Gold Eagle Price

Most precious metals futures posted gains on Monday, the last trading day of 2018, and they all advanced on the month. Only palladium, however, scored an annual increase. Gold was the exception on... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

A donation of World War II paper money has been made by the International Coin Club of El Paso, Texas, to the USS Lexingon Museum in Corpus Christi, Texas. Notes displayed at the USS Lexington Museum in Corpus Christi, Texas, were donated by the International Coin Club of El Paso. This occurred at the suggestion of club president Jason Elwell. Back in the spring of 2018, while touring the World War II ship and viewing the many exhibits along its bulkheads, he noticed a few medals and a couple pieces of paper money on display. He snapped some pictures and later shared them at his local coin club meeting. Elwell suggested that it would be nice to donate some nice uncirculated examples of Japanese paper money to the museum. As part of an educational display, it would be a great way to show the connection between numismatics and history. A few weeks later, Lifetime Club Member David Chan (owner of El Paso Coins & Collectibles) donated several beautiful uncirculated Japanese pape...

What kind of organization do you want the American Numismatic Association to be? The question is timely. The year 2019 will witness the biennial election of officers and members of the ANA board of governors. The time for expressing opinions is now, especially since there is a competitive race for president between Don Kagin and Col. Steven Ellsworth. I am sure both will welcome input from all members and potential members. While you are thinking about the question of the future, it is a good idea to pause and reflect on where we have been. If there currently is an organization that reflects the popular opinions of the mass of coin collectors, it is the ANA. I say this because it has the largest membership, which is currently 25,000. In days gone by, the membership number has been larger, but I can say that about the circulation of Numismatic News and other periodicals in the field as well. Even in its heyday, the number of ANA members has been but a fraction of all coin coll...

Nearly three-dozen products from the United States Mint will go off-sale today, Dec. 31, at 11:59 p.m. ET. 2018 is the final year to buy several American Eagle gold and silver coins, a handful of... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Reverses of Palau’s silver $5 and gold $1 celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original Summer of Love. (Images courtesy CIT) November saw Liechtenstein’s Coin Invest Trust bring fond memories to those of us who experienced that 1967 “Summer of Love” in our teens and twenties. While the occasion may have been centered on San Francisco and being “Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair,” the countercultural phenomenon spread throughout North America and across the seas. To mark the 50th anniversary, albeit a little belatedly, two proof coins have been produced for Palau: a 38.61 mm, 1 oz .999 fine silver $5 and a 13.92 mm, 0.5 g .9999 fine gold $1. Mintages are 1,968 and 15,000, respectively. Both reverses show the international peace sign heavily decorated with flowers and that all-important word: Love. The flowers and symbols on the silver $5 are colored in a scheme reminiscent of tie-dye. On the smaller gold, they are plain but struck up using Big Gold Minting®. If your local ...

While considering the news of the past week, the one thing that sticks out is the press release from the Professional Numismatic Guild. The release touts the strength of the high-end, rare coin market with a throwaway line that notes there may trouble for the general collector. While prices declined during the year for some […]

In general, 2018 was a quiet year for the collectible coin market. Scarce to rare coins continued to sell well, but few were setting new records. Auction sales results suggest there is a hungry market of collectors and dealers interested in these coins, but it also suggests these buyers are not comfortable in bidding these collectibles to new levels. The broader market of collectible coins continued to be a mixed bag throughout the year. Anyone willing to shop around would have found coins of the same date and mintmark, graded identically by the same third-party certification service, occasionally selling for very different prices. Some dealers might argue the eye appeal of one may be greater than for another, but overall like coins simply didn’t always sell within the perhaps 10 to 15 percent price discrepancy range that is usually anticipated. The retail price of many coins appears to have been determined by the price the dealer paid to stock the coin rather than by following a pub...

Listening to other collectors and dealers at a coin club meeting, I came away confused. They were talking about rims, edges, and collars as if they all meant the same thing. Do they? The three terms each have differing meanings. The difference is this: the rim of a coin is the raised circular ridge surrounding the field and ending at the outside diameter of the piece. The edge of a coin is the surface at right angles to the to the obverse and reverse of the coin, running around the outside diameter of the piece. The edge is often reeded. The collar is a metal plate, part of the coin press, that contains a hole the size of the intended coin. It fits around the anvil die and contains the planchet metal as it flows outward as the dies strike it, giving it the nice round shape.   Are there any coins with multiple flat edges that have edge inscriptions? Undoubtedly there are foreign coins, but a U.S. example would be the Augustus Humbert $50 slugs that were octagons (eight sides) wi...

Appearing at public auction for the first time since 1997 is one of five examples of the 1885 Trade dollar that will be offered by Heritage Auctions Jan. 11, 2019, at the Florida United Numismatists convention in Orlando. How many millions of dollars will it take for a buyer to walk away on Jan. 11, 2019, with an 1885 Trade dollar that will highlight Heritage Auctions’ Florida United Numismatists convention sale? The firm notes that this PR66 coin had sold in a private-treaty transaction in 2006 for $3.3 million. There are only five examples of this rarity known to collectors. Records are non-existant, but Heritage speculates it was probably struck between January and June 1885 before a crackdown occurred at the Mint on sales of patterns and restrikes. No one knows whether this coin was struck legitimately or clandestinely. It is as rare as a 1913 Liberty Head nickel and as mysterious. It has a stellar pedigree, with previous owners including Louis E. Eliasberg Sr., the Baltimore...

