Forfeiture of 1933 Gold $20s Sought

Trying a new tack, the U.S. government has brought a civil forfeiture suit seeking title to 10 1933 $20 gold pieces from the estate of Israel Switt, the Philadelphia jeweler and part-time coin dealer to whom all known specimens of the coin previously seized by the government in the 1940s were tied by pedigree.

Pursuit of the 10 coins in this manner by the government was required after a July 28 ruling by Philadelphia U.S. District Court Judge Legrome Davis in which the descendants of Switt, his daughter Joan Langbord and her two adult sons, sued the government for failure to return the rarities that they gave to the U.S. Mint to authenticate.

New York litigator Barry Berke argued on behalf of the family before Judge Davis that the Mint should bear the burden of proving that the coin was illegal and could not be privately owned. In a remarkable decision, Judge Davis, agreed.

The new civil forfeiture suit is the government response. It calls for a declaratory judgment that the King Farouk 1933 $20, which sold at auction in 2002 for $7.59 million under a consent agreement between the Mint and another Berke client, London coin dealer Stephen Fenton, to be declared the only legal specimen that can be privately owned.

It is anticipated that there will be months of legal wrangling before resolution, and given the stakes, the inevitable appeals, with the government claiming the coins could not have left the Mint because FDR nationalized gold and banned private gold coin and bullion ownership, and Berke on behalf of the Langbord family claiming that the coins were properly exchanged and entered into the stream of commerce as lawful legal tender.
Source: numismaster.com

Note found in antique chair spurs treasure hunt

Patty Henken always thought she found great value in the rickety rocking chair when she plunked down US$200 for it at an auction, figuring she could restore the century-old relic to its former charm.

Doing that turned out to rock her world, sending her on a treasure hunt straight out of a mystery novel.

Five months after hauling the chair home last November, Henken spent hours in May prying the seat off it in her garage in Mount Sterling, Ill. A small envelope fluttered from it as she tossed the seat aside - "Finders Keepers" typewritten on it. Inside, a key was taped to a note.

"This DEXTER key (number sign) 50644T will unlock a lead chest," the note began, before spelling out a location in Springfield, Ill. - 1028 N. Fifth St. - where a chest containing more than US$250 in US gold coins supposedly was buried 12 feet below ground.

The stash, the note claimed, included eight US$20 gold pieces, six US$10 gold pieces, five US$5 gold pieces, three US$2 1/2 dollar gold pieces and two US$1 gold pieces.

The note, signed by a "Chauncey Wolcott", included a request to contact the Springfield newspaper if the chest was ever found. Henken finds that intriguing, thinking Wolcott perhaps has left a confession in the chest or "wants to give us an answer to an old mystery”.

For now, any treasure remains elusive. A search of the site - currently a vacant lot - with a donated backhoe last Sunday came up empty, though Henken pledges to be back at it this weekend.

Whatever the outcome, "it's the fact that there's a story there that's exciting", Henken, 48, said Wednesday from her hometown, where she works part-time as a window clerk at the post office.

The note at the crux of the mystery isn't dated - though its insistence that the chest "cannot be located by metal detector" suggests it could have been written anytime since about World War II, when the first practical metal detectors came to be.

At the supposed burial spot, the home on the lot was torn down many decades ago. The owners of the land - retired state corrections workers Dennis and Sharon Chrans - live next door and, at least initially, disregarded Henken's voicemail approaches as the workings of a telemarketer.

"We were sceptical all the way," Sharon Chrans recalled. But the couple eventually were swayed and met with Henken and her husband, hashing out a deal to split any costs of the dig - and the proceeds of whatever they found.

Henken's scouring of genealogy records and courthouse documents in Sangamon County, which includes Springfield, has offered no clues to anyone named Chauncey Wolcott. Dennis Chrans found no such name on his property's abstract.

Yet last Sunday, the dig began. A couple dozen folks showed up, many of them friends of the Henkens. Some brought lawn chairs, others drinks and snacks. A co-worker of Patty Henken's brought a toy magic wand they generally keep behind the counter at the post office, using it to change their attitude whenever a grumpy customer leaves.

