U.S. Marshals Commemorative Coin Goes On Sale!

WASHINGTON — About a dozen coin and U.S. Marshal enthusiasts were lined up shortly before noon Thursday in the lobby of the U.S. Mint, eager to purchase the newest commemorative coins celebrating the 225th anniversary of the nation’s oldest law enforcement agency.

US Marshals Commemorative Silver Coin

“I had to be first. I’m representing my agency,” said Will King, a 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marshals Service.

King and fellow marshal Maurice Shanks were actually second and third in line to purchase the coins, which went on sale in Washington at noon. Shanks, a five-year veteran of the agency, said he was buying two silver dollar coins to hold for his 7-year-old twins.

“It’s something to show my kids when they get older,” said Shanks, who like King is a member of the U.S. Marshals Capitol Area Regional Task Force.

Sales of the coins — a $5 gold, $1 silver and half-dollar copper-clad — include a surcharge that will go to the U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith. The museum could receive up to $5 million from the purchases.

The bureau is authorized to mint and issue up to 100,000 $5 gold coins, 500,000 $1 silver coins, and 750,000 half-dollar clad coins.

The coins are now on sale at U.S. Mint stores and online. Coins are being sold individually or in a set of three coins. Only 15,000 sets are available.

Shanks had hoped to also purchase a three-coin set but none was available at the store. The sets, however, could be ordered online.

Will Carter, a Washington, D.C., coin collector, said he wanted to get the three-coin set but was also interested in purchasing individual coins.

“It’s new, and I think it will be highly sought after because it has the gold coin,” he said.

Carter, who has been collecting coins since 1953, said that many of the commemorative coins authorized by Congress do not include gold, silver and copper-clad.

Coins can be ordered online catalog.usmint.gov at or by calling (800) USA-MINT (872-6468). Hearing- and speech-impaired customers with TTY equipment may order at (888) 321-MINT.

The three-coin set is on sale for $473. The $5 gold proof coin is being sold for $412.60, $1 silver proof is $46.95, and half-dollar copper-clad proof is $14.95. Prices for uncirculated gold, silver and copper-clad coins run a few dollars less. Prices will increase about $5 after March 2.

http://swtimes.com/news/us-marshals-commemorative-coin-goes-sale

2015 £20 Churchill Silver Coin at Face Value

Sir Winston Churchill appears as the subject of a new .999 fine silver coin now available from the Royal Mint. Offered as the third issue in the Mint’s £20 for £20 series, it honors the noted British statesman and is sold at its legal tender face value of £20.

                                                  £20 Sir Winston Churchill Silver Coin

Mintage for the UK 2015 £20 Sir Winston Churchill Silver Coin is limited to 200,000. This is a decrease of 50,000 from the previous two coins from the series that sold out.

"Sir Winston Churchill – the great British prime minister – whose leadership in the Second World War inspired Britain’s armed forces, reassured a nation and encouraged the support of allies that united for victory in 1945," describes the Royal Mint. "Such an influential figure deserves to be honoured, and The Royal Mint has chosen Churchill as the subject for the third UK £20 fine silver coin to be available at face value."

The Royal Mint’s £20 for £20 program debuted with the UK 2013 St George and the Dragon Silver Coin and was followed up by the UK 2014 Outbreak Silver Coin which commemorated the one hundred year anniversary of the beginning of World War I.

Churchill Silver Coin Designs and Specifications
Figurative sculptor Etienne Millner designed the likeness of Sir Winston Churchill which appears on the reverse of the coin. The image’s inspiration comes from the well-known photograph of Churchill taken by Yousuf Karsh in 1941. Inscribed below the statesman is CHURCHILL.

Ian Rank-Broadley’s effigy of Queen Elizabeth II graces the obverse. Inscriptions surrounding the portrait include ELIZABETH II, D G REG FD, 2015 and the face value of 20 POUNDS.