With a significant anniversary coming up, it is not surprising that everybody wants to get in on the act. The anniversary is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The new entrant commemorating this historical milestone is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. It has created three prints. These are called the Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Commemorative Engraved Print Collection. Sales begin Dec. 20 at noon Eastern Time. The first card will ship the week of Jan. 21, 2019. The second print will be sent in the spring. The third card will go out to buyers in the summer. “Mission” is the first print. According to the BEP, “this print is symbolic of the United States Space Program’s mission leading up to the first manned moon landing and features an embossing of the Apollo 11 and the lunar surface, with an engraving of President John F. Kennedy and the inscription, ‘We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because th...

They say news travels fast. It does. This is especially true in the age of the Internet. But as fast as it spreads, it still misses many of its targets. I have had multiple inquiries in the last few days regarding whether the new American Innovation dollars will be available in circulation. The new dollar will not be available in circulation, but that part of the story is something I have apparently not stressed enough. Getting reader feedback helps me learn where I haven’t provided enough depth. The American Innovation dollar is a collector-only program. The Mint will sell these coins directly to you. The coins will not be available from the banking system. I am sure that will disappoint many who would look forward to getting each of the 57 designs for face value. Instead, they will have to purchase these coins by the 25-coin roll or 100-coin bag and pay the Mint’s price to get them. The first of these new designs became available Dec. 14, 2018. A 25-coin roll is priced at $32....

1. Canceled – Defaced NGC Certification Fee: $20 Defaced dies have had their designs completely removed. While the design has been destroyed, it is usually possible to determine the denomination of the die by the diameter of the face and markings on the shaft or base. Fully defaced dies from the U.S. Mint are relatively easy to find today, as many were sold to collectors in the late 1990s and early 2000s. What won’t they slab next? Numismatic Guaranty Corporation is now certifying and encapsulating canceled coin, token, and medal dies. You can’t say NGC is resting on its past laurels. New ideas equal new markets. New markets mean additional revenue. Fred Weinberg, an error coin expert and dealer in dies, has already endorsed this new service. He sees great value in it. “NGC has invented a solution to market the quantity of official U.S. Mint defaced coin dies that I own,” he said. “Now, instead of just looking like a nice paperweight, the NGC encapsulation helps display all s...

Precious metals futures ended mixed Friday but they all advanced on the week. Gold and silver drove their session gains to four straight. Both also marked fresh multi-month highs. Gold for February... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

What sort of yardstick should we use to measure the success of the new American Innovation $1 coin? If we look at sales of 100-coin bags, the new dollar has begun with a bang. The combined Philadelphia-Denver total nearly equals the 2018 Native American dollar 100-coin bag total. This near equality was achieved in just a few days. But before we dream of high demand and rapid sales, if you look at the 25-coin roll sales, the comparison goes very much against the Innovation dollar, 8,965 to 29,988 for the Native American dollar. Let’s see how things shake out in the coming weeks. The American Innovation $1 proof set, which is just one S-mint coin, has a sales total of 73,398. That’s not a bad start, but it also doesn’t set collector hearts aflutter. The Mint has chosen not to sell the 250-coin boxes of the new dollar coin. That could set us up for surprise rarity for the design a year or two from now.   This article was originally printed in Numismatic News Express . >> S...

From the Dec. 21 Numismatic News E-Newsletter: Do autographs of governmental officials on slab labels increase coin values? Here are some answers sent from our e-newsletter readers to Editor Dave Harper.   Only to members of the officials’ families. The rest of us couldn’t care less about these computer-produced “autographs.” Even original signatures on the slabs would have no value whatsoever. Rick Anderson Tucson, Ariz.   Autographs of government officials on slabs won’t increase the value of the coin itself. It may increase the value of the slab with the coin in it. John Anschutz Sterling, Ill.   No. Buy the coin, not the slab. Mike Roman Allen Park, Mich.   When Frank A Leach signs a slab label, I will think about it. I do not see any value in having government officials or sports stars sign the label. I try to purchase the coin, not the window dressing. I don’t mind if others like the signed labels. We all have separate things we enjoy. Let that...

By Mark Benvenuto When it comes to serious coin collecting, and assembling collections that ought to go up in value over the course of years and decades, many collectors think of gold. There are certainly some beautiful pieces and beautiful series that have been struck in gold. The metal takes a design very well and often strikes up easily with sharp details. But the downside of gold is, and probably always will be, the price. It isn’t the king of metals for no reason. Let’s see, though, whether gold has earned its “high priced” reputation or whether some of that is no more than hype. In other words, let’s see if there might be some gold coins and series we can collect without flattening our wallets thinner than the proverbial pancake. Here, for your consideration, are five areas you might want to look at when it comes to affordable gold.   Not all Liberty Head $5 gold pieces are rare. First, the Liberty Head Half Eagles A few different series are called classic United Stat...

Go, go, go, gold. Can I be right and wrong at the same time? Incredibly, the answer could be yes. In my Dec. 18, 2018, blog I confessed that it looked like my forecast for gold was going to be wrong. It closed 2017 at $1,306.30 a ounce. My forecast for this year was it would rise some more. This prediction looked bleak less than two weeks ago. But the precious metal has been on a tear ever since. It has gained about $30 since I wrote my mea culpa. Where it was skittering along at under $1,250, this morning the Kitco website says gold is $1,277.70. That is less than $30 away from where it began 2018. More importantly in the wild and crazy financial market times we are living in, a $30 gain between now and the close of business Dec. 31 is entirely possible. It is unlikely, true, but looking much more doable than it did on Dec. 18. Certainly what has occurred in recent days makes me wish I had placed my order for 2019 gold American Eagles in advance on the APMEX website when ...