Record price set by rare 1856-O gold $20
The
rarest New Orleans double eagle, the 1856-O, realized $1,437,500 May 29 at
Heritage Auction Galleries Signature Sale® held in conjunction with the Long
Beach Coin, Stamp and Collectibles Expo.
Overall, the auction, which included U.S. and world coinage, brought the firm
$17.7 million.
Called Specimen-63 by the Professional Coin Grading Service, the coin is the finest surviving example of
the 1856-O, Heritage said.
All prices reported here include a 15 percent buyer’s fee.
“Only 19 coins have ever sold at auction for more than this one,” said Greg Rohan, president of Heritage Auction Galleries “and none of those were struck in New Orleans.”
SBA's Patriot Express Loan Initiative Delivers $315 Million to 3,750 Vets, Military Community
In
just two year's time, the U.S. Small Business
Administration's Patriot Express Pilot Loan Initiative has supported more than
$315 million in loans to more than 3,750 veterans and their spouses who are
using the SBA-guaranteed funds to establish and expand their small businesses.
As a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which raised loan
guarantees to 90 percent, and eliminated fees temporarily, the number of
Patriot Express loans increased to record levels in April and May of 2009.
Coin hoard exceeds sale estimate
A hoard of gold coins found by a builder in
the cellar of an Oxfordshire flat has sold at auction for £76,360.
The 400-year-old coins,
minted during James I's reign, were
valued by auctioneers at about £50,000 and were found in Chipping Norton 30
years ago.
They were bought by private buyers and trade dealers
in a specialist coin auction in London.
The two rarest coins were sold earlier to the British
Museum. There were 50 bidders for the remaining 57 coins.
Chinese Coins Commemorate 2010 Shanghai World Expo
Some 70 million visitors are expected to visit
Shanghai in 2010 for the World Expo where China hopes to "bring the world
at home, and for the world to feel at home." To celebrate the occasion,
the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is
issuing silver and gold proof World Expo Shanghai 2010 commemorative coins.
Three coins have been struck in the first series
release: a 1/3 oz, 23 mm, .999 fine gold piece denominated in 150-yuan, and two
1 oz, 40 mm, .999 silver coins with a face value of 10-yuan.
Kansas Big Brothers wins business excellence award
Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters
Inc. was recognized
Tuesday with a business excellence award from the Kansas Department of Commerce.
The nonprofit organization is one of four winners in
the southcentral region. Overall, the department of commerce awarded 28
companies the business excellence award as part of business appreciation month.
The other southcentral region winners include:
• Sharp Realty & Auction in
Augusta.
• Intrust Bank in El Dorado.
• Countryside Feed LLC in
Hillsboro.
Check both sides of the coin
Among all the collectible items you might want to diversify your
investment portfolio with, rare coins offer the most potential for profit, as
there are more wealthy coin collectors
than there are say, collectors of stamps, baseball cards, comic books or just
about anything else.
Sadly, counterfeiters have figured this out too. A simple search on eBay
and a few online auction sites show that it’s common for rare coins to attract bids of $1,000 or more — and that means huge
profits for those who can pass off counterfeits bought for a few dollars as the
real thing.
Where to Find the Best Deals in Physical Gold
When gold breached the $1,000/oz mark this February, the mass media were
full of reports of unprecedented coin demand and long wait times for bullion
buyers. You couldn't open the paper without seeing a piece about the gold rush.
Although the press has now set
gold aside for hotter stories, I can tell you demand for gold coins continues
at unprecedented levels worldwide, and production is still struggling to keep
up. Take a look at these recent reports:
***Sales of the Austrian
Philharmonic gold coin soared 544%
in the first two months of 2009 (vs. the same period the year before), with
production at the country’s mint running quadruple its usual volume.
HP, Microsoft to expand communications partnership
Demand has risen among businesses seeking better ways for its
employees to communicate and work together, especially in this virtual world.
To address that need, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft announced plans at Interop
Las Vegas on Tuesday to expand their existing partnership to offer enhanced communication
tools and services to customers.
Local veterans reflect on their service
Combat medals, badges and bronze stars stand at
attention surrounding 87-year-old Maj. Gen. John Raaen's living room; tokens of
distant memories brought vividly back to life and gleaming along the painted
walls.
His is no lone archive of war here in the Mayflower Retirement Community.
There are rooms like Raaen's just down the hall, around the corner or up a
stairway, beckoning tales of heroes just waiting for visitors to take an
air-conditioned stroll down memory lane.
Raaen is among the many retired military personnel living at the Mayflower
Retirement Community turning a wistful eye toward the life they once knew and
the friends, comrades and family they honor this Memorial Day.
Getting Back to Basics
In keeping with this column's focus on "Basics & Beyond,"
this month I will go back to basics and review a Smithsonian Book written by
David Ganz: Guide to Coin Collecting. Ganz is among other things a
lawyer, a politician on the local level, the author of many numismatic books
and articles, and "a nationally recognized numismatics expert." In
other words, Ganz is definitely someone qualified to produce a coin collecting
guide.
In Chapter One, Ganz starts at the very beginning, with the history of coin
making. He writes, "Coinage began some 2,800 years ago in the kingdom of
Lydia, located in modern-day Turkey. In Lydia, coins were made of
electrum, a natural gold-and-silver alloy.&" Obviously, even at
the very beginning, gold and silver were important indicators of value. In his
discussion, Ganz mentions Chinese spade money, cocoa beans, and
"knife money" that was used in a number of countries.