Coins DIG

The “plunk” was as ordinary as the thousands of other sounds made by coins being dropped into the trademark red kettles.

What those counting the generous donations made Tuesday to The Salvation Army in Jacksonville found something anything but ordinary.

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This year Stafford-based Coins for Anything Inc. debuted at No. 1,518 on the Inc. 5000, a list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., for 210 percent revenue growth between 2005 and 2008. The company reported $2.8 million in revenue in 2008 and is on track to make about the same this year.

The business idea bloomed when Morin started selling Challenge coins, typically military medallions with an organization’s emblem, on eBay for extra cash.

A mother e-mailed him asking for a Marine mom-designed coin, and after finding no coins like that on the market, Morin designed and ordered 100 ‘Mother of Marine” coins that sold out within hours. His own mom, who helped mail the individual coins, gave him a $500 loan to start the business.

According to the indictment, Walthall convinced the couple to invest in a partnership called "Advanced Recycling General Partners" which was supposed to search for and extract gold from old mines in the Imperial Valley, Nevada, and Brazil.

Walthall told the couple that he had invested over $3 million of his own money over the past decade researching the gold extraction process and that, as partners, the couple would receive a salary and that expenses would be approved beforehand by each partner.

According to the Los Angeles bureau of the FBI, the majority of the money was used by Waltham for his own gold investments and personal expenses, including alimony and child support for his four children and purchasing multiple vehicles and other luxury items. This includes a hyperbaric oxygen chamber worth approximately $60,000 and a $10,000 payment to a film school.

Perhaps the word “consumption” means something regarding food to most of us, but India is currently the world leader regarding the consumption or demand for gold. With gold being valued at more than $1,000 per troy ounce at the time this article is being written this has become big business in India, with many medals being rather loosely sold described as being coins.

People often visit the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Emmitsburg seeking spiritual healing.

Worshippers pray and light candles at the statue of the Virgin Mary to help along an answer to difficult questions, Grotto director William Tronolone said.

Sometimes they leave gifts.

But even Tronolone said he was surprised when a staff member discovered rare and valuable coins valued at about $40,000 in plastic bags Nov. 9. They had been concealed under a pile of leaves near the shrine's grotto.

Gold bullion went through the $1,100 barrier like a warm knife through butter. It is trading firmly in the mid teens after briefly crossing the $1,120 mark. Ho hum, another record price. Silver and platinum have followed along, but in a somewhat lackluster fashion. There is some reasonable belief that when silver came down from the $21 level a year ago March that many bought in the $17 to 18 level and are happy to get out even whenever the metal trades there. Once these weak holders are taken out, many believe silver will jump ahead.

During last week, gold hit a new historical high of $1122 per ounce even though there was not much in the way of any new data. The week before last, the Reserve Bank of India purchased 200 tons from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Barrick, the world’s largest gold mining company, unwound some of its large hedged position in gold. December crude oil moved sharply lower due mainly to the larger-than-expected increase in weekly crude oil inventories which increased by 1.76 million barrels compared to market expectations of 1.0 million barrels. Also, gasoline inventories had an unexpected increase in weekly inventories.

Perhaps the most significant news involving gold in the past week was the pattern of gold trading after last Friday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics announcement of the U.S. unemployment rate.

According to the BLS, the U-3 definition of the unemployment rate had jumped 54.5 percent in the past 12 months to 10.2 percent. This is the most commonly reported unemployment rate.

The BLS also reported that the U-6 definition of unemployment had climbed 45.8 percent from a year ago to its current level of 17.5 percent.

According to "United States Patterns and Related Issues," by Andrew W. Pollock III, the only trial pieces purported to have survived from metallurgical testing in 1965 were the dime, quarter dollar and half dollar equivalent strikes in copper-nickel clad over copper. They are embedded in a block of Lucite displayed at the Smithsonian Institution.

Only four sets are accounted for besides the one that Eagle Numismatoics has. One set was cast in clear plastic for Congress, another set for the Mint director, one for the Smithsonian, and one set that was mutilated for metallurgical examination.