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WE ARE HONORED TO HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO SELL WHAT MAY BE THE "LOST 1870 S THREE DOLLAR GOLD COIN" FROM THE SAN FRANCISCO MINT. THE STORY GOES THAT THE ORIGINAL COIN WAS PLACED AS A CORNER STONE OF THE MINT IN 1870, NOT THERE NOW!!! THE SAME MOLD WAS USED TO MAKE A SECOND COIN HOWEVER THE MOLD WAS DAMAGED DURING THE FIRST STRIKE. THE INFOMATION WE HAVE IS THE SECOND COIN HAS A REPAIRED "S" DONE AT THE MINT. THIS IS POSSIBLY THE COIN WE HAVE FOR AUCTION. THE ONLY OTHER 1870 S THREE DOLLAR GOLD COIN KNOWN...

OTTAWA - There may still be pennies from heaven, but they won't be coming from the mint much longer. The humble one-cent piece is set to disappear from Canadian pockets, a victim of inflation. Thursday's federal budget said the Royal Canadian Mint will strike the last of the little coins this fall. The budget says the cost of minting a penny has risen to 1.6 cents or $11 million a year. Its purchasing power has fallen to a 20th of its original value.

Capitol Hill lawmakers want to change the color of money amid growing concerns about the federal deficit and the constant pressure for Washington to live within its means. The House and Senate each have introduced legislation that would replace the dollar bill with a $1 coin. “Change can be difficult,” Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., said. “But doing things as we’ve always done has contributed to our debt. We've got to latch on to any reasonable handhold we can find to climb out of this hole.” This is not the first time Washington has considered eliminating the paper dollar, which became...

The new dollar coin does not have the inscription In God We Trust....is this a first?

Switching the fineness of silver in the annual Silver Proof sets and America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof set to .999 from the current .900 would produce significant savings in refining and manufacturing costs for the U.S. Mint, according to spokesman Michael White. The move would also open the pool to additional blank vendors, White said. President ObamaÂ’s proposed Fiscal Year 2013 federal budget includes a provision to amend Title 31, Section 5112, so that the dime, quarter dollars and half dollars in the various Silver Proof sets would be required to be composed of no less than 90 percent...

The U.S. Mint is facing a problem -- especially during these penny-pinching times. It turns out it costs more to make pennies and nickels than the coins are worth. And because of that, the Obama administration this week asked Congress for permission to change the mix of metal that goes to make pennies and nickels, an expensive recipe that has remained unchanged for more than 30 years. .... Just the administrative cost of minting 4.3 billion pennies costs almost a half-cent per coin by itself, leaving precious little room to make a penny for less than a cent, no matter...

N. Korea to issue gold, silver coins in honor of late leader 2011-12-31 10:37 North Korea said Saturday it will issue gold and silver coins to mark the 20th anniversary of late leader Kim Jong-il's ascension to the supreme commander of the communist nation's armed forces. Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency made the announcement minutes after Kim's successor son, Jong-un, took over the supreme commandership in a strong sign that the young son, believed to be in his late 20s, is rapidly solidifying power. The commandership is one of the titles that the late leader held before his death on...

Fake Silver and Gold Flood Global Markets; 100,000 Coins From A Single Counterfeiter! Mac Slavo November 10th, 2011 SHTFplan.com Whether it’s pirated software, poison-infused baby formula, cancer-causing drywall, luxury purses, or fake medicines, if you need a knock-off, China has traditionally been the go-to country, with a counterfeiter always willing to oblige. Now, with precious metals prices on the cusp of possibly the biggest price explosion in centuries, fake gold and silver products are becoming a booming industry say Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants: We have read about one Chinese counterfeiter openly bragging about producing 100,000 fake U.S. Silver Dollars...

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A woman in Portland said her local grocery store refused to allow her to pay for her shopping cart items with $32 in loose change. The shopper, who was too embarrassed to use her name, said the clerk at the Save-a-Lot store would only accept $5 of the change, claiming it was store policy, KATU reported. The woman told KATU that she tried to use her loose change at another area grocery to buy her family food -- a Fred Meyer store -- but the manager there directed her to a coin exchange machine instead, where the...

Over at TPM, Ryan Reilly has an intriguing post about the interest of some tea partiers for a new circulating dollar coin because it supposedly will save the federal government money.  This follows a story in the Huffington Post from a week ago about how Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) introduced a bill that would eliminate the dollar bill and substitute dollar coins.Here's some very personal and U.S. history about the dollar coin and why this is a terrible idea that is really nothing more than a corporate subsidy.Congress in the late 1990s mandated that the U.S. Mint create a new circulating...

