World first coin-Lydian coin

Do You know what is the worlds first coin? Lydian third stater, or trite, minted sometime around 600 BC in Lydia, Asia Minor (current-day Turkey), a country in close geographic and cultural proximity to the Greek colonies in Asia Minor Is the world 1st coin. It's made of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver called "white gold" in ancient times (50-60 percent gold with these coins). One of the many fascinating aspects of this coin is the mysterious sunburst above the lion's eye. Most of the early Lydian coins have no writing on them, just images of symbolic animals. Therefore the dating of these coins relies primarily on archeological evidence, with the most commonly cited evidence coming from excavations at the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, also called the Ephesian Artemision (which would later evolve into one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world). A small percentage of early Lydian coins include writing, called a "legend" or "inscription." Another famous early electrum coin with a legend is from nearby Caria, Asia Minor, with the legend reading, "I am the badge of Phanes." Nothing is known about who Phanes was, but one logical assumption is that he was a wealthy merchant. The Lydian’s invented a way to verify if gold was pure or not, they used a black stone that was like jasper and later became known as the touchstone. The goldsmiths would rub the gold object against a set of 24 needles containing varying amounts of the 3 metals: gold, silver, and copper. The 24th needle of course was pure gold, thus creating the system to show that 24 carats is pure gold, (carat is a word derived from the Greek word Keration.)Read More.

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China 1kilo gold coin sold USD1.29million

A 1992 China Compass 2,000 yuan one kilo gold proof coin, produced by the Shenyang Mint, was sold in August for US$1.29 million (HK$10.06 million), the auctioneer Champion Hong Kong announced.

The auctioneer said that it was a new world record price for a modern kilo gold Chinese coin. The coin had been certified by third-party agency, Numismatic Guaranty Corp, which provides grading services for numismatists. The 2,000 yuan coin is part of a series celebrating Chinese inventions and discoveries. The obverse features a compass and the Great Wall is on the reverse.

A Korean Yung Hi gold 20 won coin was sold for US$632,500, (including the 15 percent buyer's fee), early last month, Coin World reports.

The sale was recorded at the Dr Norman Jacobs Collection of Japanese and Korean coins auction on September 8 conducted by US-based Heritage Auction Galleries. The gold coin is part of the only set of Year 3 (1909) Korean Yung Hi gold five, 10 and 20-won coins available in private hands. The only other known set is held in the Bank of Japan museum, Coin World says.

Recommended reading: 2011 Standard Catalog of World Coins 1901-2000, and The Expert's Guide to Collecting and Investing in Rare Coins

Noteworthy: It was in 1974 that the United States restored the right to private gold ownership. Read More.

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China first Gold ATM

It has been a rough month for gold prices. But you’d never know it to see the bright red banner draped across the front of the Arts and Crafts Emporium on Beijing’s central pedestrian mall of Wangfujing, proclaiming the opening of the country’s first automated gold vending machine here.

“Gold is very popular now and this is a very convenient way to buy it, just like using a bank machine,” said a staffer with the Gongmei Gold Trading Co., watching over the machine after a brief unveiling this week. In typical new-China fashion, the gold ATM went online this week with great fanfare, then was switched off again after it couldn’t produce receipts.

But the Gongmei company which has brought the vending machine to Beijing has promised it will come out of its 8th floor hiding place and onto the emporium’s main floor this weekend once a software glitch is repaired, just in time for China’s National Day holiday.

China is the world’s second-fastest growing market for gold, with a population that is steadily becoming better off, but which has few reliable options for investment. Stock markets are volatile, the property market is inflated and limited by government restrictions, and inflation of just over 6 per cent has not abated.

The ATM dispenses gold bars and coins based on market prices, which are to be updated every 10 minutes. It can hold up to 200 kilograms of gold at once, in varying denominations.

It is opening after a rocky month for gold prices; the spot price has fallen from a high of $1,905.56 on Sept. 5 to hover around $1,624 this week.

But China’s demand for gold is growing, rising 25 per cent in this year’s second quarter, year over year. Demand for gold jewelry was up 16 per cent, while demand for gold bars and coins was up 44 per cent.

“Increasing prosperity among Chinese consumers, supported by very strong growth in the domestic economy, is still a driving force behind gold jewelry demand. However, the investment motive also remains a key influence, fuelled by the persistent high inflation that has kept real interest rates negative for some time,” reads the World Gold Council second-quarter report for this year.

Recent market losses have also been stemmed largely to the demand in China and India; while India prepares for wedding season, China has been gearing up for the gift-giving associated with the national holiday, popularly known as Golden Week.Read More.

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Why Indian buy many Gold?

Do you know why Indian buy many gold? Gold in India has traditionally been a form of Stree Dhan, a security that a woman gets from her parents and passes on to her daughters. My grandmother would give a little money every month to her jeweller and when it had saved up to something meaningful, she would have a little trinket made or necklace ordered for her daughters. Over time, while the tradition has continued, it has also become a mark of social status. It continues to remain one of the highly 'socially regarded' asset classes (next to real estate perhaps) and perhaps much of its appeal comes from its power of display.

It is only in the last 4-5 years that gold has earned a reputation of ‘high return asset.’ And somehow, we tend to believe gold prices are always going to keep going up (we'll see this a little later in this post). Now the problem is that gold jewellery is among the worst forms of 'investing' in gold. Gold jewellery is expensive as an investment. In gold jewellery, what you pay for buying the jewellery includes the costs of making the jewellery. When you go to sell the piece, some costs of melting are deducted by the jeweler. All these costs can take away up to 30% of your gains, thereby taking away much of the sheen from gold investments.

