FOCUS-Gold coins, bars set to outshine Indian jewellery

Gold investors in India, the world's largest consumer, are likely to outstrip jewellery buyers in 2-3 years with the economy on the rebound and buyers seeking new ways to protect their investments from pilferage.

"The signs of heavy increase in investment demand are visible and may outperform jewellery demand in 2-3 years" said Anjani Sinha, president of Indian Bullion Market Association (IBMA), which represents about 10,000 jewellers across the country.

"We may see 20-30 percent rise in investment demand driven by the new class of investors. Even during this festive season, demand for coins was more compared to jewellery, strengthening the trend."

India just finished its peak festive season that starts in August and ends in October.

IBMA said it has sold 7,000 coins of 8 grams each since August and hopes to target 100,000 coins within one year.

India has traditionally been a jewellery-devouring country, with the important part gold jewellery plays in marriages and other family celebrations.

But the trend started to change in 2003, when gold coins and bars were allowed to be sold by licensed banks and some traders. In 2007, investment demand jumped 11 percent to 215.4 tonnes.

Even in 2008, when Indian imports fell 7 percent to 712.6 tonnes at the onset of a global economic slowdown and high prices, investment stayed steady at 2007 levels.

In 2008, jewellery consumption was 501.6 tonnes, while investment demand was 211 tonnes. In the first-half of 2009, when the economic downturn peaked, demand fell 55 percent to 126.7 tonnes, the worst since 1997, World Gold Council data showed.

Currently, gold jewellery accounts for 70 percent of India's total annual consumption.

SURGE IN THE OFFING

Industry players say the consumption in the form of investments is likely to surge from here on as the economic recovery gathers strength.

Former central bank governor C. Rangarajan, who heads the government panel that advises the prime minister, said growth in the fiscal year that ends in March 2011 would accelerate to 7 to 8 percent after growing by about 6.5 percent in 2009/10. See [ID:nHKG376802]

Gold coins and bars are an attractive investment option, unlike jewellery, which involves making charges and wastage.

"Gold coins and bars have more convenient usage, may be in the form of investment, or deferred consumption or for gifts," said Nayan Pansare, an independent consultant to jewellers.

"Definitely, investment demand is likely to surge as more and more people are looking to gold as an investment rather than as a fashion statement," said Rajesh Khosla, managing director, MMTC PAMP Pvt Ltd, a gold coins refiner.

MMTC PAMP, a joint venture between the state-owned MMTC and Swiss-based gold refiner, hopes to start its refinery in the northern Indian state of Haryana in the second-half of 2010 and expects to produce 100 tonnes of gold coins in 2010
Source: in.reuters.com

China Battles Domestic Counterfeiters

The Peoples’ Republic of China has been in the numismatic hobby news in recent months due to coin replicas originating from China that are being sold elsewhere in the world as genuine coins. This includes coins of Canada, Russia and the United States.

Since the Hobby Protection Act in the United States is unenforceable outside U.S. borders, this lack of enforcement overseas almost invites the export of replica coins to places where the replica coins can be sold by third parties to unsuspecting collectors as being genuine. In an article appearing in this column last month coin collector Mike Marshall of Trenton, Ontario, was acknowledged as saying there are six companies in China that make replica coins. The Chinese replica products are produced and sold legitimately – in China.

Well, it appears China may be having problems of its own regarding locally produced counterfeit or replica coins. In fact, since China has been one of several countries that in recent years has suffered from a shortage of circulating coinage it appears at least one enterprising organization working outside the government has decided to take advantage of the shortage by making its own coins.

According to the Aug. 6 Guangzhou Daily newspaper, police in Foshan in south China’s Guangdong province arrested seven people a day earlier, seizing more than 220,000 counterfeit 1-yuan coins reported to weigh a total of about 1.5 tons.

The 1-yuan denomination, which is the workhorse coin of the Chinese economy, is a nickel-plated steel coin with a diameter of 24.9 millimeters. The obverse depicts the denomination and date, while a chrysanthemum appears on the reverse. The lettered edge repeats RMB three times.

RMB is an abbreviation for renmimbi or “people’s currency,” which is issued exclusively by the People’s Bank of China. The official abbreviation is CNY, but it does not appear on circulating coinage.

According to the Guangzhou Daily newspaper article, “A woman named Liu and her driver were stopped by police when they were seen behaving suspiciously around a Foshan bus station on June 26. The police then seized 18,000 counterfeit 1-yuan coins at the scene and captured a buyer with 1,100 such counterfeit coins. Following the seizure, the police raided Liu’s home in Guangzhou and found 200,000 more counterfeit 1-yuan coins wrapped in packages.”

The newspaper reported the fake coins originated in Loudi in Hunan province (central China). The counterfeiting operation does not appear to be an isolated incident. According to the newspaper, more than 20 people possessing 1.17 million counterfeit 1-yuan coins were arrested in Loudi in July. In addition “five fake coin plants” were raided in Loudi.

This isn’t the only recent incident suggesting China is having internal problems with counterfeit coins. The Aug. 10 issue of the publication China View reported, “China’s Public Security Ministry Monday warned the public to beware of fake commemorative coins purportedly issued to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.”

