Hot-blooded stamp collectors chased a rare “invert” American stamp from 1869 depicting the signing of the Declaration of Independence to a record $1.2 million at Philip Weiss Auctions this past Saturday, February 9.

“Oh, my God, it was unbelievable,” said an elated Philip Weiss, still reeling from the sale. “Not only was it a world record price for that stamp, but it was an auction record for any inverted stamp.” In November 2007, Robert Siegel, a New York City-based auctioneer, achieved $977,500 for a 1918 inverted Jenny 24-cent US airmail stamp.

Weiss said an anonymous collector successfully bid for the stamp, which was originally estimated by the auction house at $200/300,000. “I really expected that the 24-cent inverted Jenny would be the star of this sale,” said Weiss. Also estimated at $200/300,000, the Jenny brought $265,000. Read Full Story

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Feb. 11 — Collectors Universe, Inc. , a leading provider of value-added authentication and grading services to dealers and collectors of high-value collectibles, diamonds and colored gemstones, today announced financial results for its second fiscal quarter of 2008 ended December 31, 2007.

For the second fiscal quarter of 2008, the Company reported net revenues of $10.0 million and a loss from continuing operations of $1.4 million, or $0.17 per diluted share. This compares to net revenues of $8.8 million and a loss from continuing operations of $180,000, or $0.02 per diluted share, for the second fiscal quarter of 2007. Revenues in the current second quarter benefited from $816,000 of product sales which are not an integral part of the Company’s on-going revenue generating activities. Results for the second quarter of fiscal 2008 include a charge of $822,000 to warranty expense related to the receipt of an unusually large number of grading warranty claims involving relatively high-value coins. (more…)

Morley Safer On The Bizarre Economics Of Producing Money

(CBS) Should we make cents? We’re talking about those insignificant one cent pieces in your pocket or purse. It may or may not come as a surprise that it now costs the U.S. Mint almost two cents to make a penny and almost a dime to make a nickel. If the economy of that eludes you, join the club.
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As correspondent Morley Safer discovered, even in Washington, where they literally have the right to print money and where anything under a billion is chump change, there is an ongoing debate over whether it’s worth the trouble to keep making cents.Every year, the U.S. Mint turns out eight billion shiny new pennies, using hi-tech presses that operate faster than the eye can see, stamping out Abe Lincoln on blank pieces of metal.

And, says U.S. Mint Director Edmund Moy, despite inflation, despite their lowly status, eight billion pennies still add up to $80 million. Read Full Story

What I most remember about my father designing the decimal coins in 1962 was the secrecy surrounding it all.

As an artist – he was a painter and taught life-drawing at the Royal College of Art – he’d been chosen as one of many designers to submit designs to a Royal Mint Committee, but decimalisation had not been announced and it was essential that no one knew anything about it.

And when his designs were finally chosen, we lived a kind of cloak-and-dagger life. The coins were first designed on paper, and then worked in reverse into large deep circles of plaster.

They would then be cast back to positive and my father would work on them, and then cast them back to negative and so on. Read Full Article