Two Key Books on Clearance at Krause Publications

There are two bargain priced books out on the KP book site at the moment which might be of interest if you are building a broad numismatic library on a tight budget.

The first is a specialty book we produced in 2006 titled Coins of Northern Europe & Russia. This is a handy little catalog printed in the 6"x9" format, good for travel  and quick reference. I covers a slew of countries including Russia, Sweden, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, Iceland, Greenland, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Ireland, and many others. Time fram is staggered, but the idea was to cover from 1850 or earlier up to present date. Some countries listings go back as far as the 1820's and some of the Pobjoy countries like Isle of Man or Guernsey end at the early 1970's. We tried to stay with clear breaking points which coinsided with currency reforms, government or coinage type changes. Most types are illustrated, but individula dates are not strung out as in the larger Standadr Catalogs. For this handy book we chose to list date ranges and select a base array of prices by grade, giving the reader a baseline price guide by type.

At the KP book site this volume is currently less than half cover price at $12.00. A baragin price for such a compact and useful price guide.

The second title worth looking up is the current 19th Century Standard Catalog of World Coins, which has been reduced from $65.00 to $55.00 for the moment. If you do not yet have a copy of this 5th edition covering 1801-1900, why not pick one up this week. 

High Silver Spot Requires Raise in Balboa Sets

Yesterday I had a call from Standard Catalog contributor Peter N. Berger in Panama. Peter had gotten his new 36th edition Standard Catalog of World Coins and was searching through the DVD listings for Panama when he noticed that some of the proof set prices seemed too low. With the rise in spot silver, some of the 1 Balboa and 5 Balboa silver proof values had slipped a bit below current melt pulling the set values down with them.

We talked a little about the DVD, which Peter found pretty useful, and about how we would correct the 1 & 5 Balboa listings and the sets out on NumisMaster. I explained to Peter that since the catalog becomes a fixed entity once our designer runs the pages, NumisMaster has become an ideal and essential spot to keep current prices updated and available to collectors and dealers alike. Peter had yet to try NumisMaster, but I think after our conversation he will be signing up soon. The new all encompassing $79.95 one year subscription price, covering 1601-Date for all world coinage, is a great price and Peter thought it sounded like a real bargain.

After hanging up the phone I took an hour or so to enter all the updates for the silver 1 & 5 Balboas in Panama and then I updated all the proof and mint set listings to reflect current values. Stop by NumisMaster and check it out. There's always new data, new issues, new values and updates being entered, making NumisMaster a vital tool for world coin collectors.

Comment That Gold Could Reach $5,000 an Ounce

I've read a lot of forcasts, predictions and ramblings on the future of gold. I've heard reasonable predictions of $1,000 an ounce, futuristic impressions of $2,000 an ounce and now a mathematical fiction of $5,000 an ounce based on limited available quantites and the anticipation of skyrocketing demand in the face of raging inflation.

Yes, $5,000 an ounce as a possible future for gold through the eyes of Christopher Wyke of Schroder Investment Management Ltd., a very large global investment firm. Of course you should consider that Wyke was busy promoting Schroder's new Alternative Solutions Gold and Metals Fund at a conference in Hong Kong when he made these statements. As a promotional urging it certainly did get Wyke and Schroder plenty of investment community and Internet buzz, which may be worth much more than $5,000 an ounce to their new fund.

Todays $5,000 an ounce remark is certainly a large revision of Wyke's March 2, 2008 comments in a TimeOnline interview, where he said that "Gold could reach $1,200 a troy ounce or even $1,500". But conditions are always changing and new information comes to light every day, so who knows, maybe a 330% increase in ones forecast over a 3.5 month period is reasonable. Or maybe within context Wyke was talking about a more distant future, one which I will never expect to see.