It was another down day for precious metals on Thursday as gold dipped below $700 for the first time in three weeks. New York silver, gold and platinum futures fell 7.2 percent, 1.9 percent and 1.5 percent respectively. However, after hours electronic trading is looking to sport a decent rally.
December crude-oil recovered a sizable portion of its previous session loss, rising $2.18, or 3.9 percent, to close to $58.34 a barrel.
December silver continued its struggle, falling 68 cents to end at 8.80 an ounce.
January platinum lost $12.10 to settle at $813 an ounce.
Gold for December dropped $13.30 to close to $705 an ounce.
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Free Access for Coin Collectors to Valuable Research and Reference Books StellaCoinNews.com
Virginia Beach, VA – John Feigenbaum, President of David Lawrence Rare Coins and Dominion Grading Service, announced today the unveiling of a new web site called Stella (www.stellacoinnews.com) which will provide daily Blogs by numismatic leaders, as well as free access to DLRC Press publications.
According to Feigenbaum, "We hope Stella will become a regular stopping point for collectors who are looking for more information on current events within the coin community, as well as reference material that they previously could only find in books.
In our first month of operations, we have published two rare books from our catalog. The first was David Lawrence’s anecdotal stories titled, Tales from the Bourse. The second, more ambitious effort is The Complete Guide to Liberty Seated Half Dollars by Randy Wiley and Bill Bugert.
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The United States Mint resumed sales of collector gold and platinum coins Thursday at 12:00 noon (ET). The Mint suspended the coins to readjust prices Wednesday.
Nearly all American Buffalo gold and American Eagle gold and platinum collector coin prices were decreased, as expected, to better match recent price drops in precious metal prices. However, all 1/10 oz and two of the 1/4 oz coins were actually priced higher. Interestingly, Mint sales figures for those sizes experienced some of the highest percent increases over last week.
The following table compares American Eagle and Buffalo old and new prices, as well as the differences between Mint sales figures from last week to this week. Perhaps most noticeable is the standout 13 percent sales increase for the 2008-W American Eagle Platinum Proof 4-coin set.
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The first known 1976 Bicentennial design Eisenhower dollar "waffle coin" has been reported by Brian Hendelson, President of Waffle Coin Co. of Bridgewater, New Jersey. It was discovered during the continuing examination of Mint-canceled coins obtained by Classic Coin in 2003, each with the distinctive corrugated, waffle-like pattern left by the Mint’s cancellation process,
"It is a Variety Two, dual-dated 1776-1976 Philadelphia Mint Ike dollar, and the first Bicentennial Ike discovered as a Mint-cancelled coin. I got pretty excited when I realized what I was holding," said Hendelson. "It’s the only one I’ve ever found."
"The mint takes in coins for exchange that are also waffle canceled. This is, thus far, the only Bicentennial dollar we are aware of that has gone through this cancellation process," said Dave Camire, NGC mint error consultant and President of Numismatic Conservation Services.
Hendelson also discovered a small quantity of 1999 Susan B. Anthony dollar waffle coins. Read the rest of this entry »
On January 10th, 2009, George Frederick Kolbe/Fine Numismatic Books will offer for sale at public auction the highlights of two outstanding numismatic libraries, both remarkable for their exceptionally fine overall condition.
They will be sold at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City in conjunction with the New York International Numismatic Convention. The first 72 page catalogue features 100 lots of rare and classic works on American numismatics, with some fifty full color illustrations.
Lots 1 to 75 are from The Twinleaf Library and lots 76 to 100 are the property of several additional consignors. The second 108 page catalogue, with over one hundred full color illustrations, is comprised of 175 early printed numismatic books and classic titles on Italian coins and medals from the library of Dr. Ferdinando Bassoli of Turin, Italy.
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Four numismatic articles are referenced on CoinNews every Tuesday and Thursday. These articles are not authored by us, but we recommend collectors read them for their unusual or interesting content. Here are today’s articles:
By PCGS
On Monday, November 3, 2008, Tim Torpin, fellow coin dealer and beloved friend, husband, and father, died of heart failure following open-heart surgery… Tim was well-known within the numismatic community and greatly respected for his extensive knowledge of American numismatics, his honesty, and especially his goodnature.
Read ‘Timothy K. Torpin (1951-2008)’ »
By Susan Headley, About.com: Coins
With the election of Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency, there has been an outpouring of strong emotions among many Americans the likes of which we haven’t seen in relation to a U.S. president since John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963… Emotional feelings for Obama are running high, and many people who have no knowledge of coin collecting and what makes a coin valuable are buying coins for the first time.
Read ‘The Obama Coins Rip-Off’ »
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