Anything gold is hot! All U.S. gold coins are now experiencing intensely strong demand, from American Eagle bullion coins to common-date circulated coins minted prior to 1933, as well as all rare issue and all early gold coins (those pieces minted from 1795 to 1839). That covers it all – all gold coins ever struck by U.S. Mints! In fact, the gold bullion price has been making such huge, fast fluctuations, pull¬ing the gold coin market with it, that values are changing faster than we can publish. At least one coin dealer has re¬marked that coin prices are increasing by about 10 percent per week.

July 31st 2006 is the day our small change changes forever. Not since our $1 and $2 coins came into existence fifteen years ago have we seen such a dramatic transformation in the New Zealand monetary system. Two of our silver coins – the 50 and the 20 cent piece – will become lighter and smaller. The 10 cent coin gets the biggest makeover, losing weight and changing colour - to copper. We also say a fond farewell to the five cent piece.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -- Gold rose to a 25-year high above $700 an ounce on Wednesday, prompting some investors to take profits on bullion's sharp rally this year, while platinum surged to a record high on speculative buying. Gold has risen around 35 percent this year as investors diversified into precious metals as a hedge against global tensions, including over Iran's nuclear ambitions, rising energy costs and uncertainty about the dollar's outlook.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Platinum surged to a record high on Tuesday due to fund buying in Japan and ahead of seasonally busy summer months while gold took a breather after reaching a 25-year high the previous day....Platinum, used in jewellery and as an auto catalyst, has risen around 23 percent this year as investors diversified into precious metals on record-high oil prices, tension in the Middle East over Iran's nuclear ambitions and uncertainty about the dollar's outlook.

NGC is now offering certification for gold coins being auctioned by the Ministry of Finance of Japan. In order to preserve their unique heritage and pedigree, NGC will grade these coins while still sealed within their original holders of issue. A tamper evident label and holograms will then be applied to the holder. NGC offers a similar program for Silver Dollars sold by the US General Services Administration (GSA) in a series of auctions held between 1973 and 1980. These coins are currently being sold by the Japanese government in a series of auctions

Spanish authorities said on Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of small investors may have been swindled by two stamp-trading companies. Police raided the offices of Forum Filatélico and Afinsa, two companies that placed investors' savings into stamp-investing schemes. Some 300 police officers sealed the headquarters of the companies and the vaults where stamps were stored.....Afinsa is also the largest shareholder in the Escala Group, a Nasdaq-listed auction house and stamp and coin dealer in the US.

NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India has introduced a new series of 'star' banknote, which will be issued in Rs 10, Rs 20 and Rs 50 denominations to replace defective notes in various series. The new series of notes would look like the existing ones in the Mahatma Gandhi series but will have an additional character - a (star) in the number panel, a RBI release said.

Now, I don't know much about how to make money, at least not how the U.S. Mint makes it. But it seems to me that if it costs more to make a coin than it's worth, that's a problem. And if the mint were to keep making a coin and selling it for less than it's really worth, people might start hoarding the coin in hopes of cashing in.That would mean the mint would have to make even more coins to keep up with rising demand. And when you're making as many coins as the U.S. Mint - 1.7 billion nickels this year, 8.7 billion pennies - and losing money on just about every one of them, that doesn't sound like a great way to make money.

A unique look at the rarest coinage of South Africa - “Rumored to exist,” “reported but unconfirmed,” and “existence reported in Baldwin Collection,” are terms that generate intrigue among serious numismatists. When a collection of the magnitude of the Royle Baldwin Collection of South African coins comes to light, it offers a rare opportunity to solve some of these numismatic riddles. The collection did not disappoint on any of these counts.Assembled by a member of the Baldwin family, professional numismatists in the UK, during the first part of the Twentieth century, this collection of South African coinage includes many of its most fabled coins.

Smythe 's Spring Currency and Stock and Bond Auction in New York City March 28-29 realized over $1 million. The sale, number 260 for the firm, contained more than 1,400 lots, including obsolete notes from the Herb and Martha Schingoethe Collection and a collection of Confederate rarities from other consignors, as well as stocks and bonds.Highlights included a couple of Santa Claus notes from Part 6 of the Herb and Martha Schingoethe Collection.

KUALA LUMPUR: After the terrible insult of being dropped as the mascot of Terengganu’s 2008 Sukma Games and replaced by Nemo the clown fish, the penyu or greenback turtle has made a comeback. Thanks to Bank Negara, the turtle is now immortalised in a commemorative coin as part of the central bank’s “Endangered Marine Animals and Reptile” series. The coin – made of Nordic gold alloy with a face value of 25 sen and sold at RM5.50 each

Coin dealer allegedly got $440,200 through checks - Nearly two dozen times over six years, Tom Noe leaned on his boyhood, business, and political friends for money, prosecutors contend. Documents released recently allege that Mr. Noe wrote checks from money in the state’s coin funds to his friends, forged their signatures, and then deposited the money — a total of $440,200 — into accounts he controlled.

Due to the recent surge in the price of metals, the value of a single United States Nickel is now worth more than it’s face value. According to the NYMEX, the largest physical commodity exchange in the world, the threshold was crossed on May 1st. How could this happen? The answer is short, but not sweet. Rapid inflation in metal prices combined with a devaluing United States dollar, is creating a recipe for currency disaster.

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Gov. Chris Gregoire unveiled a salmon breaching the water in front of a conifer-trimmed Mount Rainier as the flip-side design for Washington state's commemorative quarter on Thursday. Gregoire, speaking to about 30 students from Olympia's Centennial Elementary School, said the image showcased two of Washington's most famous natural features.

LONDON (Reuters) - Museums, metal detectorists and archaeologists in England and Wales on Tuesday agreed a code of conduct to try to protect the country's buried treasures from being plundered by the unscrupulous or the unaware. The voluntary code follows the massive looting of the Roman-Celtic temple at Wanborough in Surrey in the mid-1980s and with customs officers seizing increasing numbers of undeclared historical artefacts being smuggled out of the country.

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