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 Friday, December 04, 2009
Proof platinum discount
Posted by Dave
Yes, I am trying to be funny with my headline. I do know that one-ounce proof platinum American Eagles are very expensive.
However, if you look at them from the perspective of the spring of 2008, current prices seem much more reasonable. Platinum over $2,400 sounds more like a forecast than something that was a fact not all that long ago.
We can thank the economic crisis and the drastic decline in car sales this year as contributing to the current lower price of platinum.
This points up a dichotomy. Sometimes we think about platinum as a precious metal. Sometimes we think about it as an industrial metal used in catalytic converters.
Collectors, of course, are just looking at the potential scarcity and the possibility of riding the current wave of buying anything than seems to be a good bet to appeal to the investment crowd.
Pity the poor Mint trying to figure out how we all think.
Friday, December 04, 2009 1:51:41 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00) 
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Thursday, December 03, 2009
Fractionals get full attention
Posted by Dave
Today is the day the Mint has scheduled to sell fractional American Eagle gold coins. Will there be any left by evening?
Buyers who might have been inclined to ignore the issue as a bullion investment, might simply look at them as a port in the storm because they are having trouble buying one-ounce pieces.
Collectors might jump in to buy them from their friendly neighborhood coin dealer on the expectation that mintages will probably not be all that high.
That will ignore the fact that fractional mintages are not all that high in other years where they were available for much, if not most of the year.
Last year’s 50,000 half-ounce sales matched the level of 2007. The 58,000 quarter-ounce coin sales were up from 32,000 in 2007. The tenth-ounce total of 270,000 was up from 180,000 in 2007.
But whatever numbers of 2009 coins the Mint will be able to sell, they will seem so very low in light of a sense that there might not be enough to go around.
Thursday, December 03, 2009 2:05:24 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009
How much is that in euros?
Posted by Dave
While gold has been the exciting headline maker in recent days and weeks, the value of the European euro currency has been moving steadily higher.
It popped over the $1.50 mark, where it is easy to make conversions from dollars to euros by doing the math in my head.
I am thinking in euros again as staff here make preparations to go to the World Money Fair in Berlin, the capital of Germany, at the end of January 2010.
Earlier this year when I was doing my expense reports after the 2009 World Money Fair in February, the euro was at almost the same price, give or take a few percent.
It seems weird to think that with all the fluctuation that has occurred since February that we are looking at a price that has hardly moved.
I’m not complaining, mind. I am sure the accounting department won’t complain either if our costs at the 2010 show come in at a similar level to the 2009 show.
If the euro remains about where it is now, there probably won’t be a headline Jan. 1 saying, “Euro ends year where it began.” That would be boring.
Instead, the focus will stay on gold. That’s more fun.
Wednesday, December 02, 2009 1:53:42 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Collector life goes on
Posted by Dave
Believe it or not, I still get collector e-mails and phone calls during periods of extreme precious metal volatility.
But these calls can take on a peculiar nature.
One call in the past week was from a fellow who said he was within driving distance of Phoenix, Ariz. He said he had an 1804 dollar.
I told him about Chinese fakes. I mentioned that all 15 genuine pieces were accounted for.
He replied it couldn’t be a Chinese fake because he had had it for 25 years.
Well, he had me there.
My reply was to say that even if he told me his grandmother had had it for 100 years, it was still likely a fake.
I suggested he have a grading service or a dealer take a look at it.
That’s when he mentioned Phoenix.
I hope it is not a busy day in whatever Phoenix shop he chooses to visit to show them his 1804 dollar.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009 2:37:25 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Shortage of Eagles occurs again
Posted by Dave
Last Friday I wrote that Krugerrands were in short supply on the American bullion coin market and asked how long it would be before high demand overwhelms the U.S. Mint’s ability to delivery gold and silver American Eagle bullion coins.
According to Pat Heller, that point seems to have been reached. The Mint has told the market it cannot supply gold and silver American Eagles.
The Mint says it is still striking them, according to the memo that outlined what it was doing that I wrote about on Monday. It expects to have some new supply of the silver American Eagles in early December and West Point is working to supply additional 2009 gold American Eagles also.
Obviously, market conditions are changing fast.
On a happy note, South Africa has been shipping in more Krugerrands and supplies are loosening up.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 5:17:47 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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A little gold bother, but a lot of profit
Posted by Dave
It has been a truism in the hobby that if you are going to invest in gold, take delivery.
In the 1980s collectors were given a lesson in the importance of heeding this advice when a Florida firm that encouraged its gold buyers to leave the metal with them for safe storage went broke and left behind wooden blocks painted gold as assets.
Obviously, the investors did not make out well.
What to do with the gold itself then becomes a problem. Hiding it under the mattress opens up the owner to theft. Often, the coins end up in bank safe deposit boxes, or in a designated bonded storage facility.
One of these warehouses, located in New York City and run by HSBC bank has told its individual clients to clear out their gold because they want to use the vault for more lucrative institutional clients, according the a Wall Street Journal story yesterday.
