News
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October 27, 2017
Millions, billions, and trillions…
When we talk about the giant size of Apple, the fortune of Warren Buffett, or the massive amount of global debt accumulated – all of these things sound large, but they are actually extremely different in magnitude.
That’s why visualizing things spatially can give us a better perspective on money and markets.
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October 09, 2017
Even today, with all the technology of the modern world, the minting process is not perfect. Frequently, a mint will commit errors in the minting process. These are referred to as “mint-made errors.”
Note that in numismatics, the term “variety” typically refers to types of coins with both intended and unintended characteristics. On the other hand, an error is almost always and unintended consequence of a minting process. There are three basic categories of mint-made errors: Strike errors, hub-and-die errors, and planchet preparation errors.
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October 02, 2017
In the 1780s, the economy of the nascent United States suffered from a lack of circulating coinage. As the US Mint had not yet been established, some states contracted with private enterprises to produce copper coinage. Ephraim Brasher, a skilled gold, and silversmith in New York City petitioned the State of New York in 1787 with a proposal to produce copper coins for that state. His proposal was rejected, but soon after Brasher produced a handful of pattern coins in gold. It is still unclear if they were truly pattern coins for the proposed copper coinage or simply privately-minted gold coins. Either way, “Brasher’s Doubloons” have become some of the rarest and sought-after coins in American history.
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September 27, 2017
The U.S. economy is massive on a global scale, and much of the country’s economic capabilities can be traced back to the innovation, knowledge, and productivity that tends to be clustered in urban areas.
The fact is that 80% of Americans live in cities – and the 10 largest metro areas alone combine for a whopping 34% of the country’s total GDP.
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September 25, 2017
It may have taken over a century, but Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ vision for the $20 Double Eagle coin became reality in 2009.
The story of the 2009 Ultra High Relief Gold Coin actually began back in 1907, when President Theodore Roosevelt examined the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of Greek and Roman coins. Roosevelt was impressed by how the ancient coins were struck in extremely high relief. The coins’ design elemetals were boldly raised, which imparted a stunning visual effect. Roosevelt believed that America’s coinage was quite plain and uninteresting by comparison.
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September 18, 2017
Though the early United States was theoretically on a bimetallic standard – with both gold and silver legal tender – the actual use of gold and silver coinage fluctuated with the prices of those metals. The California Gold Rush of the late 1840s brought a great deal of gold onto the market. This increased the price of silver relative to gold, and much American silver coinage was exported or melted during this period.
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September 12, 2017
A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc.(NASDAQ:AMRK), (“A-Mark”), a full-service precious metals trading company and an official distributor for all the major sovereign mints, has entered into an agreement to be the exclusive distributor for the Texas Mint, a division of Texas Precious Metals (“TPM”). The catalog of Texas Mint products, including gold and silver rounds and bars, will be sourced, manufactured, and distributed through A-Mark’s vertically integrated subsidiary businesses.
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September 11, 2017
We're excited to unveil the new 2018 Texas Silver Round! The stunning 2018 Texas Silver Round features iconography as diverse and dynamic as the Lone Star State itself. Three hallmarks of the state of Texas dominate the reverse of the round: the cowboy, the bluebonnet flower, and the Texas State Capitol. The rambunctious cowboy and the peaceful bluebonnets stand on opposite sides of the foreground with the Capitol building rising majestically between them. The wildly bucking bronco and cowboy duo is a depiction of the Texas Cowboy Monument, sculpted by Constance Whitney Warren and presented to the state of Texas — considered by Warren to be the “native home of the cowboy.” The life-size statue was a tribute to the “rough and romantic riders of the range” and was erected on the Capitol grounds in 1925. The cowboy is juxtaposed with the pair of bluebonnets to the right of the Capitol. The state flowers, known to paint entire fields blue in the spring, protrude peacefully from the edge of the round, with lush leaves and delicate stalks bending gently toward the Capitol building.
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September 11, 2017
For most of its history, from 1909 to 1982, the Lincoln cent was made of bronze (an alloy of about 95% copper and 5% zinc). However, there is one exception: in 1943, pennies were instead produced using steel.
During World War II, demand for copper, tin, and other metals increased tremendously. Copper, in particular, was vital for the production of shell casings and other military equipment. One simple way for the US government to conserve metal was to modify the production of circulating coinage. Even though pennies contained only a small amount of tin, the removal of this metal from the alloy in January 1942 was expected to save over 100,000 pounds of that metal. In October 1942, the composition of the nickel was also modified to reduce its copper content.
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September 06, 2017
From the 10 years of military dictatorship between 1948-1958 to the impeachment of Carlos Andrés Pérez for corruption in 1993, Venezuelan politics have often been both rocky and eventful.
But despite these challenges throughout its history, no one has ever denied Venezuela’s economic potential. After the discovery of oil in the early 20th century, the nation quickly built its economy on the back of black gold – and even today, Venezuela leads the world in proven oil reserves with 300 billion barrels.