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 Saturday, November 03, 2007
Thumbs Up For Currency
Posted by tom
The Touch of Money
Currency has really taken a beating during the course of my lifetime. Used to be that cash and checks were about all people ever paid a debt with, but now we have so many new options that cash seems our last resort. It's like those commercials where everything is running smoothly until a customer tries to pay with coins and banknotes thereby gumming up the works. For Internet transactions we pay by PayPal or credit card, for bills many Banks have electronic payment systems, for brick and mortar store shopping we pay by debit card and soon things may become even quicker and more personal.
 Fox News has reported that Shell gas stations in the Chicago area are testing out a new system, which allows customers to pay for their gas by fingerprint. Yes, that's right, just touch your finger to a panel and away you go. These are the kind of things we used to see in the James Bond movies, but now, in looking for a leg up on the competition, Shell is trying them out to provide faster service for customers whose time really is money.
Security, with built in ease of use, is another plus to the fingerprint as currency transactor. You always have your fingers with you. There's no pin number or access code to remember. No metallic strip to wear down and virtually impossible to forge, unless you are Tom Cruise and the Mission Impossible crew. It's unlikely that you would misplace your fingers, or leave it them your other coat pocket at home and with your fingers on hand; you'd never be two cents short at the Post Office.
But still, we collectors would miss the pleasure of using coins in daily transactions, checking dates in your pocket change, scanning banknotes for unusual serial numbers, watching for star notes or looking for varieties in coin designs. I hope currency sticks with us, at least through my lifetime, but I'll keep my thumb and fingers handy just in case.
News You Can Use
11/3/2007 6:27:01 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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Friday, November 02, 2007
Gold Hits 28 Year High
Posted by tom
Bull Market in Gold Runs On
The bull market for gold crashed through the $800 an ounce barrier to $807 at the time of this posting in the late afternoon Friday. This is the highest spot gold price has been in the last 28 years. Oil too is again rising and investor concerns over inflation and recession seem to be at the heart of this drive.
Reuters reported
that gold futures buyers stepped in to support the run when weakness was sensed. Concerns over rising energy costs looming as the North American winter approaches and the dollar loosing ground against most every world currency, seems to be fueling investor demand for gold as a safe haven from the imminent possibility of rising consumer goods prices.
Relatively conservative analysts are now predicting $850 spot gold by years end and $900 an ounce spot gold prices in 2008.
News You Can Use
11/2/2007 4:15:28 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday Fix
Posted by tom
 Friday Fix
London pm fixes for 11-02-07
Gold $796.50
Silver $14.32
Platinum $1439.00
Palladium $369.00
Friday Fix
11/2/2007 12:57:41 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Yi Yi, or A One and a Two...
Posted by tom
Tom's Recommended Film of The Week
Yi Yi, or A One and a Two...
Yi Yi
is a sweeping saga of life within a modern Taiwanese family and their extended friendships. Honor, character, love, hopes and desires mesh to form a tight net which keeps these peoples lives bound within their self enforced societal convention. Flashes of temper, anguish, love and denile burst from this slowly paced film to illustrate the gradual nature of the progress of living.
A long film of nearly three hours, Yi Yi can get pretty slow at times, but the moments of clarity realized by several of the central characters are stunning in their simplicity. As we look back at our own lives we can all see the stress points and the clear sailing, though at the time our understanding of the implications may be limited. This film allows us to see the same river of developement in a vastly different culture, with clarity, compassion and understanding. Director Edward Yang has given the world a glimse of human nature struggling to explode from cultural restraints and in so doing has created a subtle and engaging masterpiece.
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
11/2/2007 10:45:08 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, October 26, 2007
Gold and Silver Rocket Back!
Posted by tom
Precious Metals Surge
All of us in numismatics remember that brief over-indulgent period from 1979 to 1980 when Gold shot well above $800 an ounce and turned the collecting hobby and the investment world on their ears. Coin dealers called it "The Party" and fortunes were made and lost through the winter months.
 Today Gold climbed more than $17 to get past the $780 mark. As of this posting Gold is at $785, a 27 year high for the worlds metal of choice.
