Yearly Archives: 2012
2012 Chester Arthur Presidential Dollar Rolls and Boxes Released
Today, Thursday, April 5, 2012, the United States Mint released the Chester Arthur Presidential $1 Coin. New circulating quality strikes are available directly from the U.S. Mint in 25-coin rolls as well as new, first-time products of 250-coin boxes and 500-coin boxes. The new boxes were expected, but the Mint did not announced their release date of today until Tuesday.
U.S. Mint rolls are wrapped in special black and white paper and imprinted with the Mint of origin ("P" or "D"), "Presidential $1 Coin," the president's name and "$25,"(the face value of the contents). Buyers have the choice of [...]
1792 Silver Center Cent May Top $1M at Heritage Auctions’ CSNS...
One of the most historic coins struck by the early U.S. Mint, a 1792 Judd-1 Silver Center cent pattern, MS61 Brown PCGS, headlines the Heritage Auctions April 2012 Central States Signature® U.S. Coin Auction in Schaumburg, IL, April 18-20, with Platinum Night™ offerings on April 19.
The 1792 Silver Center cents were experimental pieces designed by Chief Coiner Henry Voigt to remedy a flaw in the Mint Act of 1792: the official weight for one cent coins would have made them too large and heavy for practical use. Voigt suggested a [...]
President Signs US Marshals Service 225th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act
President Obama signed the United States Marshals Service 225th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act into law on Monday, April 2, 2012.
The Act, now Public Law 112-104, sets the parameters for the United States Mint to produce up to 100,000 $5 gold coins, 500,000 silver dollars and 750,000 clad half dollars in calendar year 2015. These coins will be struck in collector proof and uncirculated qualities, bringing the total types of coins to six.
The coin designs will be emblematic of the 225 years of achievements of the United States Marshals Service, America's first Federal law enforcement agency, including [...]
Heritage Auctions’ CSNS Currency Event in April Offers 3,400+ Lots
Heritage Auctions, the official auctioneer of the Central States Numismatic Society Show, will offer more than 3,400 lots of rare and collectible currency as part of its Signature® Currency Auction being held April 18-20, in Schaumburg, IL and on April 22.
The lots will be offered in four floor sessions, along with one session presented online only. The Signature portion of the auction contains 1,800+ lots. A wide variety of material will be offered during Session One of the [...]
Stack’s Bowers Coin and Currency Auction Tops $16.4M at Whitman’s March...
Stack's Bowers Galleries conducted its Official Auction of the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Baltimore Expo March 19-27, 2012. The impressive sale presented 6,554 U.S. coin, currency and exonumia lots and realized a total of $16,407,956.
"The sale was extremely well attended and bidding activity was brisk for all types of U.S. coins," commented Chris Napolitano, president of Stack's Bowers Galleries.
The Jim Jones Collection of early American and colonial coinage was enthusiastically received by bidders specializing in this diverse and challenging segment [...]
Gold Prices Nosedive to 3-Month Low, Silver Plunges $2.20
U.S. stocks and commodities, to include gold, silver and other precious metals, plunged Wednesday in a free fall that began Tuesday after minutes from the latest Fed policy meeting dampened expectations for another round of quantitative easing.
Gold prices for June delivery declined $57.90, or 3.5%, to $1,614.10 an ounce on the Comex in New York. It was the lowest settlement price for gold since January 10. The yellow metal moved from an intraday low of $1,614.00 to a high of $1,649.50 [...]
US Mint Sales: Commemoratives and Gold Coins Dominate
United States Mint product sales showed a bit more zest after two rather mundane weekly reports in which collectors appeared to have taken a spring break from buying.
Whereas the last U.S. Mint sales report and the one before had respective 23 and 24 products outperforming their prior weekly sales, the latest data shows 43 shining brighter. Still, overall unit sales were sluggish without any new products debuting during the reporting period [...]
In The Lead – Great Expectations May Lead To Great(er) Disappointments
Underscoring once again just how much of a premium Fed QE3-oriented expectations had added to certain market price equations, gold fell out of bed on Tuesday afternoon after the ritual parsing of the Fed's March 13 meeting minutes left many a smugly hopeful bullish participant with nothing but... hope to hang onto, as their trades/bets (as well as sentiment) soured very fast.
Currency strategists at Brown Brothers Harriman had cautioned as early as yesterday morning that while many market players were expecting at least some kind of QE3 hint in the FOMC's meeting minutes, there might not be anything in there but a summary mention of the fact that if conditions dictate, then such measures might be put into motion [...]
2012 Star-Spangled Banner Commemorative Coin Prices Rise Thursday
Collectors will pay more for all five Star-Spangled Banner commemorative coin products after the introductory sale price period ends on Thursday, April 5, 2012 at 5 PM EDT.
Prices will rise across the board by $5. While the increases will be felt less for the gold commemoratives with prices already hovering in the $500 range, they are more noticeable for the silver commemoratives as they represent hikes of more than 10% [...]
US Mint Numismatic Gold Coin Prices Unlikely to Change
Despite a late Tuesday afternoon $31+ plunge in gold prices, it is very unlikely that the United States Mint will change prices Wednesday on its numismatic gold coins, or proof Platinum Eagle for that matter.
The reason is that the two precious metals have not fluctuated much in London over the last several days. Gold is currently averaging around $1,666 an ounce and platinum's average is just under $1,645 [...]