Explosive Morning For Precious Metals

All four of the precious metals we numismatists follow regularly are exploding with investor demand this morning. Buying is skyrocketing on concern over possible shortages of gold, anticipation of tough economic times on the horizon and a desire to secure a solid inflation hedge with a position in the currently ultrapopular commodity.

New record highs were established this morning for Gold at $919 and Platinum near $1690. Silver and Palladium are not far behind, with spot prices riding at nearly $16.50 and $380 respectively, at the time of this posting.

Tom's Recommended Film of the Week

I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry

I Watch a lot of movies. If a new release looks interesting I'll watch it eventually. Sometimes I don't expect much, sometimes I'm anticipating too much. That colors my post viewing opinion of a film. For instance, when I watched Stuck on You, I thought it would be pretty bad, so when it was really well done I was most impressed. On the other hand I was anxiously anticipating a good film when I watched Smokin' Aces, so my dissappointment mas multiplyed by a factor of my anticipation when the film fell flat.

This weeks film, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, was one of those films I didn't expect too much from. I like Adam Sandler very much in most of his films, and being an Everybody Loves Raymond fan, I think Kevin James has been wonderful on his TV stints on that show and his own show, The King of Queens. They created my interest in this film, but I expected the writing to take the low road and go for the cheap laughs without offering any higher elements. Never-the-less it seemed worth a try.

Lucky for me the writing team included Alexander Payne, who wrote and directed two of my favorite edgy humor films, Election and Sideways. Payne was an excellent choice to create a film with heart and outstanding humor. So I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry was a pleasant surpirse, with compassion and plenty of big laughs to keep any viewer interested and entertained.

Fire at RCM in Winnipeg

The Royal Canadian Mint facility in Winnipeg experienced a fire early Sunday evening which caused about $300,000 in damage. Fire officials think the cause may have been an electrical short near an electroplating vat.

In terms of building I think that Winnipeg may be the more current of the two mint plants operated by the RCM, having been built in the mid 1970's and opened in 1976. Ottawa may be an older building dating back to 1908, but I think it has more high tech equipement in use today, as it stikes the majority of commemorative coins, while Winnipeg does the circulation issues, using modern highspeed equipment.

This is at least the third fire at the Winnipeg plant of the RCM since 2005. A fire in 2007 closed down the coin plating line. Problems with sprinkler installation have been a sore point for the RCM and were at the root of the second fire.

Visitors can get a tour of the Winnipeg manufacturing plant for $5.00, though I am not sure how this fire might effect that option. The RCM Headquarters at Ottawa can also be toured for the same price. Seeing that the RCM tends to be an innovator in the world of commemorative coinage, touring their facilities might be well worthy of a summer trip.

UBS Offers High Grade Crowns in Basel

UBS is set to auction The "Peak Collection" on January 22nd next week, as their Auction 74. The sale contains over 800 lots of choice blazing and toned coins, most struck in silver and a smattering of coppers, but primarily Crown sized pieces.

There are lots respresenting most parts of the world in this sale and many of the Crowns offered are quite seldom seen in this quality. It's a grand opportunity to add coins with great eye appeal to your collection. Check out this offering at the UBS website.

Personally, I centered in on four individual coins which are seldom offered. The first is a pattern Florin of 1848 for Great Britain cataloged at lot 438. The reverse of this pattern is denominatied three times, as 100 Milles, One Centum and One Tenth of a Pound. Most unusual, as well as being quite a rare Victoria pattern.

Russian crowns are well represented in this sale, as might be expected, but the Russian occupation coins of Poland are what caught my attention. Both lots 574 an 575 will be sought after by both Polish and Russian collectors. They offer the 10Zloty - 1 1/2 Rubel of 1837 and the 5 Zloty - 3/4 Rubel of 1841 and should realize strong bids above their pre-sale estimates.

Pretender coins can be found scattered through this auction as well. I noticed some of the scarce French Pretender pieces of Henri V as well as a wonderful Charles VII 5 Pesetas of 1874 in the Spanish listings. We list this coin in our Unusual World Coins catalog as an X#PT4, but I see that our image is incorrect, so perhaps we will be able to replace it with this lovely image from the UBS sale.

Just a few days ago I had a nice conversation with a friend and contrbiutor who specializes in pattern coinage of the world. He had purchased a few items at the NYINC and I mentioned that there were a few interesting patterns coming up for sale in some of the auctions I was writing up for these January blog postings. He informed me that Heriagte was distributing a pre-auction flyer at NYINC promoting an upcoming sale devoted to Pattern Coins of the World. I am anxious to see a catalog for this sale, it should be a very notable event and well worth shelf space for any world coin collector.

In the meantime however, I'll finish this posting by mentioning the fourth coin which caught my eye in the UBS Auction 74. It is a French pattern Ecu de Calonne struck at Paris in 1786. A lovely design and well worth a pattern collectors attention.

