By David Ganz for Numimaster

Edward W. Brooke III, who served two terms as junior senator from Massachusetts from 1967 to 1979, has been voted a congressional gold medal by the Senate where he served and the House of Representatives. He will join the ranks of about 185 other men and women with this coveted award.

Now 89 years old and living in Miami, with reported land holdings in Saint Marten, Brooke has had a life of firsts that Rep. Niki Tsongas recently recited: “the first African American elected to the United States Senate by popular vote. I am proud that he accomplished this feat in my home state of Massachusetts, which he represented from January 1967 until January 1979.”

She relates how, “He has been Captain Brooke, Professor Brooke, and Attorney General Brooke. He has fought for civil rights in our country and against apartheid in South Africa. For his many accomplishments, he has received numerous medals and awards, most notably the Bronze Star and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”

What is remarkable is that, “In a political world growing increasingly divisive and polarized, Sen. Brooke has always had the distinct ability to separate the political from the personal. My husband, Paul, ran for the Senate against Sen. Brooke in 1978. Although the race was tightly contested, Sen. Brooke was always respectful, always warm, and Paul, in turn, greatly admired him.”

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Greg McCoach is an entrepreneur, who has successfully started and run several businesses the past 22 years. For the last 7 of these years he has been involved with the precious metals industry as a bullion dealer, investor, and newsletter writer.

Mr. McCoach’s years of business experience and extensive personal contacts in the mining industry provide unique insights that have generated an impressive track record for The Mining Speculator since its inception in 2001. He also spreads his vast knowledge of the precious metals markets in a weekly column for Gold World.

Greg is also the President of AmeriGold, a gold bullion dealer.

TGR: Going to gold, what would you recommend our readers buy?

MCCOACH: I think people have to decide for themselves if they want to own the physical gold or paper representations of the metal, and they clearly need to understand what the differences are so they can make an intelligent decision for themselves. The paper representation would be gold ETFs or the Central Fund of Canada Ltd. (CEF AMEX). The mining stocks would also be paper representations. They don t represent physical gold themselves they represent a stock.

I own AmeriGold.com. I set that up back in 1999 so that my clients could have a safe and reliable place for trading buying and selling physical gold and silver, platinum and palladium with very low transaction costs. AmeriGold has done very well, particularly in the last six to eight months, when we ve had a ton of people who suddenly want to own the physical metals.

I like owning the physical metals it s just my opinion. Some people don t like it because it gets messy dealing with the physical metals you have to store it somewhere. You incur storage charges if you re putting it in a private safe or vault or depository or if you try to keep it in a safe deposit box of course, you ve got to pay for that. For myself, I just get a good fireproof safe, bolt it in from the inside into a concrete floor, and store it myself. Buy your physical metals.

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Fred Weinberg is easily one of the most well-known people in coin collecting. He is a specialist in error coins, the coins which result from mistakes and mishaps during the coin minting process. Chances are, if you’ve seen a handsome, bearded coin expert on television, it was Fred Weinberg, as he is probably one of the most consulted coin experts in the country. He has appeared on numerous TV news and radio shows, from the major networks to local affiliates, explaining the way the coins are made in his engaging and easy-going fashion. So, who is Fred Weinberg and how did he get to where he is today?

Fred has been collecting coins since the age of 12. He has been a member of the American Numismatic Association (ANA) for more than 38 years, and a member of the elite Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG) for over 31 years.

In fact, Fred served as President of the PNG from 1999 to 2001. He is fascinated with the things that go wrong when coins are made, and loves trying to figure out why a coin turned out the way it did. As a result of a lifetime analyzing the way coins are struck, Fred is the go-to guy for important entities like PCGS, for which he is the official authenticator for major minting errors.

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