Blog

“The U.S. Mint’s sales of American Eagle coins surged in November, with gold nearly tripling month-over-month and silver already reaching a new annual record as bullion prices fell to multi-year lows” reported Reuters. The mint sold 97,000 ounces of American Eagle gold coins in November, up 185 percent from October and 62 percent higher from a year ago, after selling out of most of the 2015-dated coins as falling bullion prices attracted buyers.Strong demand came as spot gold XAU= prices fell around 7 percent to the lowest in nearly six years. This was the gold market’s biggest monthly drop in [...]

Southern Silver Exploration Corp. (TSXV:SSV) announced that core drilling on the Cerro Las Minitas project, Durango State, Mexico has identified thick intervals of high-grade semi-massive and massive sulphide mineralization in drill hole 15CLM-081. As quoted in the press release: The mineralized intercepts represent a significant lateral offset from previously outlined mineralization of the Blind-El Sol zones. Highlights from drill hole CLM-081 include: a 16.8m down hole interval (8.7m est TT) averaging 136g/t Ag, 0.5%Cu, 0.3% Pb and 4.5% Zn (361g/t AgEq) including a 4.1m down hole interval (2.1m est TT) averaging 160g/t Ag, 0.6% Cu, 0.4% Pb and 12.0% Zn (663g/t [...]

While gold prices continue to languish in the doldrums and are on course for their worst month since 2013, global demand and especially Chinese retail, investor and official demand continues to remain very robust. Indeed, China looks likely to see a new record demand for gold annually again in 2015.Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) deliveries as reported last Friday were again very robust with another 54.063 tonnes of bullion deliveries for the week ending November 20th. Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) deliveries remain the best indicator or proxy for actual Chinese demand and appear to show Chinese gold demand is heading for [...]

Map Collecting and Paper Money Sammy Berk, Banknotes & Antique Maps, Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. David Lisot, Interviewer & Producer David Lisot attended the 2015 PCDA show in Rosemont, Illinois, where he met up with Harlan J. Berk’s Banknote and Map expert Sammy Berk. In this video, Sammy describes the market for the stimulating field […] The post Harlan J. Berk’s Sammy Berk Describes the Market for Map Collecting – Video: 4:16 appeared first on CoinWeek.

Two major U.S. currency auction sales have taken place since our last issue, closing the curtain on major currency auction events for 2015. Both sales reflected the overall health of the rare currency market. First up was the Stacks Bowers Baltimore sale, which took place the first week of November and realized over $1.5 million in one live and one online-only session. The superstar note of the sale was a unique 1864 $500 Interest Bearing Note. Cataloged as Friedberg 212b and graded by PMG as Very Fine-25 Net, it brought $352,500 after having been off the market for over 40 [...]

Christine Lagarde and the IMF Executive Board recently announced their intention to include the Chinese renminbi (RMB) in the Special Drawing Rights’ (SDR) valuation formula.  This would bring the Chinese currency into an exclusive group – alongside the US dollar, the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen - of 5 global currencies that make up the IMF’s own reserve currency.  So, what will this promotion really mean for the yuan? A bank teller counts out YuanIn market terms, not a whole lot it would seem.The inclusion of the RMB in the SDR basket will not significantly increase demand for the [...]

The abuse of power is staggering.Time and time again over the last number of years the largest global banks have been found complicit in the manipulation of key rates, indices and markets. Now, a large and important pension fund has taken the largest of banks to task and filed a class action lawsuit alleging conspiracy to thwart competition and extract large fees and margins from the vast and critical interest rate swap market. The banks “have been able to extract billions of dollars in monopoly rents, year after year, from the class members in this case,” the suit states.Interest rates [...]

Silver investors are often interested to hear which countries produce the most of the metal. After all, if a nation is producing a lot of silver, many companies are likely operating there — and investment opportunities may thus be available.  However, what investors sometimes fail to consider is silver reserves, or how much economically mineable silver a country holds. While in general the world’s top silver-producing countries also hold high silver reserves, in some cases countries with high silver reserves are not putting out much of the metal. With that in mind, here’s an overview of silver reserves by country, with a particular [...]

Why does the lack of liquidity in bond markets have many of the world’s top economic opinion-makers worried?  Ben Wright writing in the Telegraph reports on the voices in “the chorus of doom” and explains why the evaporation of this liquidity in the global fixed income market signals “a warning shot across the bow”. Where did all the liquidity go? Photo: Ryan Brennecke“Every market is a tug-of-war between buyers and sellers. Liquidity is a gauge of both the size of the market (the number of buyers and sellers) and its depth (the number of buyers and sellers of both small and large amounts of [...]

Comstock Mining Inc. (NYSEMKT:LODE) announced in conjunction with American Mining and Tunneling, it has completed construction of the first phase of the entire 800 foot underground exploration drift (“Harris Portal”) at the north end of the existing Lucerne Surface Mine. As quoted in the press release: The Company had previously completed extensive geological development and modeling, including analysis of surface drill hole results, metallurgy, proximity to the current Lucerne Mine floor, and historic mining data.  This resulted in a highly detailed geologic model for the Lucerne. The work confirmed that the lode is comprised of a group of northwest trending, sub-parallel, high-grade, mineralized structures. This structural [...]