"It was a happy event, a party-like atmosphere," Sharon Chrans said.

The women wanded the backhoe for luck, and the machine began clawing up earth and eventually turned up a cistern - something onlookers considered promising until it yielded only bricks and antique bottles. Elsewhere on the lot, the digging revealed a well too deep to really scrutinise despite their efforts to siphon out some water.

"Some people think it's still down there," Chrans said, speculating that if the booty really does exist, Wolcott knew what he was doing by leaving it in a lead box that wouldn't deteriorate.

Still, everyone accepts that it all could be a hoax. Henken isn't sweating that prospect, having lost plenty of far more relevance in recent years - a brother to brain cancer, a son in an Easter Sunday rollover crash and a nephew to leukaemia. One of her sisters died of breast cancer in 1990.

She admits the effort could be fruitless, much like the time in 1986 when TV host Geraldo Rivera and a demolition crew drew a worldwide television audience when they blasted away a 7,000-pound concrete wall of a basement chamber billed as 1930s gangster Al Capone's vault in Chicago's former Lexington Hotel. Even the Internal Revenue Service was on hand to lay claim to any cash or bullion - but all Rivera found was empty booze bottles and an old sign.

The Henkens expect to resume the dig Saturday, hoping with the Chranses that there's some resolution.

"I really don't have a gut feeling," Sharon Chrans said. "We just had to try once that information presents itself. You just can't leave it there with it just tempting you."

Henken isn't willing to let it die.

"There may not be a penny in it, but I want to finish this. I want to complete the task this note started," she said. Given the recent tragedies, "I don't have a lot of positives in my life. But this has kept me busy all summer, and nobody's going to dash this for me."

Source: 3news.co.nz

Central Bank To Take ¢5, ¢10 and ¢20 Coins Out Of Circulation

The Banco Central (Central Bank) has decided to make life a little easier in Costa Rica with the elimination the "plateado" (silver) ¢5, ¢10 and ¢20 coins.

The coins being removed from circulation are large and heavy silver coins, not to be confused with the smaller and lighter silver coins of the same denomination.

The Central Bank estimates there are some 146 million of the coins in circulation.

Marvin Alvarado, director of the Central Bank's treasury, said that the eliminatin of the three coins will simplify the coin system, having only one size coin for each denomination.

The smaller silver coins are the same at the gold coins of the same denomination and include braille for easy identfication by the blind.

Alvardao said merchants are asked to accept the coins but not put them back in circulation, handing them over to their local bank, which in turns hands them back to the Central Bank.

Currently there eleven (11) coins in circulation: ¢5 (two in silver and one in gold), ¢10 (two in silver and one in gold), ¢20, ¢25, ¢50, ¢100 and ¢500.
Source: insidecostarica.com

Impact of $1,000 gold positive but variable

Since gold jumped over the $1,000 mark Sept. 11, Kirk Kelly of the Coin Depot, Greenville, S.C., says his sales of the precious metal have increased dramatically.

“Our sales are up probably 50 percent,” he told Numismatic News Sept. 23.

“We’ve certainly seen an increase in the American Eagles and any of the bullion stuff.” He ticked off the Canadian Maple Leaf coins and the South African Krugerrands, too.

Kelly has noticed the decline in the premiums over bullion value in recent weeks as compared to last year and the early months of 2009.

“They are a fair amount cheaper,” he said of the gold coin premiums.

With silver trading over $17 a troy ounce, he said there is an “increase in silver purchases, too.”

People were buying “just about every which way you can buy.

“We’re selling a bunch of 100-ounce bars. We’ve sold out of 10-ounce bars.”

He noted he was also selling 5-ounce and 1-ounce bars.

Demand for $1,000 face value bags of 90 percent silver U.S. coins was also higher, he said.

One reason perhaps is premiums on the bags are also down.

“Oh yeah, 90 percent, it’s a cheap premium now. It’s just a little over melt,” Kelly observed.

How about people selling precious metals back to him at the current high prices?

“We’ve seen an uptick in that. It hasn’t been as dramatic as our sales,” Kelly said.

