Gold Silver Currency

Monty 2106 Saltwater Crocodile Carded Silver 1oz Coin RAM

2016-06-14T02:02:00.001-07:00

The fourth crocodile to be featured in the annual Australian Saltwater Crocodiles series, a proud twelve-year collaboration with Australia Zoo. The Australia Zoo family has always seen another side to them with the Crocoseum providing the opportunity for visitors to discover their beautiful, graceful and playful qualities.

Monty is one of Australia Zoo’s star crocodiles, who has been treated and raised with love since he was captured in 1975. He has been nurtured over the years, and grown to an amazing 3.7 metres and 400 kilograms. As well as being a star attraction to many Zoo visitors, he also starred alongside Steve and Terri Irwin in the 2002 film The Crocodile Hunter

SPECIFICATIONS:

Denomination	Metal	Diameter	Mass	Finish	Mintage
$1	99.9% Ag	40.00mm	1oz	Frosted Uncirculated	5000

You can purchase this Monty 2106 Saltwater Crocodile Carded Silver 1oz Coin directly from the Royal Australian Mint

#Silver #AustraliaSilver #RAM #RAMSILVER #SilverCoins #Coin #Proof #SilverBullion

Five Years That Changed Silver Forever

2016-03-28T03:11:00.001-07:00

Ask any casual observer of the silver market what happened to the metal over the past five years and you’re likely to hear how the price fell from nearly $50 in April 2011 to under $14 at recent lows – a stunning decline of 70%. If you inquire further, you’ll likely hear a number of reasons for the decline, ranging from an oversupply of the metal, a strengthening dollar, falling inflation rates, and the collapse of the commodities markets.

What you will not hear is how a specific development has transpired over the past five years that ensures a coming explosion in the future price of silver beyond the most bullish predictions and optimistic upside targets. You’re also not likely to hear that the stunning decline in the price of silver over the past five years was a deliberate feature of an unusually bullish development that promises to change forever the future price landscape.

While I have closely researched the silver market for more than 30 years, uncovering more original findings (including silver’s price manipulation) than anyone, I fully admit that I did not immediately see the monumental change that began to occur five years ago. This astonishing development that had begun in 2011 did not come clear to me until late 2013.

I discovered that the largest U.S. bank, JPMorgan Chase, began to accumulate massive amounts of physical silver starting in 2011 and has continued that accumulation to this day. All told, I believe JPMorgan has acquired somewhere between 400 and 500 million ounces, the largest privately held stockpile of silver in history.

What this means is that the future price of silver is now destined to move far higher in price than anyone can imagine. I wasn’t looking for something to come along that would supersede my already ultra-bullish outlook on silver, but that is what occurred. That’s because the obvious motive JPMorgan has whenever it acquires a large investment position is to profit on that position to the greatest degree possible. And since JPMorgan is now in position to profit enormously when silver prices soar, that means anyone holding silver will profit as well.

How did JPMorgan come to acquire hundreds of millions of ounces of physical silver? It was a circuitous route, beginning in the financial crisis of 2008 when JPMorgan took over a failing Bear Stearns, then the largest short seller in COMEX gold and silver futures contracts. JPMorgan stepped smoothly into Bear Stearns’ role as the main silver and gold price manipulator and proceeded to drive the price of silver from $21 in March 2008 to under $9 through massive short sales on the COMEX. In the years that followed, JPMorgan continued its new role as the largest short seller in COMEX silver and reaped billions of dollars in ongoing profits by shorting silver on price rallies and buying back those short positions after it rigged the prices lower.

With manipulative intent and practice, JPMorgan continued to make illicit profits on the short side of COMEX silver until late 2010. Then a developing physical shortage in silver drove prices to almost $50 by the end of April 2011. JPMorgan was not prepared for the developing physical shortage and the price run up nearly crippled the bank. That’s when it dawned on JPM that it was on the wrong side (the short side) of silver and the bank resolved to get on the right side – the long side. But first, JPMorgan had to get off the short side.