So at best, our reasons for buying gold continue to be dominated by the reasons mentioned above, more than any global economic anticipation.Read More.

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Hellenistic Gold auction by Roma Numismatics

Second public auction of Ancient Coins on 2 October will feature a unique gold coin of the enigmatic Greco-Baktrian ruler Sophytes, issued in the wake of the collapse of Alexander The Great’s empire, which may represent the very first gold issue of the Hellenistic period. Having been published several times and publicly exhibited at the Henri-Prades (Lattes) Museum in France, it will now be offered for sale for the first time. It will be on display at Roma Numismatics’ offices on Hanover Square until 01 October before going under the hammer at the Cavendish Hotel London where it is estimated to realise £200,000.

Richard Beale, Director of Roma Numismatics: “This coin is extremely important for the advancement of our knowledge of ancient Baktria, and represents a very exciting issue in the context of Greek coinage as a whole. We expect it to generate significant interest both at the pre-auction viewing and on the day itself, especially given the buoyant nature of the market for ancient coins at present. This is in part due to the increased awareness of the availability of this ancient art form, and because they are seen as a hedge against turbulence in other markets and are an attractive investment to many that can frequently bring high returns.”

The identity and origin of Sophytes has been the subject of much debate since the discovery of the first coin bearing his name in 1866. While it has been suggested that he was a Greek mercenary captain, it is more likely that he was a Greco-Indian king, as was reported in the Bibliotheca of Diodorus Siculus, with a capital at Baktra, in modern-day Afghanistan. Osmund Bopearachchi, a director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, argues in ‘Le Portrait d’Alexandre le Grand’ that Sophytes’ gold coinage must have been struck before the Greek Seleukid campaign against the Indian king Chandragupta, and that they are the coins of a powerful and independent ruler in this most eastern part of the Greek world.

The circumstances of this issue may lie hidden in the turmoil of the years following Alexander’s death and the fracture of his empire. A man such as Sophytes would have stood to gain much in this time of conflict and opportunity, and throughout the period of 316-305 BC there are no surviving records regarding the satrapy of Baktria. It has therefore been suggested that it was in this time when Seleukos, one of Alexander’s generals and successors, was campaigning to regain the lost eastern provinces, that Sophytes seized power and struck his series of gold and silver coinage, and that furthermore it is also possible that Seleukos’ campaign also had as one of its many goals, the removal of this rebel upstart.

While the facts of Sophytes life and identity may forever remain unknown to us, this coin is nevertheless of great historical and numismatic interest. The fact that this coin represents certainly one of the earliest, or indeed very possibly the first ever issue of a gold Hellenistic coin, is sure to draw the interest of collectors around the world.Read More.

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Largest gold coin mint process video

How do Royal Canadian Mint make the largest gold coins? I think everyone of you knew about the World's largest gold coin; Million-dollar coin by now. Royal Canadian Mint has released a video: Making largest gold coin. In this video, they show how the biggest world coin in the world works process done by their stuff. Its not easy to make a big coin like that and from the video, look like almost all the job are done by hands. For a 100 kilos of gold and a pure 99.999/1000 gold, a careful inspection is a must.

On May 3, 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) unveiled a Gold Maple Leaf coin by artist Stanley Witten, with a face value of $1 million Canadian dollar. The weight of the coin is 100 kilograms, and measures 50 cm in diameter by 3 cm thick. The coin is mainly a promotional product to give the RCM a higher international profile. The 100-kilogram coin was conceived as a showpiece to promote the RCM's new line of 99.999 percent pure, one-ounce gold maple leaf bullion coins.

In June 2010, a piece of this largest gold coin auctioned by Dorotheum auction house for 3.27 million euros ($4.02 million). The auction was ordered by the administrator of Austrian investment group AvW Invest, which filed for insolvency in May after its owner and chief executive was arrested on suspicion of fraud, breach of trust and other charges. the auctioned won by ORO direct, a Spanish precious metals trading company. So far, only 5 of this coins exist; including Queen Elizabeth, who is also displayed on one side of the coin, two unidentified investors in Dubai and one who is so reclusive even his or her residence is unknown. Read More.

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Mystery of Double Eagles

The most valuable coin in the world sits in the lobby of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in lower Manhattan. It’s Exhibit 18E, secured in a bulletproof glass case with an alarm system and an armed guard nearby. The 1933 Double Eagle, considered one of the rarest and most beautiful coins in America, has a face value of $20—and a market value of $7.6 million. It was among the last batch of gold coins ever minted by the U.S. government. The coins were never issued; most of the nearly 500,000 cast were melted down to bullion in 1937.

Most, but not all. Some of the coins slipped out of the Philadelphia Mint before then. No one knows for sure exactly how they got out or even how many got out. The U.S. Secret Service, responsible for protecting the nation’s currency, has been pursuing them for nearly 70 years, through 13 Administrations and 12 different directors. The investigation has spanned three continents and involved some of the most famous coin collectors in the world, a confidential informant, a playboy king, and a sting operation at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. It has inspired two novels, two nonfiction books, and a television documentary. And much of it has centered around a coin dealer, dead since 1990, whose shop is still open in South Philadelphia, run by his 82-year-old daughter.

“The 1933 Double Eagle is one of the most intriguing coins of all time,” says Jay Brahin, an investment adviser who has been collecting coins since he was a kid in Philadelphia. “It’s a freak. The coins shouldn’t have been minted, but they were. They weren’t meant to circulate, but some did. And why has the government pursued them so arduously? That’s one of the mysteries.” Read More.

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