Specifically, a set of 100- and 150-yuan gold coins and four 10-yuan .999 fine silver coins being advertised as having been issued by the People’s Bank of China and distributed by China Gold Coin Inc. are fakes since neither organization has issued any such coins.

China View reported the unauthorized commemorative coins being sold for 550 yuan or $80 US on the Web site www.taobao.com originating in Hebei Province.

Sounding very much like what you might expect to hear from the U.S. government if a similar situation happened in the United States the Chinese ministry warned, “Precious metal commemorative coins should only be purchased through formal channels.”
Source: numismaster.com

1,000 rare, valuable coins stolen in Montville

Rare coins estimated to be worth millions of dollars were stolen from the car of a renowned Maryland dealer when he stopped in Pine Brook for dinner on his way home from a coin show.
Julian Leidman left the Coinfest coin show in Stamford, Conn., late Sunday with his wife and traveled to his brother-in-law's home in Pine Brook, where they stopped for dinner at Tiffany's on Route 46.

After more than an hour, Leidman said, the group left the restaurant to find a "terrible" sight: Glass littered the ground around his 2009 Toyota Sienna, which he had strategically parked in front of the restaurant so he could keep an eye on the driver's side and rear, he said. The passenger-side window had been smashed and four bags, three of which were heavier than 50 pounds, were missing from the cargo hold.

Gone were the contents of two of the bags -- a cache of valuable coins and collectible currency that Leidman, 63, of Silver Spring, Md., had displayed at the show.

The inventory included individual pieces valued as high as $160,000, as well as many extremely rare and unusual coins and currency dating to the Colonial era, he said.

"It was a huge amount, seven figures," Leidman said, enumerating the loss. "This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me."

Montville Police on Tuesday declined to release details of the burglary, citing the ongoing investigation.

But coin dealers nationwide are rallying around Leidman -- who is regarded as one of the most prominent and ethical dealers in the United States -- and have offered a cash award leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the robbery.

Jon Lerner and Laura Sperber, co-organizers of the Coinfest show at the Stamford Hilton, put up $2,500 toward the reward on Monday, and 20 other coin dealers immediately followed suit, Lerner said.

Word quickly spread among the collector and dealer community and, by Tuesday afternoon, the total reward stood at $75,000, Lerner said. The goal is to reach $100,000 by the end of the week, he said.

"All of the dealers were very saddened and upset by it," said Lerner, of Westchester, N.Y. "Julian is a very well-known and respected dealer, and that's what makes it very hard."

A dealer and consultant for more than 40 years, Leidman has handled some of the most valuable American coins, according to the American Numismatic Association, which named him its Coin Dealer of the Year for 2009.

Requests to help Leidman have come in from across the country, and collectors and dealers have received a list of the coins taken, Lerner said. The hope is that some of the stolen inventory may surface at the next large coin show this weekend in St. Louis, he said.

"We're hoping whoever took the coins will try to sell them or have information on them," Lerner said. "It's tragic, not just the monetary value, but the value in terms of history and what's lost to the collecting community. Some of these items are just unique items that cannot be replaced."

Leidman said his collection was insured, but is working with his insurance company to determine what his policy covers. He believes he may have been targeted during Coinfest.

"I was one of the last people to leave the show, and there were a couple of women around -- one of which had been by my table a few times," he said. "When I left, she was sitting out at the reception area of the hotel and she was on her cell phone, and my wife said, 'The lady just said, 'They're on their way out.'"

But Lerner said the show's security consists of both armed and undercover guards who provide escorts to dealers and collectors with valuables. The third annual Coinfest show, billed as the largest show in the New York metropolitan area, drew about 150 dealers to the Connecticut hotel and thousands of collectors.

"We don't really know if he was targeted or if it was random," Lerner said. "It shows the dealers that we do have to remain very vigilant at all times."
Source: dailyrecord.com

Mint to make Olympic coin

THE Royal Mint will soon be producing the first UK coin ever designed by a child.

Nine-year-old Florence Jackson beat more than 17,000 other youngsters to win the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have the Mint, in Llantrisant, produce her 50p coin.

The winning design will celebrate London 2012 and will be officially announced today at the end of a CBBC Blue Peter competition. The winning design depicts the high-jump, celebrating the Olympic and Paralympic sport of athletics, and is available to buy now as a limited edition commemorative coin from www.royalmint.com.

The design will be found on millions of 50 pence coins in people’s change next year.

“I am so excited. It was a real surprise to win,” said Florence, from Bristol. “It was amazing to visit the Royal Mint and see my picture turned into a coin. I can’t wait to see it in my pocket money.”

Florence’s winning design is the first in a series of 29 officially licensed London 2012, 50p designs by the nation that will act as lasting mementoes of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The remaining 28 designs will be revealed from 2010, the result of the Royal Mint’s biggest ever competition for the public to design the UK’s coinage. Each coin will depict a different Olympic or Paralympic sport.

