Lincolns and gold

Collectors in Colorado and California are having some luck in obtaining the new Lincoln cents. In the last couple of days I have had reports from a number of readers.

David Perkins tells me that he obtained the new cents at his bank in downtown Denver. He also points out that the mint is right there in the city.

J.L. Smith writes me that 2009-D cents are available in Bakersfield, Calif.

Michael Weber reports that the coins are obtainable in Lake Elsinore, Calif.

I am also still getting e-mails where it still is no dice. The most recent is from Jim Vitek. He tells me Omaha banks don’t expect to get any of the new cents.

Frustrations aside, it has been a long time since so many people have been focused on the Lincoln cent. That can’t help but be a good thing in the long run.

I expect to stop by the U.S. Mint booth here at the National Money Show in Portland, Ore., when it opens later to day to see what they have for sale. I looked at it yesterday during set-up and saw that the back display panels are promoting the Territorial quarters and the new Lincoln cents.

I continued to have lobby conversations and an interesting one yesterday was with Richard Nachbar. Alan Herbert and Myrna Lighterman were also part of the conversation.

It began when Nachbar made a comment to me that he thought my forecast for the price of gold was too low. He said it in ambiguous way, so my first words to him were, “You mean it should be even lower?”

He smiled a tight lipped smile that communicated that he wasn’t real pleased to have his leg pulled a bit.

His main point was that he thinks the government and the banks are illegally suppressing the price of the precious metal and he expected it to pop far higher in price at some point.

He was a bit vague about his plans to retire from the business. He indicated that what was going on with gold would eventually affect everybody on the bourse floor, but the comment when he made it had a negative implication that he did not explain.

But that is part of the show experience. I talk to many people in an attempt to get the big picture.