Coins DIG

It has been an uneventful week for precious metals. They traded lower for a few days and have settled in the middle of the recent trading range. Premiums remain constant at recent levels with good continued demand apparent. One thing to watch for in the platinum market is the possibility of a mining strike. Should this happen, I believe we will see a spike in pricing.

In the Walking Liberty half series the early high grade dates remain strong although a few more 1921-P and 1921-D coins were available in low grade. The inevitable correction in low- to mid-grade circulated 1938-Ds continues with the first three grades down. These will probably over correct, but are approaching fair value at current levels.

A lawsuit has been filed against California dealers Steve Contursi and Don Kagin by Michigan hobbyist Bill Swoger over the value of information Swoger says he supplied to them that makes the dealers’ “EB” stamp-on-breast Brasher doubloon more valuable.

The coin owned by the two dealers was purchased by Contursi for $2.99 million at a Florida United Numismatists auction in 2005 and he then arranged for Kagin to take a one-third ownership.

The largest find of Iron Age coins in Great Britain discovered in the past 160 years has been declared treasure trove at a coroner's inquest in Suffolk, England.

The U.S. government improperly seized a set of extremely rare and valuable "double eagle" coins from a Philadelphia jeweler's descendants and must win a forfeiture case to keep them, a judge ruled this week.

Ownership of the 10 gold coins — worth millions of dollars apiece — may be determined by a jury in a weeks-long forfeiture hearing.

The family of the late Israel Switt is suing to recover the double eagles, so named because they had a face value of $20, twice the amount of gold coins known as eagles.

The incredible Quartermaster Collection, containing many of Australia’s most valuable and highest quality gold coins, was sold on 4th of June 2009.

Featuring many of Australia’s rarest coins, the 344 lot auction was conducted by Monetarium (Australia) Pty Ltd. The total prices realized was $10,269,084 Australian Dollars ( or $8.397 Million US ).

The collection was an anthology of Australian gold currency, spanning 1852 to 1931. Tony Richardson, a director of Monetarium Pty Ltd, said, “It’s an extraordinary achievement to have assembled such a comprehensive collection of rare coins. I doubt it will ever be seen again”.

Following the success of the April Hong Kong Coin Auction, which saw Baldwin’s auction department and Ma Tak Wo Numismatic Co. Ltd weather the ‘economic tsunami’ by achieving exceptional results, (the majority of lots selling at over 10 times their lower estimate) this Hong Kong offering looks set to do much the same with a well rounded catalogue of Coins, Banknotes, Orders and Decorations.

A Dresden real estate investor and his partner have raised €7 million ( @$9.8 Million US) worth of gold, silver and other artifacts from a sunken pirate ship off the coast of Borneo, daily Bild reported Wednesday.

The pirate ship Forbes sank off the coast of Borneo in 1806. Dresden resident Martin Wenzel and his partner Klaus Keppler spent €3 million of their own money over the past two years trawling the tropical waters for loot from the Forbes and other vessels, the newspaper reported.

The market is beginning to anticipate the upcoming World's Fair of Money hosted Aug. 5-9 by the American Numismatic Association in Los Angeles. There is further strength in precious metals with gold trading over $950 an ounce, which I believe is a five-week high. Silver is up 4 percent and platinum 2.5 percent from last week's writing.

Economists and business leaders joke that Mama instant noodles can be as reliable a gauge as any for economic trends - when times are bad, people cut back spending in favour of a classic, cheap Thai comfort food.

The Treasury Department, however, prefers a different proxy for consumer confidence. Officials say data on coin use show an increase in 10-baht coins in the market, signifying that people are breaking into their piggy banks and small savings in search of money for everyday spending.

Coin exchanges for banknotes have nearly doubled in recent months, with 7-8 million coins returned to the Treasury Department per month compared with 3-4 million in more ordinary economic times.

The Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands has been alerted to the existence of a collection of nine metallic pieces depicting various UK places and which purport to be coins issued by this Administration.

The obverse of these apparently Bi-Metallic pieces carries an effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the wording South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the date 2008.