A long-awaited ruling fails to address serious issues within the U.S. State Department bureaucracy.

US District Court Judge Richard Leon—well known for his pro-government views—has issued a ruling upholding the State Department’s refusal to disclose information about the controversial decisions to impose import restrictions on coins of Cypriot and Chinese type. The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild and the other Plaintiffs in this suit remain committed to seeking transparency and accountability from the State Department (DOS) bureaucracy and are considering whether to appeal this ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Despite the disappointing decision, this litigation was in many ways a win for the plaintiffs. The mere fact that ACCG and the other Plaintiffs brought this FOIA action forced the State Department to process all the Plaintiff’s FOIA requests–including some that had been ignored by DOS for as much as three years. As a result of this action, literally hundreds of pages of requested text were released and the State Department was prompted to produce documents implicating high level political interference as the reason for the Cypriot decision. Other information stemming from this litigation suggests that State Department personnel added coins to the Chinese request without a formal request from China for that inclusion. The decision rendered by Judge Leon dealt with those items still remaining on the plaintiff’s list that DOS had refused to release. While the plaintiffs obviously would have been happier with a summary judgment on their motion, the process was not without considerable rewards.

The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild still plans to pursue a test case regarding whether those import restrictions were promulgated in an arbitrary and capricious fashion. A copy of Judge Leon’s Memorandum Opinion can be found here.

By Geoffrey Cope – CoinLink Content Partner – www.petitioncrown.com

Based on information from dealers and following market conditions I would forecast that the prices over the next years will keep an upward movement.

The above is supported by the increase of individuals and pension for diversification of assets and protection.

The Fenton Auction in London saw a jump in prices for high quality pieces; this will be followed by the market increasing for lesser quality items. The Internet is producing a new base of collectors who consider today’s price levels inexpensive. The UK has an old company that is introducing Numismatics as an Alternative Asset for inflation protection. The difference is today the companies would prefer and orderly market, prices not to run out of hand.

If you analyze historically from 1936 to date on the material through auctions and major dealers except for re-adjustment of prices of items that were miss-priced the compound growth for coins is +11.0% -12.5%. Average inflation during this period was 3.8%. This can vary if specific areas of British coins are not popular for a period.

Price comparisons between USA and UK coins, the gap is so great I can hope the US collector does not decide to collect UK material in a serious way – otherwise we will see price rises we have never seen in the UK market as it will be re-structured the US way which is different than the UK.[A comparison of values will increase many items several times] An example in one change will be that in the US the dealers will stock and support the market and hold much more stock at higher prices. (more…)

The November 28 auction includes a rich offering of NGC-certified European and South American coins

French dealers and auctioneers Maison Palombo offer a rich assortment of high-quality World coins in their upcoming Auction 8. The auction will be held at the Palais de la Bourse, Marseille, France, on Saturday, November 28, 2009. All 982 lots can be seen online at sixbid.com: Palombo Auction 8.

Nearly 400 lots included in the sale have been certified by NGC, making this one of the largest offerings of certified coins in a European auction this year. Included is the continuation of the collection of Monsieur le Chanoine Léon Matagne.

Numismatic author and one of the founding members of the European Numismatic Alliance, Matagne assembled an important collection of Belgian coins and a number of elusive patterns from his collection are featured in the sale.

Several important South American coins from the Caballero de las Yndias collection are offered, and, as with previous Palombo sales, there is an extensive group of exceptional quality French coins.

Click here to view selected Highlights at NGC