Where will gold be in the future?

“Well over the next week or two it could go almost anywhere. The IMF is thinking about selling off some of their gold. There are a lot of little things in the market that could affect it.”

Kelly was more comfortable talking about the more distant future.

“Six months or a year out it will be higher,” he predicted.

Glenn Malone of Glenn’s Coin Shop in Downey, Calif., said his view at street level is the opposite of Kelly’s experience.

“Now everybody is on the waiting deal hoping it will go back down. Now they are on the fence,” he explained.

In his shop he does not do that much in gold sales. He explained that margins for him work out to $10-$20 on a $1,000 coin.

“It’s really not a lot of fun messing with it,” Malone said.

However, meat and potato collector coin sales are doing well, he pointed out.

“There are just an awful lot of people buying coins,” he explained.

Why might that be?

People are “not making a lot of money in the bank.”

As an alternative to getting almost no interest, Malone said collectors are “filling in collections with better coins and upgrading.”

He cited an example of a customer who saw his ad in Numismatic News. He visited the shop and bought $1,000 in BU quarters.

“He liked the grades and took them,” Malone said.

Gold may have jumped, but business at American Precious Metals Exchange in Edmund, Okla., has not.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say there’s been a jump. It’s been steady,” said Scott Thomas of APMX.

“Some say it is time to sell, but there are equal amounts of people buying,” he said. “There are plenty of both.”

In addition to the popular bullion coins, Thomas said the pre-1933 gold is selling “very well.”

The year 1933 saw the end of regular American gold coinage as the United States left the gold standard.

Thomas also concurred with the view that demand for 90 percent silver bags is strong.

“We’re selling a lot of bags of 90,” Thomas said. “The silver American Eagles are always good sellers. We sell a ton of those.”

When asked if he wanted to make a forecast about gold’s future price, Thomas replied, “No, I don’t think so.

“To be honest with you, we’ve been at this number before. I think this stimulus plan has helped to settle everything down. The run now is due to inflation fears. If the fear of inflation goes away, gold will go back down.”

If inflation fears prove true, Thomas forecast that gold “could easily go up.”

Gold over $1,000 obviously has gotten the attention of many people. What they do in light of this new price level seems not effectively to have become a pattern.
Source: numismaticnews.net

Gold coins at rebate prices

Despite the soaring prices of gold, here's some reason to feel good for all the government officials, who are willing to purchase gold
coins this festive season.

For the ongoing festive month, the Post Office department has launched a scheme to give a rebate of 6 per cent on the purchase of gold coin from September 24 till October 24 to all the government officials.

Besides this, a scheme for general customers was also launched where 0.5 gram gold would be given free to all those who would purchase 10 gram gold from the post office. Krishna Kumar Yadav, chief postmaster said, "To avail this scheme, the customers are required to buy two coins of 5 gm each or a single coin of 8 gm or two coins of 1 gm each. Out of these two schemes a customer can only opt for one."

Notably, all across the country the Indian Postal Department along with a private financial firm is selling 24 carat gold coins to all the post offices. In Kanpur, GPO is the sole service provider of this scheme.

The chief postmaster also mentioned that the gold coins of weight 0.5 gm, 1 gm, 5 gm and 8 gm are available in post office. These gold coins are manufactured by Valcambi Switzerland and are 99.99 per cent pure. To beautify them, they are also packed in silver cover. The GPO has already earned Rs 2,78000 by selling these gold coins.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

New plaquette based on Brenner artwork

A new medallic plaquette to honor the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln has been created by Signature Art Medals of Groton, Mass.

It is based on the 1907 Lincoln plaque done by Lincoln cent designer Victor David Brenner.

Measuring 120 by 90 mm (4.75 by 3.5 inches), the plaquette is half the size of the original Brenner artwork.

On the reverse is a new design created by Don Everhart, U.S. Mint sculptor/engraver who also does freelance work.

