The Royal Canadian Mint will be adding another precious metal coin featuring the elusive cougar when its begins issuing the Cougar 0.5 g Gold Coin later this month. The strike is composed of half a gram of 99.99% pure gold and features a diameter of 11mm.
Shown on the reverse of the strike is an extremely detailed engraved image of a cougar. The massive cat is depicted with its mouth open as if to announce its presence or perhaps attack its prey. [click to continue…]
The Austrian Mint has issued the latest release of its "Crowns of the House of Habsburg" Gold Coin Series. Issued beginning on November 9, 2011, the Crown of Saint Wenceslas Gold Proof Coin marks the fourth release of the House of Habsburg Crown series.
Featured on both the obverse and reverse of the coin are designs emblematic of the Crown of Saint Wenceslas, an important piece in the history of Bohemia. Each gold proof coin is struck from .986 fine gold to a diameter of 30 mm with a weight 16 grams. [click to continue…]
Reaffirming its position as one of the premier minting institutions of the world, the Perth Mint of Australia has struck what it claims is the "biggest, heaviest, inherently the most valuable gold bullion coin in the world" - the 1 Tonne Gold Kangaroo Coin struck from 99.99% pure gold.
As the name of the strike suggests, the coin was created as part of the Perth's extremely popular gold kangaroo series. All of the bullion coins in the series feature reverse imagery containing Australia's iconic marsupial - the kangaroo. [click to continue…]
With the recent release of the 2012 Year of the Dragon Gold and Silver Bullion Coins, it may interest some to know that the Perth Mint of Australia is still offering collector grade strikes featuring the previous Year of the Rabbit designs. These remaining 2011 Year of the Rabbit Gold and Silver Coins may only be available for a limited time as either maximum mintages for specific strikes are met or production focus shifts to new designs.
Until that time, collectors may order the 2011 Year of the Rabbit Gold and Silver Coins directly from the Perth Mint. Once no longer available from the Perth, collectors will have to turn to the secondary market to obtain the unique strikes. [click to continue…]
The Perth Mint of Australia has released the newest editions of the Australian Lunar Series II - the 2012 Year of the Dragon Gold and Silver Bullion Coins. Coins in these series are either struck from 99.99% pure gold or 99.9% pure silver to several different sizes.
Like previous releases in this series, these coins are centered around the Chinese zodiac with the 2012 strikes specifically depicting the fifth animal of 12 featured in the zodiac - the Dragon. Thus, a unique dragon design was created for both the gold and the silver Year of the Dragon Coins. [click to continue…]
Collectors visiting the US Mint's website (www.usmint.gov) or attempting to place an order via telephone with the Mint in the next few days will find less products available for their selection. In fact, a total of sixteen different gold and silver products have been temporarily removed from availability.
In two different announcements released by the Mint early Friday (September 2) afternoon, plans were unveiled to halt all sales of fourteen unique gold collectible coins as well as two silver sets. The sales halts were already in effect shortly thereafter as visits to the appropriate product pages found the announcement of "This product is temporarily unavailable."
Products affected by the move include:
The suspensions came as a result of sky-rocketing gold and silver prices achieved during the day. The London PM Fix for gold for Friday, September 2, 2011 was $1,875.25 per ounce, or over $50 from where it stood the day before. Showing the trend of the precious metal, August 2nd London PM Fix was only $1,637.75 which means gold jumped $237.50 an ounce in one month.
Silver also showed gains as the London PM fix for silver was $42.50 an ounce on Friday. This was a jump of almost 2.5% from where it was the previous day.
These increases drove the bullion value of many US Mint products too close to their selling price. Thus, the Mint placed the halt on sales which will likely stand until either one of two conditions are met:
The Mint has a mechanism in place to allow for adjustments to the gold products based on the weekly average of the London Fix. These adjustments are typically implemented on Wednesdays meaning the gold coins could return at higher prices this Wednesday.
For the silver products, the Mint has to publish new pricing information before it can go into effect. This publication typically occurs in the Federal Register and usually requires several days before it can take place.
This was not the first time such a move was undertaken by the Mint. The most recent affected the commemorative gold coins including the 2011 US Army Gold Coin and the 2011 Medal of Honor Gold Coin. Both are now available again after the Mint instituted a new matrix for commemorative coins.
The United States Mint recently returned the 2011 Commemorative Gold Coins to availability after having pulled them from its store shelves last week. The suspension of the 2011 US Army Gold Coins and the 2011 Medal of Honor Gold Coins came in response to gold prices which were swinging significantly higher at the time.
That increase in the price of gold saw the bullion values of the commemorative strikes reach within a few dollars of where the US Mint was selling them for. That small gap forced the Mint to halt additional sales and place a note of "This product is temporarily unavailable for product repricing" on the affected product pages of the Mint's website. [click to continue…]
Collectors surfing the website of the United States Mint may have noticed that they are currently unable to order any of the four 2011 Commemorative Gold Coins. This includes the proof and uncirculated 2011 US Army Gold Coins and the proof and uncirculated Medal of Honor Gold Coins.
These strikes have not reached a sell-out status, but have been pulled from availability owing to the meteoric increase in the price of gold in recent months. That same increase recently caused a halt in the sales of collector grade gold coins. [click to continue…]
The United States Mint has announced plans to participate in the American Numismatic Association's (ANA) World's Fair of Money® Convention. The convention will be held beginning tomorrow, August 16th through the 20th at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinios.
Coin enthusiasts from around the world are likely to attend the event which is touted by the ANA to include over "1,200 of the world's best coin dealers, great educational programs, family activities and, of course, the ANA's signature feature: The Museum Showcase, with exhibits from the Smithsonian Institution, the Edward C. Rochette Money Museum and private collections." [click to continue…]
The United States Mint temporarily halted the sales of several of its collector grade gold coins today (August 9, 2011) beginning at approximately 11:20 AM Eastern. This move comes in response to the recent surge in the price of gold which placed sale prices of the numismatic coins precariously close to the intrinsic melt value of each strike.
Coins affected by the temporary sales halt include the 2011 American Buffalo Gold Proof Coin, the 2011 American Eagle Gold Proof Coins, the 2011 American Eagle Gold Uncirculated Coin, and the First Spouse Gold Proof and Uncirculated Coins. Buyers looking to purchase the affected coins on the Mint's website will find the note of "This product is temporarily unavailable for product repricing." [click to continue…]
