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| Given the current upbeat mood in the numismatic marketplace, we're usually happy to pay whatever reasonable premium is required to obtain a "special" rarity. Owning the best is a smart thing to do. Ask any dealer, When was the last time a collector or investor called you searching for a mediocre coin? The sight-unseen market still works fairly well for common-date Morgan dollars and lower-quality $20 Saints. But it just doesn't work for true rarities. So experience and knowledge plays a huge role when it comes to "stepping out" for a particular rarity. Our experience has led us to conclude that when we locate that special
high-end rarity, we shouldn't resist paying a premium price. At today's
historically-low price levels, it's a great time to "pay too much" in
order to acquire the very best. We feel confident it will make a big
difference when you go to sell. 
Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle smashes the $1-million barrier for a US gold coin at auction Charles Barber, the chief engraver of the U.S. Mint, told President Roosevelt the design was impractical because its high relief required too many strikes. Roosevelt didn't care how many strikes it took. In 1907, he ordered the Mint to go forward with trials of what has come to be know as the Ultra High Relief $20 Double Eagle. Despite the beauty of the design, Barber's warnings about the impracticality of producing it proved correct. Not only did the Ultra High Relief require about 12 strikes, but between strikes the coin had to be taken from the press, heated red-hot, and bathed in acid. Ultimately only a few proofs of the Ultra High Relief coins were struck. They are referred to as "patterns" because they were experimental and never went into production. On June 1, the "Norweb specimen" of the 1907 Ultra High Relief $20 Double Eagle was auctioned by Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles Inc. of Beverly Hills, California. The auction catalog called it "The Ultimate American Gold Coin." Bidders agreed. Tangible Asset Galleries (TAG) paid $1.1 million for the coin. Add on the 10% buyer's fee and the total price came to $1.21 million. The previous record for a US gold coin sold at auction, another Ultra High Relief Double Eagle, was $825,000, in 1996.
Is Wall Street fixing the price of gold? With help from the Fed, and IMF, and the Bank
of England? The fall went on and every time it looked as if the price of gold would take off, the same crowd of bullion banks would knock it down. We then heard that this same cartel was offering unheard-of relaxed credit terms to producers if they would just sell forward. We twice received feedback from very reliable sources that US officialdom asked Asian officialdom to refrain from any aggressive gold purchases. After all this the Counterparty Risk Management Group, led by Goldman
Sachs and J.P. Morgan, was formed to manage risks in the financial sector
along with the likes of Credit Suisse. How long do you think it would
stand if Chrysler, GM, and Ford got together to do the same thing in
the automobile industry?
On June 3, The Mint announced a three-year agreement with The Jim Henson Company for, yes, Kermit the Frog to serve as the official spokesfrog for the 50 States Quarters Program. The Mint selected the fabulous TV and film star to raise public awareness of the program, a 10-year initiative to commemorate each state with a unique design. Kermit will appear in an extensive print and broadcast campaign to educate Americans, especially kids, on their changing change. The potential for creating another generation of coin collectors is enormous. "A key purpose of the 50 State Quarters Program is to reclaim and retell the story of the 50 states and the history of our nation," said Philip N. Diehl, Director of the U.S. Mint, as he hailed Kermit's appointment. Appearing with Diehl at the Muppet Townhouse in New York City, Kermit
said he was honored to join the program. "The new 50 State Quarters
Program will give kids and adults the most exciting change America has
ever seen," noted the goggle-eyed amphibian. "It's also a wonderful
opportunity to learn some quick, fun lessons about the history of the
United States."
The S.S. Brother Jonathan Treasure Trove Gleaming 1860s golden rarities raised from the ocean floor When you're in Las Vegas, check out the 1865-S $10 Gold Eagle on display in the Treasures of Mandalay Bay Museum, in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Look at the luster of this coin and you'll find it hard to believe that it spent 131 years on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The coin, graded MS64 by PCGS, is the only Mint State 1865-S Eagle ever sold at auction. Museum co-owner Ronald Gillio bought it for $115,000 at the auction of the S.S. Brother Jonathan Treasure Coins, conducted by Bowers & Merena May 29 in Los Angeles. The Eagle rested on the ocean floor along with the 1,206 other gold rarities that have been recovered, as well as who knows how many more. Prior to the recovery of the Brother Jonathan coins, it was almost
impossible to find Mint State gold coins of this era. As famed numismatist
Q. David Bowers (author of the book The Treasure Ship S.S. Brother Jonathan)
notes in the auction catalog, even Louis Eliasberg, who assembled the
only complete date and mintmark collection of US coins, and who constantly
sought the highest quality available, had no 1860-65 $20 pieces from
the San Francisco Mint graded above VF30. When the Brother Jonathan
coins were hoisted out of the ocean, it was as if a vault in the San
Francisco Mint with a 131-year time lock had suddenly popped open, increasing
the supply of some Mint State coins by a factor of more than 100.
