FSD is the ONLY depository facility in the United States that offers Non-Invasive On-site Assay verification

First State Depository Company, LLC, of Wilmington Delaware, one of the nations most respected rare coin and precious metals depositories, has announced an exclusive partnership with Bullion Analysis, Inc., for assay verification services. First State will be the ONLY depository facility in the United States that can now offer Non Invasive On-site Assay verification of a clients holdings to insure against counterfeit bullion products.

News reports have shown an increasing number of counterfeit bullion products entering the marketplace, specifically tungsten filled gold bars and lead filled Silver bars. These counterfeits are very deceptive and surface analysis is rarely successful in detecting these fakes.

Bullion Analysis Corporation has developed a unique testing technology that can safely verify the purity of gold, silver and platinum precious metal products. This technology is completely safe and non-destructive to the precious metal, and is effective on everything from fractional ounce coins all the way up to the full size 100, 400 and 1,000 ounce COMEX bars of gold, silver and platinum.

This technology is completely safe and non-destructive to the precious metal

Through this exciting new partnership, First State Depository Corporation now has the exclusive U.S. use of Bullion Analysis, Inc. for assay verification within a commercial Depository facility. “We have had excellent results working with our colleagues at First State Depository, and find their level of professional service and security to be unmatched. We are very pleased to provide our exclusive, non-destructive assay verification services to FSDC clients at this highly secure facility.” said Tom Woolman, one of the senior managers at Bullion Analysis.

First State Depository has a long history of providing cost effective and innovative Depository services for investors looking to take advantage of not only the long-term stability of precious metals investments, but also offering ultra secure, flexible and personalized storage solutions.This new partnership with Bullion Analysis Corporation will allow First State Depository customers access to this groundbreaking technology by offering digital deep-scan verifications of clients bullion within the FSDC vault facility and/or before they take delivery of new shipments to FSDC.

Bullion Analysis produces a tamper-resistant holographic certificate for each bar of precious metal that is scanned, containing the results of its verification analysis and the bar’s serial number and hallmark. This holographic certificate can then trade with the bullion in the future, providing peace of mind for both the current owner and adding a level of trust for future sales of your precious metals. No Other Depository in the Country can offer its customers this level verification and security. (more…)

By Doug Winter – RareGoldCoins.com

One of the more interesting (and lesser known) gold coin auctions that I’ve attended was the sale of the Stetson Collection which was conducted by the old Bowers and Merena in May, 1993. This was an instance where the back story (or stories in this case) was nearly as interesting as the coins themselves.

Beginning in 1992, an amazing hoard of gold coins started to quietly enter the market. This hoard consisted of tens of thousands of coins dated from the late 1830’s through, I believe, the 1920’s. It included large quantities of semi-key St. Gaudens double eagles, extensive runs of Carson City eagles and double eagles, large quantities of New Orleans eagles from the 1880’s through the early 1900’s, sizable quantities of San Francisco rarities and much, much more. It has never been revealed where these coins came from (although it is widely rumored that they came from an Eastern European central bank; given the time they were sold it would suggest that they were dispersed by a former Soviet bloc country in an attempt to infuse some Western capital).

This incredible hoard was dispersed over a number of years in a quiet, orderly fashion. Some of the coins went to dealers who sold them to marketers or specialists. Other coins were sold at auction. The first group of these coins to sell at auction was at the aforementioned Bowers and Merena sale and I can remember being extremely excited to have the chance to purchase some very important and very fresh coins.

Before I discuss the sale (and some events leading up to it) I’d like to discuss the appearance of the coins themselves. Because of the massive size of this hoard (and the intelligence of the individual who was masterminding its dispersal) these coins were, for the most part, kept original and dirty. Many of them had the prototypical “euro-Grime” appearance which I describe as follows: extremely deep almost brassy orange-gold toning with a noticeable two-ton e appearance from blackish grime or dirt on the high spots. This appearance was almost certainly the result of the environmental conditions in which these coins were kept. On some coins, the look was very attractive. On others, it was pretty ugly and the coins needed to be dipped (or washed with soap and water at the very least).

When I learned about the sale I thought it was important enough to fly up to Wolfeboro, New Hampshire to view them in person. I made the flight arrangements, booked a room at the Wolfeboro Inn and set off to the Granite State. My flight from Dallas wound up getting into Boston late and I missed my connection to Manchester, New Hampshire so I wound up renting a car and driving. As I made my way up I-93 to New Hampshire it started to get extremely foggy and by the time I was within an hour of Wolfeboro, it was dark and almost impossible to see more than ten feet ahead of me. (more…)

Today, April 22nd, marks the 40th anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement Earth Day. The movements founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest “to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda.

In the 40 years since the first Earth Day, the environmental movement  continues to generate fierce debate  as to the effects, motivations and possible outcomes of existing / proposed environmental laws and theories. Hot button issues such as Global Warming, Sustainability, Biodiversity, Recycling, Resource Allocation and Environmental Justice seem to pull us farther apart rather then bringing us closer together.

But whatever side of the current debate you find yourself on, I think the vast majority of people would agree that given a choice, it is preferable to have clean water to drink, clean air to breath and safe food to eat. So what does this have to do with Numismatics?

All that raw materials used to make our gold and silver coins and bullion products has to be mined, refined and manufactured. Unfortunately, the mining process in many parts of the world is a dirty business. Toxic chemicals and substances like cyanide and mercury are often used to extract the precious metals during the refining process, and much of this is done in less than ideal and controlled environments (no pun intended)

We can across a Precious Metals refiner that has taken a different path, Ohio Precious Metals (OPM).  Founded over 35 years ago OPM operates a state of the art 178,000 square foot facility is located in Appalachian Ohio. As a leading recycled precious metals refiner, OPM extracts the metals from jewelry, photographic equipment, electronics, secondary refining and collecting sources in North America.

Once the precious metals are recovered, OPM uses the metals to produce the highest quality gold and silver products including 1, 10 AND 100 oz Silver .9995 fine Bars and 1 oz, 1 Kilo (32.18 oz) and 400 oz Gold .9999 fine bars.

These “recycled” Green bullion products generate a significantly lower environmental impact than similar products manufactured from “virgin ore” and may offer the environmentally conscious investor an alternative product to purchase.

Bob Higgins from Certified Assets recently stated that his company has added the OPM Gold and Silver Bars to their inventory as a “green” alternative and that “….interest has been very high” in these precious metals bars. OPM has a stellar reputation with a superior product that fills a critical role in the industrial and investor marketplace. We are happy to be doing business with them.” (more…)