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Cashless Society – Risks Posed By The War On Cash by Jan Skoyles, Editor Mark O'Byrne Introduction  Cash is the new “barbarous relic” according to many central banks, regulators, and some economists and there is a strong, concerted push for the 'cashless society'. Developments in recent days and weeks have highlighted the risks posed by the war on cash and the cashless society. The Presidential campaign has been dominated for months and again this week by the power of information that has been gathered through unconventional means – whether due to email hacks, leaked microphone tapes or even late-night twitter rants. [...]

Washington, DC (October 19, 2016) – In celebration of the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) is pleased to announce a new addition to its Lucky Money Collection: Year of the Rooster 2017. The rooster is one of 12 zodiac signs associated with the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Year of the Rooster 2017 is exquisitely designed with decorative Chinese symbolism and is packaged in a symbolic, red folder with embossed, gold foil. This product features an uncirculated, $1 Federal Reserve note with a serial number beginning with "8888." The Year of the Rooster 2017 represents [...]

FDR takes United States off gold standard On June 5, 1933, the United States went off the gold standard, a monetary system in which currency is backed by gold, when Congress enacted a joint resolution nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold. The United States had been on a gold standard since 1879, except for an embargo on gold exports during World War I, but bank failures during the Great Depression of the 1930s frightened the public into hoarding gold, making the policy untenable.Soon after taking office in March 1933, Roosevelt declared a nationwide bank moratorium in [...]

On Wednesday, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) won three dismissals of private antitrust lawsuits accusing them in 2010 and 2011 of placing artificial bids onto the trading floor, harangued employees at metals market COMEX to obtain prices it wanted, and made misrepresentations to a committee that set settlement prices. As quoted in the Reuters news article. This allegedly squeezed traders like Shak, who is also known for playing high-stakes poker, forcing them to post more capital to support their positions in silver futures spreads, and ultimately liquidate them at heavy losses. U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan, however, said the plaintiffs, who [...]

Silver is another 0.5% higher today after yesterday's 3% gains when silver flew through resistance at the $18 level to close at $18.26/oz. Silver has surged by similar amounts in euros and by 22% in beleaguered sterling.Silver in USD – 10 YearsThe rally for silver yesterday and today was more impressive than gold's and saw prices at their highest since mid-September of 2014. Silver has now surged 16% in a month and the next level of resistance is $21.40/oz which silver touched in July 2014.“Silver looks very bullish now and our clients are allocating to it in a big way,” we told Dow [...]

SARASOTA, FLA. (June 23, 2016) - Numismatic Guaranty Corporation® (NGC®) and Heritage Auctions have announced that the Honorable Mike Castle has agreed to hand-sign NGC labels exclusively for the companies. Castle, a former Governor of Delaware and longtime member of the US House of Representatives, is directly responsible for some of the most important and popular modern US coins. While in Congress, Castle wrote and/or sponsored the bills that created the 50 State Quarters® Program, the Sacagawea Dollar, the Presidential Dollar Series, the American Platinum Eagle, the America the Beautiful Quarters® Program and a number of modern commemoratives. The impact [...]

Gold prices were up again this week, trading at $1,315.33 per ounce as of 11:49 a.m. EST. Prices gained 4.24 percent for the week overall. With the Brexit vote closing on Thursday, prices traded as high as $1,351.60 per ounce early Friday morning. That's the highest price for the yellow metal in nearly two years, according to Market Watch. Investors surged to buy the metal after the UK's decision to leave the European Union. With a 52 percent vote to leave the EU, the British pound dropped 11 percent to 1.33, marking levels that haven't been seen since 1985. This helped give further support [...]

Note: Our trading desk will be open until 1800 UK time today (BST) and from 0700 UK time Monday morning (Monday 27th), in order to deal with the increased demand for precious metals. Gold Note – There has been record online sales on the GoldCore website for this time of day and the phones are ringing off the hook. We have had more sales than during the Lehman crisis and at the height of the Eurozone debt crisis. It is nearly all buying with a preference for gold over silver. We may have to restrict trading to existing clients if we [...]

Reports from the recent Long Beach Expo were that wholesale trading between dealers was moderate to strong, with the opening day of Thursday the busiest. Traditionally the summer rendition of the Long Beach show is a bit slower than the other two, largely due to the fact that dealers traditionally slow down in the Summer weeks leading up to the August ANA show. Items in demand at the show included mint state generic gold, better date silver dollars, and as always high quality type. The Heritage auction drew considerable bidding activity, with the U.S. coin lots garnering over $13 million, [...]

Precious metals are rallying as the coin dealer community gathers for the three-day Long Beach Expo. After falling into the low $1,200s gold has climbed up past the $1,260 level as of this writing. Likewise, silver has risen by nearly $1.25 in the past eight trading days to over $17 per ounce. As Heritage gears up for their Long Beach auction of over 3,700 lots of United States coins, featuring the expansive McClure Collection, we can take a look at some of the results of the recently concluded Goldberg sale. One of the many stars in the gold coin collection [...]