Obviously, the gold in the vault is safe, but it becomes vulnerable in the transfer process. This is an inconvenience to the owners.
What’s a gold buyer to do? The most important thing to do is stay mentally engaged with the investment, hire a reputable transfer agent and get on with life.
Is that a bad thing? Not really.
It might be tempting to consider gold as a "buy it and forget it" investment decision. However, every investment should be reviewed regularly.
In the Florida case, the bother of handling the gold was removed from the shoulders of the clients, but as it turned out, the gold was removed, too.
A little bother seems to be a good thing
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 2:09:43 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Clock ticks down to order deadline
Posted by Dave
The approach of the end of the year means it is fish or cut bait time for collectors.
The U.S. Mint has a new Web page called Last Opportunity. It can be reached on the site at http://www.usmint.gov. Then go to Shop Online.
Collectors will have to decide by Dec. 3 whether they want to buy the proof or uncirculated Martin Van Buren First Spouse series gold coins.
By Dec. 11 they will need to decide whether to buy any of the sales options pertaining to the Braille commemorative silver dollar.
Still more products go off sale at the end of December.
The calculus involves whether or not the collector wants the coins in the first place, but there will be a close study given to sales numbers.
Do you want to buy a proof Braille dollar? Sales so far are 131,726. That number is on the low side, but it is a middle of the road kind of low rather than a sit up straight in your chair kind of low.
I doubt there will be much of a rush to buy.
The same is true with the 47,728 uncirculated coin number.
The Easy-Open Capsule option and the Braille Education Set are at 22,208 and 9,636, respectively. As a gamble on being able to sell packaging rarity rather than coin rarity, the Education Set is a possibility. But is it a possibility worth the risk?
That is the question that must be answered before these issues go off sale Dec. 11.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 2:05:02 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Monday, November 23, 2009
Feed your inner gold frenzy
Posted by Dave
The Mint issued a memo Friday to its authorized bullion coin purchasers.
What it says is another manifestation of the unusual year we have been seeing in the bullion coin market.
The Mint says it will be selling 2009-dated bullion coins until the end of the calendar year.
Buyers who are looking for a supply will undoubtedly be pleased at the information, because in most years the memo tells buyers what part of early December the Mint expects to run out of the coins of the current year.
Also announced in the memo is the Mint’s intention to begin striking the 2010 coins in January 2010. This virtually guarantees continuing tight supplies.
In normal years, production begins before the change of the calendar year and orders for the next year’s coins are taken just prior to New Year’s and delivered just afterwards.
This procedure helped the Mint meet the seasonal bulge in bullion coin demand. During the first month a lot of buyers simply want to get the new date and it is more a coin collecting phenomenon than a bullion investment phenomenon.
The Mint will now face this higher seasonal demand and the continuing high investor demand with less of a running start than usual.
Short of a sudden large loss in precious metals prices, it would seem that with this new wrinkle buyers will again sense tightening supplies. This is like blood in the water for sharks. It further stokes the demand frenzy.
Monday, November 23, 2009 2:03:23 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Friday, November 20, 2009
Gold bullion coin shortages again?
Posted by Dave
Word arrived yesterday from Pat Heller of Liberty Coin Service that supplies of gold South African Krugerrands for immediate delivery have run out in the United States.
How long this situation will last is the first question that comes to mind. Surely more coins will be shipped from South Africa to help meet the current demand. We don’t know how long it will take and whether it will be enough.
Also, is this the canary in the coal mind?
Will the world’s more popular bullion coins, the American Eagle, the Canadian Maple Leaf and the Austrian Philharmonic also run short?
Last year the U.S. Mint had to ration gold coin supplies because it couldn’t buy enough blanks to meet demand. It does not produce its own.
The situation improved in June when the rationing ended. However, in recent weeks with new record gold prices, the coin buying gold investors seem to be trying to purchase larger quantities.
Can the Mint meet this demand or will rationing once again return?
Fractional Eagles are due to be offered Dec. 3. Will the Mint’s cupboards be stripped quickly?
Sure, I have more questions this morning than answers, but some days that’s the way it goes.
Thanks, Pat for the quick report on the situation.
Friday, November 20, 2009 2:05:09 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Thursday, November 19, 2009
Will we all live happily ever after?
Posted by Dave
Sometimes there are happy endings. Silver Spring, Md., dealer Julian Leidman said yesterday that much of the inventory that was stolen from his parked vehicle Oct. 11 has been recovered.
All this transpired because the hobby community quickly rallied to his support to get the word out about the theft, what was taken and create an award fund to help find, try and convict the perpetrators.
A tip from an East Coast dealer to Leidman led to the major recoveries, two so far and possibly more to come.
This is numismatics at its best. The nation’s dealers rallied to support a colleague with a reward fund that is well over $160,000.
There is more to come in this story, but for the moment it is simply a good idea to ponder what seems to be a happy ending and try to reinforce behaviors that lead to them, or better yet, to not having a problem develop in the first place.
Thursday, November 19, 2009 2:00:07 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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