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Bowers on collecting: The objects of coin collecting

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Royal Mint Partners with NGC to Offer Certified UK Coins

The Royal Mint, the official mint of the United Kingdom, has partnered with Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), the world's largest third-party coin grading service. For the first time, The Royal... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Heritage Readies Long Beach Paper Money Auction

By Tracy Schmidt  There are many spectacular notes in Heritage’s upcoming Long Beach auction. The top five I will be keeping an eye on are notes of exceptional quality. I look forward to sharing the auction results with you next month. The first note is Lot 20637, a $10,000 1934 Federal Reserve Note PMG-graded Unc. 66 EPQ. According to Heritage, the note is one of just three $10,000s certified by PMG at this level for all series and districts. Having perfect centering, ideal colors, and excellent eye appeal, it should be a great performer. The note is projected to exceed its estimate of $200,000-$300,000. At the time of writing, the note has 13 bids and registered phone bidders; the lot tracking activity stands at 94, and there have been 3,010 page views. Lot 20637 is this $10,000 1934 Federal Reserve Note with signatures of Julien and Morgenthau. (Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions) The second note I am tracking is Lot 20635, a $5,000 1934 Federal Reserve Note graded Very C...

Record High Gold Price?

This week, the price of gold reached an all-time high price against the U.S. dollar. It closed Wednesday this week on the COMEX at $1,953.50 per troy ounce, well above even intraday gold prices during the previous peak in September 2011. Gold had previously set all-time high record prices against almost every other world currency last week. However, this record-high gold price needs to be noted with an asterisk. The reason the asterisk is needed is that the value of the U.S. dollar itself has declined over the years. As a consequence, the price of gold this week, if compared to a U.S. dollar of consistent purchasing power, is lower than the previous peak price in September 2011 of about $1,924 and even further below the January 1980 peak of about $850. To give you some idea of the instability of the value of the U.S. dollar, just compare the M2 definition of the U.S. money supply, courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: January 1980:      ...