Gold took its negative direction this week from tumbling oil prices and a stronger US dollar. Platinum faired worse by reaching toward six-month lows earlier, but managed to recover some of its lost ground Friday.

London silver closed the week to $17.55 an ounce — a loss of $1 from last Friday and a drop of 80 cents for the week.

London platinum fell to $1,726 an ounce — a drop of $146 for the week and a loss of $123 compared to its previous Friday close.

London gold closed to $921 an ounce, losing $46 for the week, or $40 from last Friday.

"In the short term, gold will remain at the mercy of both oil and the dollar," said James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com.

"However, we still believe the current geopolitical/economic environment will keep investors in a more cautious mood, with demand for safe-haven-type assets likely to remain high," Moore said in a note.

The silver, gold and platinum weekly charts and comparisons from last week are below. The weekly business recap video from Reuters and three related precious metal articles are listed as well.

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The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) was slow in reporting June printed banknote totals, but they picked up the pace in bottom line production numbers.

Today’s released data reflects a manufacturing output of 649,600,000 U.S. banknotes in June worth a total of $15,504,000,000. That compares to 614.9 million notes worth $13.5 billion in May.

More than $1 billion of the difference came from new $20s, as none were printed in May. New $5s also stuck out with a nearly doubling amount.

Spread across June’s 30 days and counting weekends and holidays, the BEP averaged nearly 21.7 million notes per day with a total daily face value worth $516.8 million. Read the rest of this entry »

The United States Mint resumed sales of 2008 American Eagle Platinum Proof coins Thursday and the new prices are mind-blowing. One coin’s premium is marked up a whopping 63%. The popular one-ounce platinum coin is $796 higher than yesterday’s platinum price. What was the Mint thinking?

The 2008 platinum collector coins come in bullion sizes of one ounce, one-half ounce, one-quarter ounce and one-tenth ounce. There is also a four-coin set available that includes each coin size.

The Mint temporarily suspended sales of the proof versions in late June “due to the increasing market value of platinum.” They were expecting prices to go even higher. At that time, an ounce of platinum (New York) was around $2,070. Yesterday, when coin sales resumed, an ounce was actually LOWER and closed at $1,713.80.

In fact, platinum prices are now lower than when 2008 proof platinum coins first went on sale! Yet, the Mint raises prices?

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