New York platinum continued its downward spiral Tuesday falling 3.1 percent. Silver and gold, on the other hand, experience gains after oil’s surge and the US dollar’s decline.
After three straight days of losses, September crude-oil gained $1.66 to close at $114.53 a barrel.
Silver for September lost 0.5 cents to end at $13.11 an ounce.
October platinum lost $42.60 to close at $1,351.30 an ounce.
December gold climbed $11.10 to close at $816.80 an ounce. It had reached an earlier low point of $792.
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Coin collectors will be the only people to appreciate the Czech 50-heller coin after Sunday, August 31. The Czech National Bank (CNB) has announced that their country’s smallest denominated coin will no longer be legal tender starting in September.
"The main reason for this decision is that 50-heller coins are ceasing to fulfill their function as circulating currency," said Pavel Rezabek, Chief Executive Director and Member of the CNB Bank Board.
Rezabek has said there are a total of 410 million 50-heller coins currently in circulation. With a population of 10.3 million people, every man, woman and child could have 41 coins.
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The Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) has announced the return of First Strike® inserts to current and future submissions for members of the PCGS Collectors Club.
Ron Guth, President of PCGS, said in an e-mail announcement Tuesday,
“The collecting community let us know loud and clear that they wanted access to the First Strike inserts. Collectors like the First Strike program and they want the opportunity to have their own coins certified.”
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Legislation to change the metallic composition of the penny and nickel to a less expensive copper-colored steel passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on May 8, 2008.
However, the plunge in base metal prices since could very well end the legislation’s chances of moving forward in the Senate.
The goal of the bill, which it titled Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2008 - H.R. 5512, was directed toward saving money after high copper prices pushed production costs of the penny up to about 1.26 cents and the nickel to about 7.7 cents.
Since May, copper prices have fallen to where the melt value of a penny is now under a half cent and the nickel is just slightly higher than 5 cents — the U.S. Mint now makes money issuing pennies and almost breaks even with nickels.
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