RENO, NV - The U.S. Mint has temporary suspended the sale of several silver collector coins and sets including the uncirculated American Silver Eagles and the American the Beautiful Five Ounce silver coins. Plummeting silver prices prompted the Mint to initiate several product suspensions on Monday.

In a dimly lit underground vault a block from Camden Yards, the Federal Reserve is holding millions of dollars in cash that nobody wants... But a 2005 law requires the reserve bank to keep ordering coins regardless of its stockpile, and so vaults in Baltimore and around the country are filling up. ... a 2008 Harris poll that showed 76 percent of Americans prefer paper money. It costs 30 cents to make a $1 coin, but the Fed purchases it for face value - and the U.S. Treasury pockets the difference. In 2010, the Mint put about 400 million $1...

...President Obama, who in April 2010 deemed a VAT “something that would be novel for the United States”, announced on Monday his intention to nominate Princeton University’s Alan B. Krueger to head the Council of Economic Advisors. In a 2009 blog post for the New York Times, Krueger wrote: “Why not pass a 5 percent consumption tax to take effect two years from now?” Even when pressed, the Obama White House has never ruled out a VAT. As the timeline below illustrates, those in and around the White House have been flirting with a VAT from the earliest days:December 18,...

The year 2013 might go down in the annals of numismatics as significant as 1933 when gold coinage was suspended or 1965, the year copper-nickel began to displace the former silver coinage. That’s the opinion of Deputy Mint Director Richard Peterson, who has been the top executive at the U.S. Mint since Ed Moy resigned the directorship at the end of last year. He was speaking at his Aug. 19 press conference at the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money held in Rosemont, Ill. It will be in 2013 that Peterson will have to go back to Congress with...

Why You Need to Own Nickels, Right NowRobert WenzelSaturday, February 5, 2011 On November 11, 2010, I wrote in the EPJ Daily Alert: Back at the commodity level, copper is the latest to hit a record at $8,966 a ton. Copper is certainly not a "goldbug" play and is simply an indicator of economic (inflationary) demand. At some point, nickels, which are mostly made of copper, will start to disappear from circulation. There's right now 6.2 cents worth of metal in a nickel [Note the value is now up to 7.2 cents.-RW]. When I run into someone that does not...

...The hoard of copper alloy coins, dating from the 3rd Century, was unearthed in Montgomery, Powys, several weeks ago. About 900 were found by a member of a Welshpool metal detecting club, with the rest of the discovery made with help from archaeologists. The exact location is being kept secret to protect the site. The Powys coroner will determine whether they qualify as treasure. Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust (CPAT), which helped unearth the coins, said the discovery had the potential to reveal more about Roman life in mid Wales in the late 3rd Century. The find in Montgomery is a few...

It's a case that combines history and mystery--and very valuable gold coins. The stakes were certainly high: One of these rare $20 pieces sold for a record $7.59 million in 2002. Here's the story. A jury decided that a Philadelphia woman, Joan Langbord, who found the coins in her father's bank deposit box, never should have owned them, and that the U.S. government was right to take them back. The government argued that the never-circulated gold coins should never have been anywhere outside the U.S. Mint. Only a half-million of the coins were made. The rare "double eagle" coins, designed...

PHILADELPHIA — A jury has decided the U.S. government rightfully seized a set of rare 1933 gold coins from a Philadelphia family. The verdict Wednesday caps an unusual civil case that combined history, coin collecting and whether the $20 “double eagles” legally left the U.S. Mint. Prosecutors say the coins never circulated when the country went off the gold standard — and were therefore stolen. But 81-year-old Joan Langbord argues that her late father, a jeweler, could have acquired them legally. The trial judge will next rule on “ownership” of the coins later this year. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero...

A jeweler's heirs are fighting the United States government for the right to keep a batch of rare and valuable "Double Eagle" $20 coins that date back to the Franklin Roosevelt administration. It's just the latest coin controversy to make headlines. Philadelphian Joan Langbord and her sons say they found the 10 coins in 2003 in a bank deposit box kept by Langbord's father, Israel Switt, a jeweler who died in 1990. But when they tried to have the haul authenticated by the U.S. Treasury, the feds, um, flipped. They said the coins were stolen from the U.S. Mint back...