Churchill Silver Coin Specifications
Face Value:  £20
Mintage:  200,000
Composition:  999 fine silver
Weight:  15.71g
Diameter:  27.00mm
Reverse Designer:  Etienne Millner
Obverse Designer:  Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS
Quality:  Brilliant Uncirculated

Ordering
UK 2015 £20 Sir Winston Churchill Silver Coins may be ordered directly from the Royal Mint via its website at www.royalmint.com or via this affiliate link to the coin.

Each coin comes attached to a presentation card which includes a photographic image of Churchill along with brief information and specifications on the release. A limit of ten coins per household applies.

http://www.silvercoinstoday.com/2015-20-churchill-silver-coin-at-face-value/1010742/

Precious Metals Demand Continues To Buzz - Biggest Price Move Yet To Come!

Despite the fact that it often seemed as if the fundamental and the technical aspects of the precious metals market were at war with each other, silver bull David Morgan believed both methodologies could be used to great benefit.

“These are not dead markets and based on research and experience, the biggest precious metals price move is ahead of us,” he told investors attending the Cambridge House International Vancouver Resource Investment Conference 2015.

Morgan pointed to rising precious metals demand, specifically for gold, from Asian countries such as India and China, which were setting the stage for the next chapter in the precious metals story.

He noted that investment demand for gold had risen significantly in India in recent years, as people who traditionally invested in more accessible silver, made the switch to gold as the population became increasingly affluent.

Despite this, silver demand also remained robust. This contributed to the significant trend of gold bullion moving from the West to the East. He said the most productive economies were the ones most likely to accumulate gold, as was evident with China currently aggressively buying gold. The country currently held about 20% of the global gold reserves.

Asia and China accounted for more than 52% of the global gold demand, after Hong Kong significantly started to lift its gold imports into the country. This started just after the gold price peaked at $1 921.50/oz on September 6, 2011.

This trend today continued unabated. According to Morgan’s data, physical gold holdings comprised about 3% of the total wealth in all asset classes, or about $33-billion out of $962-billion in total assets.

He expected the Shanghai exchange to become the new gold exchange of the world, much in the same way as the LSE had dominated the scene over the past several decades. Other metals were also expected to follow suit.

Morgan believed that the geographic shift might be a good thing, as Shanghai tended to be more transparent in its price setting than its Western peers. GREY MATTERS

Morgan, who has a penchant for silver, said the metal had not seen a lot of demand from professional investors in recent years and pointed out that it would be interesting to see how the markets would react if somebody took a significant position in the current milieu.

He said the $14.15/oz intraday low silver recorded in November was probably the bottom of the cycle for the grey metal, signalling the gradual and inevitable uptick in price. Dramatic low-price spikes were tell-tale signals that the price was possibly about to start an upward trajectory once more.

In 1980, the silver price rose to a peak for modern times of $49.45/oz owing to market manipulation by Nelson Bunker Hunt and Herbert Hunt. Inflation-adjusted to 2012, this would be about $138/oz.

Meanwhile, silver bullion sales had taken off. Sales of the top three silver coins, the American Silver Eagle, the Canadian Maple Leaf and Austrian Silver Vienna Philharmonic coins had grown from about $36.18-billion in 2008 to $85.78-billion in 2013.

Silver imports into India were also gaining traction once more, Morgan noted. Further, global silver output was on the rise, growing from about 600-million ounces in 2004 to almost $800-million in 2013. Most of the additional output stemmed from by-product output in the gold industry, at a ratio of about 10:1, as well as a significant rise in primary silver output.

Morgan said peak silver output had not yet been reached, although the industry was not far from it. Scrap supply was expected to remain at about 200-million ounces a year.

Adding to the strong fundamentals for the metal, technology was continually finding new uses for the metal in a swelling spread of applications, spanning diverse industries.

The photovoltaic (PV) industry, for example, had in recent years pushed demand for the metal up by a significant margin. However, as the steady march of innovation waits for no one, the use of silver in PV had also in recent times been economised, somewhat mitigating the demand impact the green technology had on silver.

http://www.miningweekly.com/article/precious-metals-demand-continues-to-buzz-biggest-price-move-yet-to-come-2015-01-19