The reverse shows Brenner as he worked to create his Lincoln portrait with the quote, “My Mind Was Full Of Lincoln” between wheat ears that look like the design devices used on the old Wheat-back cents.
The plaquette was struck by the Medallic Art Co. now based in Dayton, Nev. It is made of bronze and weighs 558 grams, or about 19.75 ounces.

It is given a patina called double brown-red chocolate by Greco Industries of Bethel, Conn., to give the appearance of the chocolate color that Lincoln cents acquire as they age and tone.

The plaquettes will be serially numbered on the edge starting with 001 up to the number of plaquettes ordered by Dec. 31, 2010, more than one year from now.

Price of the plaquette is $229 plus a $12.95 shipping and handling charge. Massachusetts residents must add sales tax.

Payment should be made by major credit card, or if ordered online by Paypal. Visit the Web site, www.SignatureArtMedals.com, for details.
Source: numismaticnews.net

Fla. explorers, UK reach agreement on shipwreck

Florida deep-sea explorers said Friday that they will work with the British government to salvage artifacts from centuries-old shipwreck of a heavily armed vessel, and the company may continue to make money under the agreement.

Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration announced it was giving up its legal claim as part of the agreement with the British government regarding the wreck of the HMS Victory, a 100-gun man-of-war that sank in the English Channel in 1744.

Odyssey CEO Greg Stemm said Friday that the company's legal claim filed in U.S. District Court in Tampa has been dismissed, and the company will now work closely with the British government on salvaging the wreck, which is believed to include 4 tons of gold coins.

The British government has taken possession of two brass cannons Odyssey has already raised from the wreck in exchange for a salvage award of $160,000.

"We are comfortable that the way forward will include not only Odyssey's involvement but a deal with Odyssey that allows us to participate in the project," Stemm said.

Stemm said the company has proposed an agreement similar to one it had reached with the British government over the proposed salvage of another historic warship, the HMS Sussex, which had the company and the government sharing proceeds.

A spokesman for Britain's Ministry of Defense, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said consultations will be held to determine how to proceed with the wreck. Options range from leaving it undisturbed to full excavation.

Odyssey, which in 2007 hauled up an estimated $500 million in silver coins from a Spanish shipwreck, said it discovered the remains of the British vessel last year in about 330 feet of water and has worked closely with the British government on how salvage and preservation should proceed.

Stemm said in the statement that Odyssey donated $75,000 of its salvage award to help the National Museum of the Royal Navy preserve the Victory wreck.

Odyssey's relations with the Spanish government have not been so cordial. The company has been locked in a legal tug-of-war with Spain for more than two years over the vast treasure raised from what is believed to be the galleon Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes y las Animas.

Odyssey brought 17 tons of silver and other artifacts from the wreck to Tampa in May 2007. Spain immediately demanded that it all be returned, arguing that the government had never surrendered ownership of the sunken ship and its contents.

In June, a federal magistrate judge came down squarely on the side of Spain, urging Odyssey to return the treasure. The U.S. government got involved last week, filing a brief supporting Spain's claim to its cultural heritage.

A federal judge has not indicated when he will make a final ruling.

Source: google.com

50 pieces of coin for each denomination

Parliament approved an amendment to the Bank of Jamaica Act changing the tender limit of all denomination of coins.

The limit is now fixed at 50 pieces for each denomination.

The limit restricts the number of coins which can be legally tendered in settling a payment transaction.

Finance Minister Audley Shaw who tabled the amendment explained that it became necessary due to among other things the replacement of currency notes with coins.
"The last revision of the legal tender provisions in the Act as they relate to coins was done in 1973 (and) at that time, the highest denomination coin was $0.25. In the years following that last revision, coin denominations have been introduced to replace the $1, $5, $10 and $20 denominations as currently known.

"The replacement of currency notes by coins has given rise to the need for adjusting the existing legal tender prevision in the Act so as to increase the amount for which coin denominations constitute legal tender," said Mr. Shaw.
Source: radiojamaica.com

Time to Start Hunting for Low-Mintage Gold

With gold toying with the $1,000-a-troy ounce level, it is understandable when noncollectors confuse the gold market with the coin market.