The correction of this past Monday most likely was viewed as a buying opportunity by many investors as soon as oil began to rise and the dollar to fall against the euro once again. Crude oil hit $92 a barrel on Friday while the Euro grew to nearly 1.44 to the dollar.
The continuing bull run of precious metals has also driven silver up to $14.25 as of this posting, with Platinum, Palladium and copper all following suit.
News You Can Use
10/26/2007 5:26:02 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday Fix
Posted by tom
Friday Fix
London pm fixes for 10-26-07
Gold $779.15
Silver $14.07
Platinum $1454.00
Palladium $370.00
Friday Fix
10/26/2007 11:33:04 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, October 25, 2007
Ace In The Hole
Posted by tom
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
Ace In The Hole
After making the transitional, decaying Hollywood classic Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder turned his attention to another deteriorating American Institution, the field of journalism. With his cult classic Ace In The Hole, Wilder laid forth a dark and caustic view of one newsman’s search for the big story to exploit in an effort to reinvigorate his failed career.
Kirk Douglas
turns in the performance of a lifetime as Chuck Tatum, big city reporter, reduced to working at the Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin. Tatum walks a fine line between reporting stories and making news. His lack of integrity can be seen as a both a fault and an asset at various points in the film and we are drawn to his vibrant character while at the same time repulsed by his actions. The public reaction of mock concern as Tatum's big story unfolds is mirrored by Jan Sterling's cold, yet honest indifference to the plight of her unloved husband, who rests at the center of Tatum’s enterprise.
As the story ripples outward Wilder pulls in the broader national media and exposes the viewer to more of the base side of our human nature. In the ever-expanding circus of Tatum’s manipulation materializes a virtual tornado of heartless curiosity and cold capitalism making Ace In The Hole a superior noir story of ground breaking quality, awash in the blazing desert sun.
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
10/25/2007 12:43:49 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, October 22, 2007
Gold Suffers Setback
Posted by tom
Big Correction in Gold!
Seems speculative investment has pushed Oil and Gold up above what may be reasonable market levels for current circumstances. UBS called it right, suggesting investors consider profit taking early Monday in the face of peaked markets and imminent corrections. A nearly $20 drop in Gold spot price brought the precious metal below the $750 bench mark before a slight resurge pushed it back above $750 later in the day.
Perceived weakness
in the U.S. economy due in part to looming sub-prime loan defaults, casts a shadow over the ability of Oil to continue it's rise. Last week crude topped $90 a barrel, but it slipped back today to about $87, pulling Gold and the Euro along for the correction. At the moment most analysts see these as short-term corrections. Many are still anticipating higher long term levels for both of these precious commodities, however, investors should keep in mind that the U.S. buys about one quarter of the worlds oil and a weakening economy would have far reaching effects.
News You Can Use
10/22/2007 4:22:20 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Well Circulated Barber Quarter Remains Appealing
Posted by tom
Lowest Grade, Highest Price
Barber Head types
have always been some of the least touted United States coin designs. Yet many Barber Head types have startlingly rare dates to offer the ambitious collector. One such rare date is set to appear in the Heritage November 6-7 Auction as lot number 594.
Normally, when I talk about U.S. coins in my Blog, I stick to high grade rarities, dazzling coins, scarce types and such, but this Barber Head Quarter allows me a nice opportunity to point out a very low grade coin, with a very high brow value. The 1901-S Barber Quarter to be sold at this auction grades AG-3. As you can see, it has seen plenty of use in it's day, but this dates mintage figure of 72, 664 pieces makes it one of the hardest Barber coins to acquire. NumisMaster values the 1901-S in AG-3 at $4,000 and several examples have sold through Heritage Auctions over the past year in the $3,000 to $3,500 range.
Auction Lot of the Week
10/22/2007 11:49:08 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Saturday, October 20, 2007
New Catalogs on the Way & Some Here Today!
