By Nicole Garrison-Sprenger
It could double as a shot put, but it’s worth a little too much to chuck in the dirt.

A 22-pound gold coin commemorating the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing is waiting in Burnsville for someone to plunk down $1 million for a piece of history. Now, if you’re a big fan of the Olympics, you could fly to Beijing, stay for a week, watch the Games live and buy a T-shirt for considerably less. But a million dollars for a coin that isn’t even old?

It turns out, a solid-gold coin that weighs as much as a 1-year-old child doesn’t come along every day.

The coin released by the China Mint is the biggest Olympic coin made to date, said Douglas Mudd, a curator at the American Numismatic Association money museum. “Twenty-two pounds — that’s a lot of gold,” he said. At present, Mudd said, “The coin market is very hot. We’re seeing record prices at practically every auction.”

Gold is selling for about $928 an ounce, which would make the jumbo coin that Burnsville-based GovMint.com is selling worth roughly $245,000 melted down. (Precious metals are measured in troy pounds, which contain 12 troy ounces.) Plus, the coin — with the Beijing 2008 Games logo on one side and an image of a Chinese temple towering above Olympic athletes on the other — is one of only 29 issued, and the only one released for sale in the United States. Seven inches in diameter, it comes in an ornate carved box of African Blackwood with a 35-pound carved stone dragon perched on top.

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By Patrick A. Heller for Numismaster 

On Dec. 6, 2007, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, Inc., (GATA) filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with both the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury. GATA sought information about possible gold swaps that the U.S. government may have handled and any related information about policies for such swaps.

In mid-April, the Federal Reserve responded, releasing part or all of hundreds of pages of worthless information, but also claiming that it was withholding all or part of the information of about 400 pages of documents. The status of the withheld documents is currently under appeal.

From the Federal Reserve response, it has already been established that there is substantial discussion in the federal government about gold swaps, at least theoretically if not in actual practice. This contradicts the previous position of the Fed and Treasury that gold swaps were never even discussed.

On June 18, the Treasury Department sent its response to GATA. The Treasury denied having any documents for five of the eight categories of the FOIA request. It stated that it was withholding a single document covering two categories because it referred to procedures for gold swaps that “may take place in the future.” It released a single one-page e-mail for the other category. The May 11, 2007, document released was a notice to various Treasury officials that weekly reporting of reserves data was changing slightly to conform to the template specified by the International Monetary Fund. This document emphasized that the reported data did not change.

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Canada may have the largest Gold coin, but the Austrian Mint has just released the Worlds Largest Silver Coin, the Europe Talar. Weighing in at 20.08 kg (aprox. 44 lbs.), and with a diameter of 36 cm (14 inches); it is big!

The obverse of the taler features a classic look and corresponds to the time of Maximilian in 1508. It shows the newly crowned emperor mounted in armour on a horse; in his hand he holds a banner with the imperial symbol, the double eagle.

The reverse has a more contemporary look and depicts a montage of famous europeans including religious icon Martin Luther, and continuing with composer Antonio Vivaldi, inventor James Watt and Nobel Peace prize winner Bertha von Suttner.

The Europe Talar will be limited to Special Orders. Prices have not been announced yet.

However, Region Hall-Wattens and the Austrain Mint have set up a website for additional information on the Europe Talar in addition to offering a collectors version of the coin, weighing in a at 120 grams of fine silver with a diameter of 6cm. The collectors coins will cost € 108.– + VAT.

Visit the website at http://www.europataler.at

This new site also provides some background on the Europe Talar.

The design of the coin and the realization of the coin images originate from the medallion maker Herbert Wähner, who is also very well-known in expert circles. The packaging of the “silver giant” will be produced by the Hall master wood turner Werner Nuding from 500-year old wood from Castle Hasegg, which was unearthed during renovations in 2007.

Other metals futures stumble, but metals equities mainly rise

Gold futures closed with a loss of almost $17 an ounce Monday, giving back part of last week’s gain of nearly 4% as strength in the dollar dulled the precious metal’s investment appeal.

“The gold price was reacting only to the U.S. dollar moves and on the smallest of moves,” said Julian Phillips, an analyst at GoldForecaster.com.

The August gold contract closed at $887.20 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down $16.50, or 1.8%. It traded as low as $879 on Nymex earlier.The contract gained 3.5% last week, but lost 50 cents on Friday.

 ”Gold has moved to a short-term overbought condition on widespread … expectations of a breakout,” said Ned Schmidt, editor of the Value View Gold Report. But in emailed comments, he called such an assumption an “error.”
“Gold is likely to test the $850 level as the Federal Reserve fails to feed the dollar bears,” he said. “That price, given the longer-term bear market for the U.S. dollar, would represent a buying opportunity.”

Looking at the bigger picture, gold’s fundamentals remain “as sound as ever and inflation and stagflation concerns [are] rising internationally,” said Mark O’Byrne, executive director at Gold & Silver Investments Ltd.

Metals investors should look for any selling in gold to be “brief and shallow,” he said in a note to clients, “especially as oil prices remain near record levels on fears that Saudi Arabia’s promise to boost output may not be enough to quell supply concerns.”
Read full MarketWatch Article from Monday Here