A cache of about 200,000 ancient coins has been discovered in a well at a construction site in Suzhou in eastern China, archaeologists say. The king's ransom of coins, weighing in at about 4 tons, are likely from the Northern Son Dynasty, which ran from A.D. 960 to A.D. 1126, the state news agency Xinhua reported Saturday. The city's archaeological institute said archaeologists went to the site after construction workers came upon the coins Wednesday. Archaeologists' conjecture is the coins may have been hidden by an unidentified wealthy family during war in the relatively prosperous region.

Believe it or not Ripley! The People’s Bank of China(PBOC) recommended yesterday that 1 billion Chinese consider buying gold as a hedge against inflation and to preserve values in a world where currencies can fall. The PBOC Financial Markets Review came out just as several major currencies were indeed declining in value against gold; the dollar,1%, the Swiss franc,2.5%, t he British pound, 2%, and the Japanese yen, 2%. Wow! Be like the Fed telling you to buy oil stocks or crude oil futures due to expectation higher gasoline prices this summer. So, add the PBOC to other secular influences...

Salt Lake City - The state of Utah is on the verge implementing its own proto-Gold Standard. The House and Senate have voted in favor of HB317, which would make gold and silver coins legal tender. Governor Gary Herbert has until the end of the month to veto the bill. “The gold standard would keep you from printing money and destroying the middle class,” said Republican Congressman and potential 2012 Presidential candidate Ron Paul. “Every country where you have runaway inflation, there's no middle class. Mexico, there's no middle class, you have a huge poor class, and a lot of...

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on February 16, 2011, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Phoenix, Arizona. TO BEGIN, consider one of the most important measures of property, the kilogram. It’s a measure of mass or, for non-scientific purposes, weight. According to the papers last week, a global scramble is under way to define this most basic unit after it was discovered that the standard kilogram—a cylinder of platinum and iridium that is maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures—has been losing mass. You may think that this is impossible. Of all the...

The U.S. Mint has begun the process of research and evaluation, eventually setting the stage for new coin compositions, as well as potentially changing bullion coin allocations. The U.S. Mint Monday announced it is seeking public input on factors to be considered in research and evaluation for alternative metallic coinage materials to be considered in the production of all circulating coins. The announcement, which is a result of The Coin Modernization, Oversight and Continuity Act of 2010, is setting the stage for a major overhaul of the metals composition of coins and how the Mint is going to manufacture them....

Summary Counterfeit coins by the thousands are turning up in Washington state, and authorities are warning coin collectors to be on the lookout for them. Click on link for video

The launch of 5-ounce America the Beautiful silver coins has been delayed while the U.S. Mint investigates consumer concerns over price premiums, the agency said. The U.S. Mint was slated to sell the coins yesterday. On Dec. 5, in a memo to authorized dealers, the agency said it would delay the program to “evaluate” consumer complaints about “the high prices and premiums being charged in the market.” Silver futures in New York, up 67 percent this year, touched a 30-year high of $30.75 an ounce on Dec. 7.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) - The U.S. Mint's American Eagle silver coins sales are set to rise to a record above 4 million ounces in November, as a European sovereign debt crisis and economic uncertainty prompted individual investors to bet on silver and gold as safe havens. Total sales of the popular one-ounce silver American Eagles rose to 4.2 million coins in November, the highest monthly sales since their introduction in 1986. In October 3.2 million one-ounce Eagles were sold, the Mint's web site showed on Tuesday. The figure does not include sales from Nov. 30 but is already well above...

Today, the U.S. Treasury released a $1 coin commemorating former President James Buchanan. And people aren't happy about it. To understand why, some background is helpful. In 2007, thanks to a bill promoted by then-Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire, the Treasury began minting $1 coins with the likenesses of former Presidents, starting with George Washington. The coins -- which have been appearing ever since, featuring a new President every three months -- are meant to improve use and circulation of America's dollar coins, which are often seen as an awkward misfit among currency, neither fish nor fowl. Sununu's initiative...

$1 coin: Americans have hoarded $1 coins since the early years of the Republic. The first silver dollars minted by the US government in 1794 are rare, so rare that one of them sold for more than $1.2 million this weekend at a Boston auction. And there's a reason for their scarcity: Even back in the first years of the Republic, people hoarded dollar coins rather than spend them. The story goes that on Oct. 15, 1794, chief coiner Henry Voigt coined 1,758 of the silver dollars and delivered them to David Rittenhouse, director of the US Mint, according to...

The coins, each weighing 400 milligrams, have markings in UrduAncient gold coins were unearthed at Kottamalam village near Kadambur block in Sathyamangalam taluk on Sunday.A villager stumbled upon an earthen pot containing the coins numbering 744 when he was cleaning his piece of land along with wife and two grand daughters near his house. It was said that the people in the village shared the treasure.On hearing the information, Village Administrative Officer alerted the Sathyamangalam Tahsildar. Along with a team of police personnel, the revenue officials rushed to the village and took possession of the coins, each weighed around 400...