JPM did this by causing silver futures prices to plummet with the full consent of the COMEX and government regulators at the CFTC, a process that has continued to this day. JPM regained control of silver prices on May 1, 2011 and by driving prices sharply lower killed off the developing investment demand that was causing the physical shortage. But while JPMorgan regained control of silver prices on the COMEX, it could not buy as many futures contracts as it desired without causing prices to soar – it needed another angle. That other angle was for the bank to begin to buy physical silver while it continued to sell short COMEX paper futures contracts. This way, JPMorgan could have its cake and eat it too – continuing to profit on paper short sales while acquiring physical silver at the depressed prices it had created. I labeled JPMorgan’s actions as the perfect crime in a public article in December 2014.

JPMorgan behaved illegally in manipulating prices lower while accumulating all the physical silver it could. However, there is no limitation on what any entity can hold in a physical commodity position. Limitations exist (loosely enforced) on what traders can hold in futures and other derivatives, but no such limitations apply to physical positions. This cleared the way for JPMorgan to hold as much physical silver as it could. Since the price of COMEX silver determines the price for silver throughout the world, this put JPMorgan in the catbird’s seat, by enabling it to depress the COMEX price and then scooping up physical silver in prodigious quantities and at ridiculously depressed prices.

As far as the forms of physical silver that JPMorgan has acquired over the past five years, the simple answer is in any form that could be acquired in size. Most of the silver that JPMorgan acquired was in the form of 1,000 ounce bars, the industry standard for silver and the kind deliverable on COMEX futures and held in the worlds silver ETFs and other investment vehicles. JPMorgan has secured hundreds of millions of ounces from the big silver ETF, SLV, and in deliveries against COMEX futures contracts, some of it held in JPM’s own COMEX warehouse, which opened for business in May 2011 and is now the largest COMEX silver warehouse (confirming my timeline). Their warehouse now holds 70 million ounces and is their most visible holding. Harder to see is the 100 million ounces they likely have in their London warehouse where they moved out 100 million ounces of other people’s silver to make room for their own in 2012.

But JPMorgan has also bought silver in the form of American Silver Eagles and Canadian Maple Leafs to the tune of 150 million ounces over the past five years, quickly re-melting the coins into 1,000 ounces bars because it would be impossible to sell so many coins in coin form. In fact, the curious riddle of record sales of Silver Eagles and Maple Leafs over the past five years coupled with bona fide reports of weak retail sales of these coins was an important clue that someone big was buying many of the coins, roughly 50% of all such coins sold.

When I say I wasn’t looking to uncover the most bullish development ever in silver that is an understatement. But as an analyst, I look to the data first and foremost. Not only has that data tipped me off to what JPMorgan has been up to, the continuing flow of public data confirm my conclusion daily. Everything from COMEX silver warehouse movement, deliveries against futures contracts, changes in the big silver ETF, SLV, sales of silver coins from the U.S. and Royal Canadian Mints point to the massive accumulation of silver by JPMorgan. They are positioned to make $100 billion or more in a runaway silver market. They will make $1 billion on a $2 rise in silver.

The very last thing I would be interested in at this stage of my life, is to come up with some wacky premise that threatened to undermine many of my previous findings. I studiously avoid anything that would damage a reputation I have spent decades constructing. On the other hand, if I have discovered the most shockingly bullish silver development ever, how could I not proclaim it far and wide?

I have discovered that JPMorgan has accumulated more physical silver than any private entity in history and I don’t care if great numbers of observers come to agree with me or not. I will openly discuss this with anyone who has questions, but most importantly I would remind you that if I am correct in my assertion anyone who aligns themselves with what JPMorgan has done and buys silver will most likely reap financial rewards of truly amazing proportion.

Source: Ted Butler -March 24, 2016, For subscription info please go to www.butlerresearch.com

#Silver #SilverNews #SilverInvestment #Bullion #GoldSilver #Gold #1for1 #TedButler #JosephGale

Silver Polishes Up As Alternative Safe Haven to Gold

2016-03-10T14:15:00.001-08:00

Silver, or poor man's gold as it is known, is largely overlooked as a safe haven asset, but it is now hitting a purple patch and attracting investors.

"Silver right now is really undervalued," said management consultant and investor, Tung Nguyen.

"If you look at the long term historical trends, at the value between gold and silver, the research I did it normally tracks between 30 and 60 and now it's in the 80s. So silver right now is a bargain."