However, for collectors, the higher price of gold spells opportunity if you happen to believe that the price of bullion is unlikely to fall significantly below this milestone price level.

What am I talking about?

Just this: The quadrupling of the price of gold since the 2001 low point has done much to wipe out price distinctions made by collectors among various collector gold coin issues.

Many coins trade on the secondary market for essentially the price of bullion plus a markup just large enough to prevent the dealer from sending the coin to the melting pot.

It is time for long-term collectors to start taking a look at gold coin mintages and seeing just what kind of low mintages can be acquired for melt value.

Can you buy a coin with a mintage in the hundreds for melt value? It looks to me like you can. There are numerous small countries that have issued commemoratives with very low mintages that currently have no great collector demand behind them.

That could always be the case, but what would you care if the price of gold bullion provides you with a permanent floor?

I happen to follow the coins of Costa Rica for personal enjoyment. The country has some very nice commemoratives. However, the market for these is certainly not large and probably never will be.
Source: numismaster.com

This Central American nation is not the only country that has issued commemoratives over the years, or standard issue gold coins from the time when the gold standard was internationally in force.

This advice goes double for world coin collectors who want to own a little gold anyway as a hedge against inflation or other financial disasters.

Why buy the popular American Eagles or Canadian Maple Leaves that have mintages in the hundreds of thousands and millions when you can enjoy the beauty and variety that the world collector coin field offers?

There is only one reason: if you figure a day will come when you will have to sell a large number of gold coins rapidly, then the bullion coins have the advantage.

However, if you are hedging in the manner of long-term insurance and you figure you will have a little time to sell the gold coins when the time comes, well then these low-mintage collector coins seem to me to be a more appealing option.

If bullion stabilizes as it did for many years after the last major peak in 1980, the impact of mintages on prices will once again begin to be felt as other collectors and dealers go through the reasoning process of why two coins with the same bullion content but wildly different mintage figures should trade for the same price.

That means that the present time is a great time to be a collector and to take advantage of the lack of market price distinctions. Better yet, if you already have some gold bullion coins, start working them off in favor of the same quantity of precious metal with the lower mintages.

The hedge will be intact and you will have the satisfaction of owning a collection unique to you - and because of the low mintages - likely to stay that way.
Source: numismaster.com

Copper record: $1,265,000 price achieved by cent

The finest known 1795 large cent with a reeded edge sold for a record $1,265,000 Sept. 6. It was a highlight of the Dan Holmes collection of early large cents. This collection was auctioned by Ira and Larry Goldberg in association with Chris McCawley and Bob Grellman at the Beverly Hills Crowne Plaza.

Although many coins in the collection sold for record prices, the spotlight here is on the Holmes 1795 reeded edge, as this is a bewildering price for a copper coin. Greg Hannigan was the successful bidder and was acting on behalf of a collector of large cents by die variety.

This 1795 large cent is of the die variety known as Sheldon-79. Though it is best known for having a reeded edge, it is truly a die variety, not just an edge variety. A particular die pair was used only to produce the coins that are now known as Sheldon-79.

The 1795 reeded edge cent is listed as a separate issue in most leading price guides, including various Krause Publications. I regard it as an experimental piece. Generally, copper coins do not have reeded edges. Note that it is listed in the standard Judd reference on pattern, experimental and trial pieces. Editors of most guides, however, imply that the 1795 reeded edge cent is a true, regular issue coin that is needed to complete a set of large cents.

The Holmes 1795 reeded edge cent (S-79) is the finest of five to six known. It is graded Very Good-10 by the Professional Coin Grading Service. It is one of only two that have been certified. Last November, Bowers & Merena auctioned one that is PCGS graded Good-4 for $402,500. No others have been auctioned in recent years.

The auction record for a copper coin has been broken a few times over the last five years. On Jan. 5, 2009, in Orlando, the finest known Strawberry Leaf cent was auctioned by Stack’s for $862,500. It was NGC graded Fine-12 in 2004, and, after the Jan. 2009 auction, PCGS graded VG-10. It is curious that the finest known Strawberry Leaf cent and the finest known 1795 reeded edge cent are both PCGS graded VG-10.