One of the largest ever finds of Roman coins in Britain has been made by a man using a metal detector. The hoard of more than 52,000 coins dating from the 3rd Century AD was found buried in a field near Frome in Somerset. The coins were found in a huge jar just over a foot (30cm) below the surface by Dave Crisp, from Devizes in Wiltshire. "I have made many finds over the years, but this is my first major coin hoard," he said. After his metal detector gave a "funny signal", Mr Crisp says he dug down 14in...

Gold Coins Flying Off US Mint Shelves Show Highest Sales In 11 Years By Rocky Vega 06/02/10 Stockholm, Sweden – Demand for gold has again cleaned out the US Mint, even with the physical metal at record nominal price levels over $1,200 an ounce. In May, the Mint managed to ship out 190,000 one-ounce gold American Eagles. The sales number breaks a record for any single month going back 11 years to 1999. According to Reuters: “In January 1999, the U.S. mint sold 208,500 gold 1-ounce coins, with only five other months exceeding May’s gold coin sales since the program...

We've got approximately two dozen silver dollars that have been in a plastic bag for several years ranging in age from 1880 to 1924. They have never been cleaned but look kind of dirty and the earlier ones do not appear to be Morgan silver dollars. I have been told that I might get a few dollars for each. I know nothing how this works so I am asking here. Is it best to take these to a coin dealer or would I get more money where one is looking to buy silver and I get paid for its weight?

Will the increased cost of base metals finally bring about a change to the composition of coins? President Obama's recently submitted 2011 Budget includes a proposal to allow the United States Mint greater flexibility in the material composition of coins for the purpose of reducing production costs. Since 2006, it has cost the US Mint more than face value to produce and distribute the penny and nickel. This has led many to debate the merits of eliminating the lower denominations or at least altering the compositions. In 2008 a bill was introduced known as the Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings...

Dating from 211 BC and found near the Leicestershire village of Hallaton, the coin was uncovered with 5,000 other coins, a helmet and a decorated bowl. Unearthed in 2000 by a metal detectorist, staff at the nearby Harborough Museum have only just realised its significance. One side of the coin depicts the goddess Roma wearing her characteristic helmet while mythical twins Castor and Pollux sit astride galloping horses on the reverse. David Sprason, Leicestershire County Council cabinet member for communities and well-being said: 'Leicestershire boasts the largest number of Iron Age coins ever professionally excavated in Britain. 'To also have...

The United States is honoring our Nation's Presidents by issuing $1 circulating coins featuring their images in the order that they served in office. The United States Mint issues four Presidential $1 Coins each year, with Presidents Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, and Lincoln being honored in 2010. Each coin has a common reverse design featuring a striking rendition of the Statue of Liberty. These coins feature large, dramatic artwork, as well as edge-incused inscriptions of the year of minting, or issuance, E PLURIBUS UNUM and the mint mark. In 2009 "In God We Trust" was moved from the edge to the...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United States Mint today announced the new design that Americans will see on the reverse (tails side) of Native American $1 Coins next year. The design, based on the theme "Government - The Great Tree of Peace," depicts the Hiawatha Belt with five arrows bound together, with the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, $1, Haudenosaunee and Great Law of Peace. The United States Mint will commence issuing these coins in January 2010, and they will be available throughout 2010.

The U.S. Mint has announced that will stop selling 1-ounce gold bullion coins. Demand has been so strong that they've effectively run out of 2009 American Eagle coins. They sold 124,000 coins in November alone, after selling 115,000 in October and September. Have no fear, they plan to resume coin sales in early December. Reuters via CNBC: Produced from gold mined in the United States, the 22-karat American Eagles have been novel items among collectors and investors since their introduction in 1986. Each coin has a face value of $50 but it is sold by authorized dealers at a premium...

"The 2009 design depicts four faces representing the diversity of our Nation, with the clothing and hair weaving together symbolizing the principle, To Form a More Perfect Union."

The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — SNIPPET: "Khaled Nawaya, a flight instructor, was arrested by Canada Border Services agents when they found $800,000 in gold coins and other currency in his car and pockets on Oct. 6, as he crossed into Surrey, B.C., near Vancouver." SNIPPET: "He'd been living in the U.S. since he was 17 and had gained approval for permanent residency in Canada. Besides the gold, Canadian agents found a ring bearing the insignia of Hezbollah, which has been listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government since 2002. They also seized 9/11 conspiracy theory-themed DVDs and a...