Eighteen months ago Mr Nguyen liquidated all his assets and, after reading dozens of books, invested more than half his money into gold and silver.

As a first generation Vietnamese immigrant, Tung Nguyen said financial security is important to his family.

"We were really worried about where the economy was heading," said Mr Nguyen.

"We felt that Australia was really heavily exposed to China, which is slowing down, and what that meant was the share prices and the property prices would have to come down.

"And so I was trying to find something that would provide us with a bit of a hedge in case those asset classes came down."

Tung Nguyen buys his silver and gold bars at ABC Bullion.

The company's chief economist Jordan Eliseo said demand from retail investors - particularly self-managed super funds - is enjoying a big upswing.

"We have seen precious metal turnover go up by a factor of six since the GFC (global financial crisis)," he said.

"In terms of dollar values sold very much around 50:50 around gold and silver - both assets are increasingly popular amongst investors looking for a safe haven asset in their portfolios."

Silver Price Resurgence

After dragging along at $US4 or $US5 an ounce through most of the 1990s, silver hit highs of almost $US49 in 2011.

Like gold, it then went on a general slide downwards, until this year. It has now bounced back up to $US15.60.

Brokers use the spot price to buy on behalf of retailers, but a benchmark price on the London Bullion Market - set by an electronic auction mechanism - is used by large traders, such as miners and jewellers, to settle silver products and derivatives contracts.

It was thrown into disarray in January when the benchmark price was set far below the spot and futures price, leading participants to claim the system is broken.

"The problem with the setting of prices in London is that there's not the depth of market makers there," said BetaShares chief economist David Bassanese.

"So you've had the price formally set on occasion falling well outside the range on futures markets for example."

Most of the purchases come from industrial fabricators, where global annual demand is 600 million ounces of silver.

Silver is used in electronics, including mobile phones, in the solar industry, and for producing plastics and detergents.

"Industrial demand has stayed incredibly strong because of silver's qualities as a metal, and businesses finding applications they can utilise silver in." said Mr Eliseo.

"Prices have risen, but it is such a small component they haven't rushed to find replacement metals, unlike gold which is almost exclusively a monetary metal and used for investment purposes.

"Silver will be wearing that industrial and monetary metal status for many years to come."

Tung Nguyen certainly hopes so as he is holding on to his stockpiles for now.

"Extremely happy," he said. "My son's also an investor, he's 14 years old and he's sitting on a small stockpile of silver as well."

A long play for such a young investor.

Perth Mint 10 Kg 2016 Lunar Monkey Silver Coin

2016-02-29T13:48:00.001-08:00

The Perth Mint announced that it will soon be selling its 2016 Year of the Monkey 10 Kilo Silver Coin on a mint-to-order basis.

The Mint’s Web site notes that this item has a maximum mintage of 150 pieces.

The reverse image depicts two monkeys sitting in a peach tree; peaches are a traditional symbol of longevity and immortality. Inscribed near the rim of the coin are the Chinese character for ‘monkey’ and YEAR OF THE MONKEY, along with the Perth Mint’s ‘P’ mintmark.

The obverse features Ian Rank-Broadley’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, with the inscriptions ELIZABETH II, AUSTRALIA, 10 KG 999 SILVER, 2016, and the denomination of 300 DOLLARS.

The Year of the Monkey alludes to 2016’s place in a twelve-year lunar cycle according to Chinese astrology. The Year of the Monkey pertains to those whose year of birth includes 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, and, of course, 2016. People born in the Year of the Monkey are said to be intelligent, optimistic, and ambitious, according to a Mint press release.

The 2016 Year of the Monkey 10 Kilo Silver Coin will be available from the Perth Mint’s authorized bullion distributors – To purchase this coin visit the Perth Mint Bullion Program

Aggressive Silver Capping Continues

2016-02-28T04:18:00.001-08:00

At some point, the question becomes "why". With gold now up 17% year-to-date, silver is up just half that amount at 9.5%. And yet, the latest CoT report shows the highest silver Commercial net short position since 2008. Again, why? Why now?

Why are The Banks shorting Silver so aggressively?

