by Dr. Thomas F. Fitzgerald from the California Numismatist

Twice within a span of almost twenty-five years, all of the gold from the vaults of the 2nd San Francisco Mint, sometimes called the “Granite Lady,” was sent to the United States Mint in Denver, Colorado. Yet the story of these two operations could not have been more different. The first transfer was accomplished with so much secrecy that even the newspapers knew nothing of what was going on. But the second transfer was so well publicized that it included parades and search-lights calling attention to the shipments. This is the story of these two great shipments of gold.

The Very Secret Gold Transfer of 1908

In May 1897 newspaper editor and publisher Frank A. Leach accepted a political appointment by President McKinley to become the superintendent of the San Francisco Mint. He had wanted to divest himself of the newspaper business and this seemed like an ideal new career. Leach assumed his duties on August 1, 1897.

The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fires

It was a typical dawn in the Bay Area. Without warning a shaking of the earth occurred. It was 5:12 a.m. Wednesday, April 18, 1906! The “Great San Francisco Earthquake,” as it became known, was followed within seconds by a violent shaking that ruptured numerous gas lines resulting in dozens of fires. At the same time it was discovered the city’s water mains had been damaged. San Francisco, surrounded on three sides by water, could not battle the flames with water.

Just two years after the famous 1906 earthquake left the San Francisco mint’s surroundings in shambles, concerns about the mint’s storage capacity and security prompted the move of 331 million dollars worth of bullion to the mint in Denver.

Frank Leach made his way from his home in Oakland to the mint and, together with 50 mint employees and a squad of 10 soldiers, prepared to fight the inferno and save the mint. However, at the beginning of the struggle, the outcome was very much in doubt. The battle lasted for hours but shortly before 5:00 p.m. the fires were out and the building was saved. The men were able to leave the mint, return to their homes and reunite with their families.

More importantly for our story, the mint’s basement vaults that contained millions of dollars of gold and silver coins were saved. (more…)

Two leading experts on the acquisition and trading of gold coins and bullion will provide a wealth of inside information on those subjects – free of charge – during the ANA World’s Fair of Money (www.WorldsFairOfMoney.com), the year’s biggest coin show, on Friday, August 13, 2010, at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

The experts, Scott A. Travers and Maurice H. Rosen, will be the featured speakers at Coin Collector’s Survival® Conference 2010, a 90-minute seminar that will give attendees useful information on how to “survive and thrive during the decade of gold.”

The Survival Conference will start at 10:30 a.m. August 13 in Room 200 of the convention center. Admission is free, and everyone who attends will receive a copy of one of the bestselling books authored by Travers, as well as a newsletter published by Rosen. The free books and newsletters will be vintage copies of earlier editions.

Travers is a nationally known New York City coin dealer, author and consumer advocate who has written more than half a dozen award-winning books, including The Coin Collector’s Survival Manual®, a hobby bestseller that will have its seventh edition published by Random House in November. The New York Times has described him as “the Ralph Nader of numismatics” for his consumer activism.

Rosen is a prominent professional numismatist and coin market analyst from Plainview, New York, whose influential Rosen Numismatic Advisory is recognized perennially as the outstanding newsletter in the field of rare coins and precious metals. He forecasts in the soon-to-be-published edition of the Survival Manual that “by the end of 2020, the price of gold in U.S. dollars will be $5,000 to $10,000 per ounce.”

Travers and Rosen both foresaw the tremendous advance in the market value of gold well before it began. Travers was predicting $1,000-an-ounce gold in books and articles several years beforehand, when the price was less than half that amount and barely one-third its present level of about $1,200.

Also taking part in the symposium will be Jerry Jordan, award-winning news editor of The Examiner, a newspaper in Beaumont, Texas, who wrote a series of articles exposing apparent abuses by traveling gold buyers. Jordan’s four-part series revealed that in many cases, the itinerant buyers – operating out of hotel suites – apparently offered unwary sellers a small fraction of the true value for their gold coins and jewelry.

The National Inflation Association is pleased to announce the release of its first ever update to its unbiased reviews of the major online sellers of gold and silver bullion. NIA’s ‘Gold and Silver Seller Reviews’ feature was originally launched on January 14th and has become widely recognized in the industry as the premiere spot for precious metals investors to become educated about how online gold and silver coin and bullion dealers are rated in the categories of pricing, selection, shipping/processing, customer experience, and overall.

The online gold and silver seller industry is one of the most rapidly growing in the world today. NIA is dedicated to ensuring that Americans get the most real money for their fiat money when making the most important investment decision of their lives. NIA believes it’s important for Americans to receive their precious metals in a timely manner, as hyperinflation in the U.S. can literally break out overnight due to an unforeseen event taking place in one of our creditor nations.

NIA decided to award Gainesville Coins with our “NIA 2010 Best Bullion Award“.

Gainesville Coins is the highest rated company in our review with prices for precious metals that are the lowest out of all the companies in our review. Gainesville Coins had already earned a perfect 5 stars in all categories in our original review, but they have somehow managed to improve their site by adding precious metal spot prices as well as new “Deals of the Week”, “Featured”, “New Arrivals”, and “Top Sellers” features. NIA members who make a purchase on Gainesville Coins can now receive an automatic $5 discount on their order by applying the following coupon code in their shopping cart: ‘NIAUS’ (NIA does NOT earn any kind of a referral fee).

NIA has added three new companies to its review: Austin Rare Coins, Monarch Precious Metals, and Northwest Territorial Mint. NIA has also updated the reviews of previously reviewed companies. NIA’s next update to its review will be released later this summer. NIA plans to soon implement a new feature that will allow its members to submit new companies for NIA to review. NIA members will also be able to submit complaints about companies that should be avoided.