Source: walesonline.co.uk

Four Gorny & Mosch Sales Begin Oct. 12

The first of four Gorny & Mosch sales begin Oct. 12. In the course of one week 5,500 lots with a total estimate of 3.2 million euros will be sold.

The program is divided into “High-quality ancient coins”, “Ancient coins and lots”, “Medieval and world coins” and “Russia.” All four catalogs can be viewed at www.gmcoinart.de and can be purchased for 15 euros at Gorny & Mosch, Giessener Münzhandlung GmbH, Maximiliansplatz 20, D-80333 Munich; email: info@gmcoinart.de.

In Sale 180 there are 520 lots of selected ancient coins with a total estimate of 870,000 euros. Seven Celtic pieces are followed by roughly 250 Greek ones. Included are the incuse stater from Caulonia with the elegant figure of Apollo on its obverse and reverse (EF; 7,500 euros), the small series from Leontinoi including an extremely fine specimen of those tetradrachms usually attributed to the “Demareteion Master” (7,500 euros) and the Classical tetradrachm from Naxos with the beautiful Dionysos and the drunken Silenus (VF; 20,000 euros).

Sale 181 features ancient coins and lots. Approximately 2.000 lots with a total estimate of almost 600.000 euros are on offer featuring 46 Celtic, 568 Greek, 276 Roman Provincial, 122 Republican, 557 Roman Imperial and 226 Byzantine coins.

The Byzantine section will draw special interest, as the expert will find there a wide range of Byzantine bronze coins.

Sale 182 of Medieval and modern coins features 2.000 lots with a total estimate of 800,000 euros come from all five continents. The sale starts with almost 30 medieval pieces. The German section follows. Orders and decorations featuring Turkish cap badges with more than 200 lots, which is a special part of the Dogan collection sold by Gorny & Mosch in October 2008, lead over to the Austrian-Hungarian section containing about 180 lots.

World coins and medals from all five continents follow including big series of modern gold coins and coins commemorating the Olympic games. Europe has to offer a number of classic rarities as well, for example a small series of siege coins produced in 1592 during the fight over the bishopric of Strasbourg.

Sale 183 ends the week with a selection of Russian coins. There is a high number of rarities included in the approximately 1,700 lots with a total estimate of 950,000 euros. Among them is a 5 ruble piece of Catherine II struck in Moscow in 1763 (EF-BU; 75,000 euros) and a gold medal of Paul I (1796-1801) dedicated to princes, khans and voivodes of merit for the tsar (VF+; 90,000 euros).

The collection of the Norwegian Tom Willy Bakken, which will be sold at Gorny & Mosch’s in cooperation with Oslo Mynthandel, may be called a collector’s great dream. Bakken started to collect Russian copper coins in the early 1980s. In those times, it was easy to buy these pieces for little money – nobody was really interested in them. Hence, the collector had the opportunity to compile a unique series of all denominations, which were given out in Russia between 1700 and 1917. Almost 1.000 pieces are on offer at this sale featuring all types. The states of conservation range from fine to brilliant uncirculated, the estimates from 10 euros to 25,000.
Source: numismaster.com

US Mint to sell platinum coins before end of 2009

Platinum coins produced by the US Mint will go on sale before the end of the year, it was confirmed .

The agency revealed that unprecedented demand has encouraged it to offer one-ounce American Eagle Platinum Proof Coins for purchase, provisionally from 3rd December.

In addition, the mint intends to release the one-ounce 2009 American Buffalo Gold Bullion Coin on 15th October and the one-ounce American Buffalo Proof Gold Coin on 29th October.

The half-ounce, quarter-ounce and one-tenth-ounce versions of the fractional 2009 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coin are also set to be released on the same day as the platinum-based offering.

However, the mint revealed that a number of its products - including all weights of the American Eagle Platinum Bullion Coin - will not be up for sale in the remainder of 2009.

"The US Mint is working diligently with current and potential blank suppliers to increase the supply of bullion coin blanks, so it can offer to the public the proof and uncirculated versions of American Eagle silver, gold, and platinum coins in 2010," read a statement.

Created by Congress through the Coinage Act in 1792, the US Mint was placed under the auspices of the country's treasury in 1981.
Source: platinum.matthey.com

Mint of Finland Launches Series

The Mint of Finland Ltd. has launched a series titled “Ethical Collector Coins” with the Aug. 20 issue of a silver coin depicting the theme “Peace and Security.”

At the series launch ceremony, Finland President Martti Ahtisaari carried out the new coin’s first strike. This is the first time in Finland’s history that a silver collector coin with a nominal value of 20 euros has been issued.

Themes for each coin in the series are chosen by the Collector Coin Committee set by the Finnish Ministry of Finance. The Peace and Security coin was designed by sculptor Tapio Kettunen, whose proposal won the public design competition. A record number of 72 proposals were entered.

President Ahtisaari signed the certificate of authenticity that includes a quote from the speech he gave at the Oslo Nobel Peace Prize ceremony: “Peace is a matter of will.”

The coin is 38.61 mm in diameter, weighs 33.62 grams and has a mintage maximum of 15,000.
Source: numismaster.com

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