That's truly the $64MM question. Why are The Silver Banks shorting so aggressively here? What's the difference in holding price below $16 versus $18 or $20? We'll get a look at the latest CoT data tomorrow but, for now, consider this:

There was a CoT survey taken on Tuesday, December 29, 2015. The closing price of silver that day was $13.93. The data showed that the Silver Commercial NET short position was just under 30,000 contracts as they were long 52,149 contracts and short 82,027.

The most recent CoT data released last Friday was surveyed back on Tuesday, February 16. That day, silver closed at $15.33. Versus December 29, price had risen by $1.40 or almost exactly 10%. And how had the Silver Commercial NET short position changed? They were now long 44,638 contracts and short 114,700 for a NET short position of 70,062 contracts. Again, this is the largest Silver Commercial NET short position since 2008.

Additionally, look at what has transpired in the six days since that last CoT survey. Total Comex silver open interest has risen by another 7,000 contracts, which very likely increases the Silver Commercial NET short position to over 75,000 contracts...all the while, price has actually fallen by 4¢.

Therefore, it isn't very difficult to predict what's likely to come next. A price raid. Do you recall this chart from last October?

Or how about this chart from last Friday?

Therefore, it isn't very difficult to predict what's likely to come next. A price raid. Do you recall this chart from last October?

It is abundantly clear that JPM and their fellow Big Shorts on the Comex are intent upon attempting to enforce lower prices. Otherwise, why would they be so adamant about selling into and capping every attempted rally? And this latest capping effort is the most egregious yet! It's perfectly fine for any entity, Commercial or Spec, to liquidate longs into an ongoing rally and, as noted above, the Silver Commercials have dumped nearly 7,500 contracts so far in 2016. However, what is definitely NOT fine is to allow the unlimited creation of paper silver in order to meet Speculator paper demand.

Again, note that the Silver Commercial gross short position back in late December was 82,027 contracts. That's a contractual obligation to deliver up to 410MM ounces of silver if called upon to do so. As of last Tuesday February 16, the Silver Commercial gross short position had grown to 114,700 contracts or 573MM ounces of silver. That's 60% of all the silver the world will mine in 2016!

So the questions must be asked again:

Where would price be today if the Silver Commercials had not sold and shorted so many contracts into this 2016 rally?
And if the buyer/seller equilibrium price was $18 instead of $15, what would be the difference?
And why are the Commercials so intent upon capping silver? Over the same time period, gold has risen 17% but the Gold Commercial NET short position remains below levels seen at price peaks in 2014 and 2015.

So, we'll have to see what happens next. Logic dictates that a price raid is coming that will allow the Commercials to buy back and cover some of their short position while the Specs stream for the exits. But then what? The chart above shows an increasingly untenable position for JPM and their friends. Paper price seems to have been driven as artificially low as possible, thus the effort made to hold it back is increasing. And we haven't even mentioned the gold:silver ratio!

What's the best strategy for dealing with all of this? For me, it's the continued, gradual stacking of physical silver. Predicting the precise date of the failure of the silver manipulation scheme is a fool's errand. But, fail it will, just as all price manipulations before it have similarly failed. And, WHEN it fails, the events will be spectacular to behold.

Sales of American Eagle Silver Bullion Coin Break 2014 Record

2015-12-01T02:53:00.001-08:00

Sales of American Eagle Silver Bullion Coin Break 2014 Record

Sales of American Eagle silver bullion coins by the U.S. Mint on Nov. 30 helped the bureau establish a new record, with two and a half weeks worth of sales remaining to add to the count.

The sale Nov. 30 of 737,000 coins out of 920,500 allocated to authorized purchasers for the week beginning Nov. 30 raised cumulative 2015 sales totals to 44,666,500, or 660,500 coins beyond the record 44,006,000 set for calendar year 2014.

The authorized purchasers' Nov. 30 sales left 183,500 coins to fill orders for the remainder of the week ending Dec. 4.

U.S. Mint officials notified authorized purchasers Nov. 24 that the West Point Mint would continue to strike 2015 American Eagle 1-ounce .999 fine silver bullion coins through Dec. 7, with Dec. 14 likely being the last allocation date.

The U.S. Mint expects to begin taking orders for 2016 American Eagle silver bullion coins beginning Jan. 11.