Prooflike Morgan Silver Dollars Beautiful and valuable cameos for collectors and investors A cameo is a coin with a frosted or satiny central device surrounded by a mirrorlike field. Most cameos are struck as proofs. Occasionally, unusual minting processes will produce business strike cameos, which are described, depending on their precise appearance, as prooflike (PL) or deep mirrorlike (DMPL). Few coins had prooflike surfaces prior to the introduction of the Morgan dollar in 1878. Prooflike Morgans resulted from the minting process and the large diameter of the coins. Morgan dies were subjected to basining, which involves polishing the die face against a slowly revolving zinc lap. The large size of silver dollar dies allowed the fields to be polished with consistently successful results. The most common cameo prooflikes are the San Francisco Mint (S) dollars of 1879 to 1881. During that time, the Morgan dollar was the only non-gold coin struck at San Francisco. This rare opportunity to focus on one denomination allowed the mint staff to produce large numbers of silver dollars with a well struck, highly lustrous appearance. Prooflike and deep mirror prooflike Morgan dollars are always popular.
They are more immune to large price fluctuations than other coins. Collect
them and gain satisfaction from their beauty, their history, and their
potential for appreciation.
The Most Beautiful Coins of the Century Each of the past three issues of Coin Connoisseur presented two candidates for your consideration as the most beautiful coin of the 20th Century. Here are two additional candidates. Two more coins will be featured in our Fall issue. Once all ten coins have appeared in the magazine they will be posted on our Web site, where you will be invited to cast your vote for The Most Beautiful Coin of the Century&153;. Finland's Bimetallic Coin The Bremerhaven 5 Reichsmark
Is now the time to buy? On July 6, the Bank of England sold 25 tonnes of gold - it plans to sell 415 tonnes - and the price of gold dropped $7 per oz. Ultimately, it is the fundamentals, not the maneuvering of the financial houses and the banks, that will prevail. Gold in the $250s is a once-in-a-lifetime (well, twice for some of us) proposition. Could it go down to $200? Yes. But because of the fundamentals it is not likely to stay there. Could it return to the $800 levels of January, 1980? Yes. If you buy gold now, are you likely to make a substantial profit over the next five or ten years? Yes. Is putting a portion of your assets into gold at these prices a sound insurance policy against leaving having all your assets in stocks, bonds, and cash? Yes, yes, yes. One final historical note. The last time the Bank of England sold
a substantial amount gold was from 1965 to 1971, when the price of gold
was pegged by the US government at $35 an ounce. They sold 1300 tonnes
- two thirds of their holdings. Nine years later, gold reached a record
high of $827/oz.
Joins the eagle and the koala The polar bear coin, which will be available through the RCM's North
American network of bullion dealers and distributors, provides investors
with another way to own platinum. The largest denomination, with a nominal
value of Canadian $50, is similar in investment value, if not design,
to the 1 oz ($100 face value) US platinum eagle. Its weight is also
1 oz (31.150 grams), and it is also fabricated from platinum with a
purity of .9995, as is the entire series. In addition to the 1 oz coin,
the polar bear, like the US platinum eagle, is available in 1/2, 1/4,
and 1/10 oz sizes. But Canada has gone a step further: there's a 1/20
oz coin as well (face value Canadian $1), perhaps for parking meters
in the tundra.
NumisMedia is out to make it work Independent certification may not entirely eliminate subjectivity; it does, however, limit it. A coin graded MS63 that is at the top of its range might be graded MS64 if resubmitted, even to the same grading service, but it won't come back MS66. This increase in consistency gives all coin buyers a sporting chance. Independent certification stabilizes quality, one of the two main elements in the marketing of rare coins. The other main element is price. For well over one hundred years rare coins were traded between knowledgeable numismatists, most often on a sight basis. Along with independent certification and grading came the idea that rare coins could and should trade sight unseen, like stocks. The problem is that while every share of stock in a particular company is identical, rare coins, even those of the same issue and grade, are not. The result: the lowest quality coins within a grade become the standard of value for the entire spectrum of coins in that grade. Bid-based sight-unseen trading has ruptured the value structure of
rare coins over the last ten years. NumisMedia (www.numismedia.com)
was created to enlighten the collector regarding the fair market value
of coins in the middle to high end of their grade, and to make it possible
for collectors and dealers to buy such coins sight-unseen with confidence.
Inside the grading services: Coins go in, slabs come out. What happens behind the locked doors? Mark Feld, senior numismatist for Pinnacle Rarities, Inc. and former NGC grader has generously agreed to answer Coin Connoisseur's questions about how the grading services work. The full interview appeared in the print magazine. Here are two excerpts: CC: How does a grader arrive at
a numerical grade? What characteristics are taken into consideration,
and which are most important? |
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In 1995 Finland produced a remarkably beautiful bimetallic coin, celebrating
the country’s membership in the European Union. The 10 mark coin has
a .585 fine gold alloy core surrounded by a sterling silver ring. The
minimalist designs by Pertti Mkinen (born in 1952) feature plants and
a gracefully soaring swan. The artist "signed" the obverse with his
initial "M." 
A 5 Reichsmark
silver coin, issued during the brief recovery of the German economy
from 1923 until the worldwide depression began in 1929, has become one
of the most popular European large crown-size coins. In 1927, 50,000
business strikes (Brilliant Uncirculated) and a small number of Proofs
were produced at the Berlin Mint to commemorate the 100th anniversary
of the port of Bremerhaven, appropriately featuring a handsome sailing
ship.
The major Wall Street investment houses and the US, European, and Japanese
central banks are conspiring to suppress the price of gold. If conspiracy
theories rub you the wrong way, please just substitute the following
phrase into the previous sentence: "are shaping their investment and
loan policies in such a way that the price of gold sinks."