News Archive (2008)

December	November	October
September	August

International News at Coins Market

High-grade coins selling
Mark Ferguson, COIN VALUES

The coin market has slowed in the troubled economic environment. However, compared to other markets, the coin market has held up well.

As previously reported, off-quality coins continue to be discounted.

The economic recession will get significantly worse before it starts to improve, US President-elect Barack Obama said in an interview at the weekend. “We’ve got to provide a blood infusion right now, make sure that the patient is stabilized,” he said, adding that the budget deficit, by some estimates more than $1 trillion, would have to be put on the back burner “for now.”

The coin market has been and remains to a degree one of the brightest areas of the current economy, which is experiencing great difficulty.

The most active area of the coin and bullion market is the precious metals segment. Heavy demand for the bullion coins has created a two-tier price level for precious metals.

The Perth Mint has announced that it will resume taking orders for a popular range of gold and silver bullion coins from 12 January 2009.

BEIJING, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- The People's Bank of China, the central bank, said on Thursday it would issue a set of gold and silver coins on Dec. 10 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up drive.

The set includes two varieties of gold coins -- one weighing a quarter ounce while the other weighing five ounces -- and one type of one-ounce silver coin, it said.

The December Coin Galleries auction is an immensely popular mail and internet bid sale held four times a year by the foreign department of Stack’s. Over 3,000 lots await your perusal, and span every category from ancient, medieval, and world coins, to medals, tokens, orders and decorations, and to U.S. coins and currency. Even some mineral specimens are included! The sale will close on Wednesday, December 17 at 3:00pm, so be sure to place your bids well beforehand.

Civil war coins sell for £36,000
BBC

Rare coins dating back to the time of Oliver Cromwell and Charles I have fetched nearly £36,000 at auction.

The 15 gold and silver coins, minted in the 17th Century during the English Civil War, were built up by a Dorset collector as a financial investment.

INDICATIONS that the Government is planning to privatise the Royal Mint have provoked an angry reaction from unions.

Buried in the Pre-Budget Report published on Monday was a sentence saying there was an intention to “explore the potential benefits of alternative future models for the Royal Mint”.

GENEVA, Nov 20, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- An unprecedented collaboration between a European coin seller and a U.S. certification company is the latest evidence that the international collectible coin market is booming.

There is no doubt the financial world is in big trouble and yet the coin market keeps trucking along. Let me repeat that coins are real money that cannot be controlled by governments and their bureaucrats.