Coin Vignette Collection Thrills

One smaller catalog on my pile of January NYINC satellite sales presents the Lawrence R. Stack Collection of numismatic images on american paper currencies. This is a great catalog for just perusing through. It is almost certain that any numismatist will find something of personal interest in this sale and I would venture to guess that most will also want to add this auction catalog to their library for future reference. The introduction by Stephen Goldsmith is wonderful and includes blow-ups of select vignettes.

This sale includes just about any piece of paper money which displays an image of a coin and there examples from almost every state and territory, plus Canada. Many areas of paper money and financial document collecting are represented, including; Colonial, Obsolete, Scrip, private issue, Bank issue, Municipal issue, chits, advertising notes, saterical notes, Federal Currency, National Gold Bank Notes, bonds, plus some printing plates, die proofs and rollers. Most of the vignettes represent either United States or Spanish coinage, which would have been in circulation at the time.

My personal favorite is an advertising chit from Chicago listed as lot 4451. Printed in green on thin cardboard, this two sided piece is good for one dime plant at Pool's Dime Garden at 97 Oakley Street. Looks like you had to spend a dollar in order to redeem your dime, but still a good deal. This is the only example of this chit I have ever seen and it represents a very nice piece of Chicago ephemera.

Great Gold Rarities in Kroisos Collection

What better timing could Stack's ask for in the launching of their January 14th Kroisos Collection auction? Spot gold hit an all time high just a few hours before this massive collection of premium gold coins began crossing the block.

But aside from creating additional media interest, spot may have little influence on many of the Kroisos coins, as they are way above much of any relation to bullion.

Key groups in this sale include; a fantastic run of Russian historical medals mostly struck in gold, a great run of imperial Russian silver coins, plus two sacrce copper plate money pieces of Catherine I, some great seige pieces and patterns are scattered throughout this sale, including a unique gold siege Ducat from the 1572 siege of Haarlem and the unique Leipzig siege 2 Ducats of 1547 and the unique Magdeburg siege 2 Ducats of 1551, an outstanding selection of  Italian gold coinage, a great run of British gold and silver coins, classic German States gold coins galore, some very scarce French gold coins such as the 1555 Henri II piefort struck to the weight of an 8 Henri d'Or, scarce Austrain and Austrain States gold coins, a rare Albanian presentation set from 1927, a good selection of Swiss cabnton gold pieces, another grouping of steel engraved plates and cylinders from the American Bank Note Company archives, several groups of orders and decorations, many rare Latin American gold coins and a treasure trove of individual pieces from various countries around the world.

Coins of special interest to me included lot 2967, the wonderful Ormonde Pistole from the Great Rebellion. One of only two in private hands, the other example sold at Whyte's Millennial Collection sale in April 2000 for about $135,650 and resold through Spinks in 2006 for about $118,600. Stack's conservatively estimates this example slightly below those figures and I will be anxious to see it's closing figure.

Also of great interest to me is lot 3524 the 1870 gold pattern 1 Doblon of Uruguay. It's unique struck in gold and I do not have a modern price reference for our catalog, as this piece has not surfaced since the 1940's. On a personal note I will also be looking to see what lot 3511, the cut and countermarked 4 Pesos Fuertes of Paraguay sells for, as I was lucky enough to examine this coin some number of years ago through the kindness of a good friend in numismatics.

Fabulous Reference Catalog for Ancient Greece

In addition to being a great opportunity to spend copious amounts of money on rare and artistic Ancient Greek coinage, the Lawrence R. Stack Collection sale set for January 14th is also a choice catalog to retain in your ancient coin reference library. Fully color illustrated with large spot glossy images, this catalog offers both solid attribution and interesting historical background for every coin offered. Held in conjunction with The Kroisos Collection of world coins this pair of auctions will bring a blast of much needed new material to the coin market.

Even if you do not collect Ancient Greek, you might want to pick up the Lawrence Stack catalog to further your familiarity with the artistry and beauty of classical Greek coinage. If you do collect these coins, there will be opportunites to expand your collection within this sale, so check it out quickly at the Stack's website today. Tomorrow we will write a posting for the Kroisos sale, but don't wait for our review, you can view lots for this sale at the Stack's site also.

Groups which caught my attention in this sale included a great run of coins from Carthage whose use of Horses in thier designs is lovely and a long run of animal themed Sicilian Didrachm and Tetradrachm.

Individual coins of high significance included lots 2034 and 2035, both Staters of Sybaris, Lucania from 453-448 B.C. and each formerly unpublished and unique. I was also taken aback by the magnificents of lot 2132, a Syracuse gold Dekadrachm in fabulous shape, of wonderful design and only the second known specimen, as well as the highly desireable and extremely rare gold Stater of Ptolemy I struck at Kyrene and designed to identify Ptolemy with the empire of Alexander the Great. The use of elephants on the reverse design is stunning on this Egyptian rarity.