Precious Metal & Rare Coin Market News

1892 Columbian Exposition half dollar 1915-S Panama Pacific Octagonal 1921 Missouri Centennial Half Dollar 1986 U.S. Statue of Liberty 2000 $10 Library of Congress Bi-Metallic Coin From time to time, Congress authorizes the minting of commemorative coins that celebrate and honor American people, places, historical events, and institutions. These coins are legal tender, but they are not created for general circulation. The U.S. Mint produces these commemorative coins in limited quantitites and the coin sales ... >> Read More        

During the 1848 California gold rush, many Oregon settlers headed south to join the fray, seeking their fortunes. Some found success in the California gold mines and returned home to the Oregon Territory with bags of gold dust. Yet, as in other Western territories, conducting commerce in gold dust created a lack of uniformity for simple everyday purchases. Gold dust was also easily contaminated and subject to fraud. During this time, items like beaver skins, ... >> Read More        

In past decades gold has experienced positive and statistically significant gold price changes in September and November. This finding was first popularized by economics and finance professor Dirk Baur. He called it the “Autumn Effect.” His research examined daily gold returns (spot and futures) over a 30-year period from January 1981 until December 2010. The data showed that September generated an average return of 2.2% and that November generated an average return of 1.8%. In ... >> Read More        

Many investors use gold as a way to limit portfolio losses during down markets. This approach, however, begs one question: What portion of the holdings should be gold in order to provide protection without sacrificing a return? Researchers at the Lancaster University Management School decided to find out. The researchers examined annual real returns for hypothetical portfolios consisting of equities, bonds, and gold. Their analysis was designed to allow all three investments to compete “head-to-head ... >> Read More        

Almost half of Vanguard 401(k) investors—over the age of 55 who manage their own money— hold over 70% of their portfolios in stocks. That's up from 38% in 2011. At Fidelity Investments, nearly 40% of investors between the ages of 65-69 invest about 67% of their portfolios in the stock market. Are older investors becoming too aggressive? Many experts say yes. By any measurement owning 70% or more of your portfolio in stocks for folks ... >> Read More        

In 2022, central banks purchased a staggering amount of $70 billion in gold, the most since 1950, as governments around the globe clamored to add more precious metals to their coffers. This year, the gold buying hasn't let up. The world's global central banks—led by the People's Bank of China—were back in the market to buy gold in June, adding a total of 55 tonnes of the precious metal to their vaults. Overall, in the ... >> Read More        

While official government inflation numbers have fallen from their peak, Americans still feel the economic pain from rising prices. The annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 and has come down in recent months, yet it's still sharply higher than two years ago. Inflation Impact: Americans Spend $709 More Each Month The average American household spent $709 more in July 2023 than they did two years ago to buy ... >> Read More        

Robert Morris might be one of the most important historical figures you’ve never heard of. As one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, he was unanimously elected the first Superintendent of Finance in 1781. Shortly after his election Congress passed a resolution that approved the establishment of a mint. It was a critical step in becoming an independent country. His work eventually led to one of the most fascinating Immune Columbia pieces, called ... >> Read More        

In early colonial America, it was common to see foreign coins in everyday commerce. Coins from Brazil, Portugal, Spain, France, and of course England all circulated as legal tender. There were challenges to this hodge podge of coinage in the early days of our nation as each of these foreign coins had a different weight and fineness. This made commerce challenging as the merchants who traded in these gold coins were ill equipped to test ... >> Read More        

Gold is often seen as a long-term investment because, unlike equities, it rarely experiences dramatic up or down movement over the short term. Therefore, few investors consider the timing when buying gold. But should they? This was a question researchers wanted to explore. To do so, they tested over 4,000 seasonal, technical, and fundamental timing strategies for gold using eighteen different market timing signals. For example, one signal, called the “seasonal market timing signal,” is ... >> Read More