Posted by tom
KP Update
Most of our editorial work has been completed on the upcoming 4th edition of the Standard catalog of World Coins 18th Century and the 5th edition of Unusual World Coins. Seems like there is never enough time for all the things we want to do, but we do our best to provide a much-improved product with every new edition. Unusual World Coins was substantially expanded, with new issues being added to many sections including a brand new section for the Union of North America and other Daniel Carr coins,  many additions to the NORFED - Liberty Dollar listings of silver currency coins, new sets of coins for the Easter Islands and Cabinda, plus a new set of issues from Kurdistan among others.
Other books which have recently returned from the printers and are available at the Krause Books website include the 17th edition of North American Coins & Prices,  which covers Mexico, Canada and the United States. This edition carries a cover date of 2008 and has a green and yellow graphic of North America with a sharp Hook Neck Eagle coin superimposed over the top. There are one U.S. and one Canadian coin on the cover also, but the Hook Neck dominates in my opinion.
Also newly released just a week or so ago is the 26th edition of the Standard Catalog of United States Paper Money, edited by George Cuhaj, with market analysis by Bill Brandimore. If you haven't bought a new edition of this book in while, the time has come, as George has added color images to nearly the entire catalog.  There are nice sections on Encased Postage Stamps and Postage Stamp Envelopes also, plus a useful rundown of error notes and good listings of Military Payment Certificates. Bill has done an excellent job of revaluing everything as well, especially on the small size currency.
With all of these books through production, I am now moving on to the mammoth task of updating values for the 36th edition of the 20th Century Standard Catalog of World Coins and the 3rd edition of the 21st Century SCWC. This should keep me very busy over the next five or six months as I plow through contributor returns, adjust for the falling dollar, and try to keep pace with sky rocketing precious metals rates. Wish me luck!
KP Update
10/20/2007 6:08:05 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, October 19, 2007
Exciting Hadrian Cistophoric Tetradrachm Surfaces
Posted by tom
Die Variety of Hadrian Cistophoric Tetradrachm
While reading through the October issue of the British coin publication, Coin News, I noticed a really striking Roman coin for sale. British coin dealer Mike R. Vosper, who lists coins for sale on his site, at V-Coins and in an eBay Store and specializes in ancient Greek and Roman coins, as well as Celtic and British hammered coinage, had in his Coin News ad a beautiful Cistophoric Tetradrachm of Hadrian. This coin is very sharp in detail and hosts a lovely temple design on the reverse. Vospers price is 1,500 Pounds, or a little over $3,000 US Dollars.
A Cistophoric Tetradrachm is a large silver type, struck to the weight of four drachm or denarius. This particular coin uses Greek style lettering and would have been made for use in what is now Turkey. These were areas of the former Greek provinces and so this Roman Provincial coin would have been competing with coins of Alexander still in use in that area.
If you are interested in obtaining more information on Hadrian's Cistophoric Tetradrachms circa 117-138 AD, you might want to check out Bill Metcalf's book published through the American Numismatic Society, The Cistophori of Hadrian, Numismatic Studies No.15, 1980. There is also an earlier volume, Numismatic Studies No.14 by Fred Kleiner and Sydney P. Noe, titled The Early Cistophoric Coinage, dealing with Greek coins from 228-133 BC which display snakes on both obverse and reverse.
Friend and fellow Blogger, token historian, medallist and Checker enthusiast, George Cuhaj, was working at the ANS at the time that Metcalf was researching, compiling and writing the Hadrian volume. He did much of the legwork involved in carting coins and photos back and forth from the ANS vault to photography, though he did not get any recognition in print. He did, however, get an autographed book though his ANS membership subscription. George was also kind enough help me to better understand this particular coin and the references involved. In fact when I pointed out to George that Vospers example differs in several respects from the similar example noted in Metcalf, RIC459b, he offered to contact Bill with the information and image from Vosper's offering in an effort to help further the study.
What a friendly hobby we share!
Lots You'll Like
10/19/2007 1:24:03 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday Fix
Posted by tom
Friday Fix
London pm fixes for 10-19-07
Gold $763.00
Silver $13.83
Platinum $1452.00
Palladium $370.00
Friday Fix
10/19/2007 11:10:58 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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