah, of Vancouver Coin and Stamp Ltd., purchased the silver coins, and one of the gold $20 items by private treaty for about $500,000. Read Full Story By Bret Evans

Canada’s taxman is going to start checking out EBay sellers, including those who sell coins, to make sure that the government is getting its piece of the pie.

According to a Globe and Mail article, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) won a federal court order requiring EBay to turn over the names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of high-volume, so-called “power sellers” who use the site.

According to papers filed with the court, the CRA wants to ensure that transactions from 2004 and 2005 were reported, so that income tax could be paid. Power-seller levels start at bronze, for $1,000 US a month, and move up through five levels.

It is estimated that Canadians spend about $5 billion a year online with about a quarter of that going through EBay. The firm’s figures estimated that 11 million Canadians visited the site in August. Read Full Story