Of the four known Strawberry Leaf cents, Holmes had two. Hannigan was the top bidder for both. One is PCGS graded Good-4 and it sold for $218,500. The other is of a unique variety. The placement of “ONE CENT” on the reverse is different. It is PCGS graded Fair-2 and it brought $264,500. I expected these two coins to bring more. Strawberry Leaf cents are rarer and much more famous than 1795 reeded edge cents or 1799 cents.

A 1799 cent in the Holmes collection sold for $977,500. It is the only 1799 cent that has been graded as Mint State by PCGS or NGC. It was in an NGC holder with an MS-62 label and is now in a PCGS holder with an MS-61 label. I grade it as AU-58. McCawley & Grellman grade it as AU-55.
My impression is that this 1799 cent will now be placed with a collector in the Southwest. He specializes in U.S. coins dating from the 1790s to the late 1830s, though he collects other pieces as well.

This $977,500 price is incredible for a 1799 cent, which may be very rare as a date, but is not extremely rare. In February 2008, the Eliasberg-Husak 1799 cent brought $161,000. It is PCGS certified EF-45. I could understand this Holmes 1799 cent being worth three times as much ($483,000). The amount the Holmes 1799 cent brought is more than six times as much as the Eliasberg-Husak 1799 cent realized. If the Holmes 1795 reeded edge cent had not sold a few hours earlier, this result would have set an auction record for a copper coin.

A longtime auction record for a copper coin, or pattern, was established at the May 1996 Eliasberg sale by Bowers & Merena in New York. The Eliasberg 1796 “No Pole” Half Cent realized $506,000. Not long after the May 1996 auction, it was PCGS graded “MS-67RB.” This record stood until January 2008, when Stack’s auctioned a copper 1838 silver dollar “pattern” for $529,000. A few days later, Heritage sold a 1792 cent pattern for $603,750. The exact metallic composition of this 1792 cent pattern is not known. It may not be a copper pattern.

On Feb. 15, 2008, the auction record for a copper coin was broken and then tied at the Heritage auction of Walter Husak’s early date cents. Husak’s PCGS graded AU-55 1793 Liberty Cap cent realized $632,500. In contrast, Holmes’ best 1793 Liberty Cap, PCGS AU-53, sold for $506,000 on Sept. 6. I strongly believe that Holmes’ best 1793 Liberty Cap is more desirable than this Husak 1793 Liberty Cap cent.

Husak’s Starred Reverse 1794 cent also realized $632,500. On July 31, 2008, Heritage auctioned a 1792 dime “pattern,” struck in copper, for $690,000, which is the same price that a 1796 cent realized on Sept. 14, 2008, in a Goldberg auction. This 1796 cent was consigned by the family of the late Ted Naftzger. It is PCGS graded MS-66RB.

In sum, if the results for the Eliasberg 1796 “No Pole” half cent and for copper patterns are set aside, the auction records for copper coins in general, since 1996, all pertain to large cents: (1) Eliasberg 1793 Liberty Cap cent, B&M auction, New York, May 1996, $319,000 – probably later PCGS graded MS-64. (2) Oliver Jung 1793 Chain cent, PCGS MS-65BN, ANR auction, New York, July 2004, $391,000 (3) Finest known 1793 Strawberry Leaf cent, ANR, November 2004, Baltimore, $414,000. (4) 1793 Chain cent, PCGS MS-65BN, ANR, January 2005, Fort Lauderdale, $431,250. (5) Husak 1793 Liberty Cap cent and Husak 1794 Starred Reverse cent, Heritage, February 2008, Long Beach, $632,500 each. (6) Naftzger 1796 cent, PCGS MS-66RB, Goldbergs, September 2008, Los Angeles, $690,000 (7) Finest known 1793 Strawberry Leaf cent, Stack’s, January 2009, Orlando, $862,500. (8) Holmes 1795 Reeded Edge cent, PCGS VG-10, Goldbergs, September 2009, Los Angeles, $1,265,000. I wonder about the next auction record for a copper coin.
Source: numismaticnews.net