JERUSALEM – Israel displayed for the first time Wednesday a collection of rare coins charred and burned from the Roman destruction of the Jewish Temple nearly 2,000 years ago. About 70 coins were found in an excavation at the foot of a key Jerusalem holy site. They give a rare glimpse into the period of the Jewish revolt that eventually led to the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in A.D. 70, said Hava Katz, curator of the exhibition. The Jews rebelled against the Roman Empire and took over Jerusalem in A.D. 66. After laying siege to Jerusalem, the Romans...

"In an unprecedented find, a group of Egyptian researchers and archeologists has discovered a cache of coins from the time of the Pharaohs. Its importance lies in the fact that it provides decisive scientific evidence disproving the claim by some historians that the ancient Egyptians were unfamiliar with coins and conducted their trade through barter. "The researchers discovered the coins when they sifted through thousands of small archeological artifacts stored in [the vaults of] the Museum of Egypt. [Initially] they took them for charms, but a thorough examination revealed that the coins bore the year in which they were minted...

13 gold coins have been found, wrapped together, by the river in Córdoba If you know where to look, buried treasure can still be found in Spain. The latest find was not however thanks to a map marked with an ‘X’, but came as part of an archaeological excavation as part of new drainage works in Córdoba, close to the famous Roman Bridge in the city centre. 13 gold coins, escudos, from the reign of Carlos III, dated from 1776 to 1801, and wrapped in a cloth, were found under a layer of limestone which has kept them in a...

Roy Langbord had guessed that someone in his family might have hidden away a great treasure decades before, but not until his mother had him check a long-neglected safe-deposit box did he realize just how great it was. Inside the box, opened in 2003, he found an incredibly rare coin, wrapped in a delicate paper sleeve. It was a gold $20 piece with Lady Liberty on one side, a bald eagle flying across the other and, at Liberty’s left, the four digits that made it so valuable: 1933. The famous “double eagles” from that year were never officially released by...

A very large and important find of a hoard of Roman coins was recently discovered by a novice metal detector user in the Shrewsbury area. This is probably one of the largest coin hoards ever discovered in Shropshire. The finder, Mr Nic. Davies, bought his first metal detector a month ago and this is his first find made with it. The hoard was discovered close to a public bridleway on land that Mr Davies did not have permission to detect on. All land is owned by someone and it is important that permission to search is obtained in advance. The...

ROME – World leaders attending the Group of Eight summit opening Wednesday in Italy will each be presented with a gift from the past and one for the future. Handmade books portraying works by Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova, as well as gold coins representing an imaginary future world currency will be given to the participants at the opening of the three-day summit...

Sales of gold and silver bullion coins were up sharply in the first half of 2009, when dealers were citing strong physical demand amid worries about other investments. Sales remained strong but abated somewhat in late spring and early summer, but there are at least some signs it might be on the rise again, said one dealer. “Over the last 30 days, business has picked up again mostly because, I believe, there is a lot of skepticism still in the market about which way the economy is heading,” said Scott Thomas, president and chief executive of American Precious Metals Exchange...

PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS: Ever looked at your spare change before you spend it? There may be a treasure or two lurking about. Such was the case of a friend of mine who works in retail. Part of his job is to make sure the automatic change dispensers are working. Recently, however, he was called down after one of the dispensers became jammed. On closer inspection, he discovered at first glance what appeared to be a slug. Imagine his surprise when he pulled from the dispenser, an 1865 Indian head U.S. penny (see photos to the right). I must admit...

New Dollar coin "In God We Trust" IS GONE! The printing of these coins was supposedly an accident - it was only to "test the waters" for what they plan to do, by removing that from all new currency. From Antoniette D. Walker REFUSE NEW COINS This simple action will make a strong statement. Please help do this. Refuse to accept these when they are handed to you. I received one from the Post Office as change and I asked for a dollar bill instead. The lady just smiled and said 'way to go', so she had read this e-mail....

In the heart of Vienna in a Biedermeier building commissioned by Emperor Franz I, a man wearing a khaki uniform and beret exchanges a wad of euro notes across the counter for a few sparkling gold coins. Guenther Fuchssteiner, 59, is a military doctor who for over 20 years has been coming to the Austrian Mint and exchanging whatever spare money he has for gold, following a habit established by his parents. "I have always tried to put a little bit of gold aside, as an investment, and I have been doing so more since the crisis," said Fuchssteiner. A...