Two huge California Gold Rush era assayers’ ingots, recovered from the fabled SS Central America and with a combined weight of over 100 pounds of gold, will be exhibited at the next Long Beach Coin, Stamp & Collectibles Expo, September 10 – 12, 2009, in the Long Beach, California Convention Center, 100 S. Pine Ave.

Adam Crum of Monaco Rare Coins holds the 598-ounce Justh & Hunter ingot, one of two huge California Gold Rush-era assayers’ bars recovered from the 1857 shipwreck of the SS Central America

“The display will feature a Kellogg & Humbert gold bar that weighs 662.28 ounces and a Justh & Hunter ingot that is 598.08 Troy ounces. Both were recovered in the late 1980’s from the Central America, the legendary ‘Ship of Gold’ that was carrying tons of California Gold Rush coins and ingots to New York City when it sank during a hurricane in 1857,” said Ronald J. Gillio, Expo General Chairman.

The Kellogg & Humbert gold bar is stamped as number 804 and with a value in 1857 of $12,225.62. It is the fourth largest gold bar among the 532 ingots recovered from the Central America. The Justh & Hunter ingot is #4255 and marked at the time as $11,089.95

The historic ingots will be displayed by Monaco Rare Coins of Newport Beach, California.

“The exhibit also will include some of the finest known Augustus Humbert $50 denomination octagonal ‘slugs’ produced in San Francisco during the height of the Gold Rush,” said Adam Crum, Monaco Vice President. “These colossal gold bars and big $50 coins, literally, are treasures of Wild West history.”

During the three-day Long Beach Expo more than 1,000 dealers will be buying and selling rare coins, paper money, stamps, postcards, historic documents, antiques, estate jewelry and other collectibles. Some will provide free, informal appraisals for visitors.
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Award-winning numismatic author Scott Travers and veteran financial journalist Jim Kingsland will present a detailed, three-hour public educational forum about buying and selling gold on Saturday, May 30, 2009, during the Long Beach Coin, Stamp & Collectibles Expo in the Long Beach, California Convention Center, 100 S. Pine Ave., May 28 to 30.

Visitors to the three-day show will see both the “Gold River Morgan Dollars Set,” ranked number two on the PCGS Set Registry for date set circulation strikes, and see the “Wild West Collection,” a complete set of superb-grade Carson City dollars. A free gold coin door prize will be awarded to a lucky, registered visitor each day.

The seminar, “Gold: Hoping For The Best, Preparing For The Worst,” will be presented from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, May 30, in room 102-C of the Long Beach Convention Center.

“The gold seminar will be jointly conducted by Travers, an acclaimed consumer advocate who is the author of a dozen award-winning numismatic books, and by Kingsland, a respected Fox Business Network editor and long-time Wall Street journalist,” said Ronald J. Gillio, Expo General Chairman.

“With the renewed interest in gold because of the U.S. and world economic situation, this certainly is one of the most important and timely educational seminars we’ve had in the history of the Long Beach Expo.”

“This educational program will provide pertinent and potentially valuable information about the precious metals markets from mining stocks to bullion coins – such as the American Eagle and Canadian Maple Leaf – to gold estate jewelry and ‘scrap’ gold,” explained Travers. (more…)

By Doug Winter RareGoldCoins.com

Editors Note: Usually we do not post two Market Reports together, however we wanted to give our readers a contrast of two perspectives on the recent Long Beach Show from two dealers whose opinions we highly respect .

Even in the best of markets, I go to Long Beach with limited expectations. I love the convenience factor (it’s one of my few sub-two hour flights) but this show has, in my experience, really lost its luster. Keep on reading for my thoughts on the Decline of Long Beach and a recap of the show.

I think there are two significant reasons why Long Beach has gone from a great coin show to a so-so one. The first is the high price of the tables. Back when tables were more competitively priced, there were tons of small coin shops, Mom-n-Pop dealers and vest pocket dealers who had their own tables or shared them. This was a great source for fresh coins and it meant that there was a lot of coin trading as items went up the numismatic food chain. Now, these dealers no longer attend and this means that there is very little fresh material.

The other reason that Long Beach has suffered has to do with the draconian California tax laws. I’m not going to address these at length but let’s just say that Baltimore has become a great show in large part because Maryland’s tax laws are not quite as “zealous” as our friends in California.

As I said, I went to Long Beach with low expectations. I actually think the show was a bit better than I would have expected. The crowds were decent and my sales were not bad. I was happy with the limited number of coins that I bought and virtually everyone who I spoke with had a good—if not great—show. I think a lot of a dealer’s success right now has to do with what he deals in and his or her desire to sell older inventory at new levels. Simply put, if you have nice quality collector-oriented coins in your inventory, they sell. If you have a bunch of expensive, esoteric coins or boring widgets in stock, you aren’t selling much. If you have coins in stock that have been sitting around since June and you haven’t adjusted the prices downwards, you aren’t selling anything. (more…)