January is the highest sales month for calendar-year 2015, with 5.53 million coins sold, followed by July with 5,529,000 coins. Additional monthly sales totals likely could have surpassed those two highs had sales not been under weekly restrictions because of the Mint's difficulty in acquiring sufficient planchets on which to strike the bullion coins.

The American Eagle silver bullion coins are not sold directly to the public. Instead, the coins are sold to a network of authorized purchasers who offer a two-way market for the coins. Orders are placed based on the closing London PM spot price per troy ounce plus a $2 premium per coin. The coins are then sold at a mark-up to other dealers, collectors and investors.

Sales of the American Eagle silver bullion coins to the authorized purchasers have been on weekly allocation for most of 2015 because of planchet shortages.

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Tags: American Eagle Silver, ase silver, silver coins, galeforcesales, galeforcesales silver, silver news, silver coin news, silver bullion, silver bullion news

1996 SILVER 999 1oz KANGAROO GOLD TONED

2015-10-24T23:28:00.001-07:00

Reverse of coin is completely tone free being original lustrous silver

1996 SILVER 999 1oz KANGAROO GOLD TONED

1996 1oz Silver 999 Kangaroo Carded Bullion Coin from the Royal Australian Mint

This coin is completely golden toned on the obverse .. see image.

Coin itself looks to be beautiful uncirculated,

Toning is 100% natural and has happened due to it not being in its original plastic sleeve in storage.

2016 Australia Lunar Monkey Silver Bullion Coin

2015-09-03T19:02:00.001-07:00

This Silver coin celebrates the ninth animal in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac. In Chinese culture, those who are born under the influence of this sign are said to be intelligent, quick-witted, optimistic, ambitious and adventurous.

The 2016 Silver Lunar Year of the Monkey coin features an adult monkey sitting on a branch of a peach tree, which is symbolic of lovevity and immortality.

The Australian Lunar Monkey silver coin is available in the following weights:

1/2oz, 1oz, 2oz, 5oz, 10oz and 1kg

2016 Silver Lunar Monkey available in 1/2oz, 1oz, 2oz, 5oz, 10oz and 1kg

The Chinese character for ‘Monkey’ and the inscription ‘Year of the Monkey’ also appears in the design with The Perth Mint’s ‘P’ mintmark..

The coin’s obverse depicts Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the year-date, weight, fineness and the monetary denomination.

About the Design:

A pattern of lines forming a circle immediately inside the rim, surrounding a representation of an adult monkey and a young monkey holding a peach, sitting on a branch with leafy foliage and a peach to the side.

The coin includes the following inscriptions ‘Year of the Monkey’, the Pinyin pictograph pronounce ‘hóu’ and meaning monkey and the initials of the designer Ing Ing Jong ‘IJ’.

Keywords:

monkey, silver monkey, lunar monkey, perth mint monkey, bullion monkey, silver australia silver, silver coins, silver bullion

New Engelhard Australia Silver Bullion Bars

2015-07-18T07:05:00.001-07:00

Engelhard Australia is back! This historic brand is once again producing investment bullion bars. Engelhard silver bars are attractively cast with the modern Engelhard Australia logo on the front, and the weight and fineness on the back.

Every bar is Every bar is serialised and individually boxed in a protective cardboard shipper for protection.

These bars are available in 5oz & 10oz

See more about Engelhard Australia Silver Bars

New Engelhard, engelhard Australia, australia Silver, silver Bullion, bullion Bars

Perth Mint Gold and Silver Bullion Sales Jump in June

2015-07-13T17:43:00.001-07:00

Demand for Australian bullion coins surged in June, the latest Perth Mint figures show. Gold sales scored their highest level since March and silver sales moved the quickest since April. Bullion sales did retreat from a year earlier, however.

Perth Mint sales of gold coins and gold bars advanced 31,019 ounces last month, rallying 43.1% from the 21,671 ounces sold in May but down 21.3% from the 39,405 ounces delivered in June 2014. Gold sales through the first half of the year tally to 168,650 ounces, off 30% from last year’s starting six-month total of 240,991 ounces.

Perth Mint silver coins at 384,586 ounces in June jumped 13.9% from the prior month’s 337,511 ounces yet slipped 34.4% from sales of 586,358 ounces in June of last year. For the first half of 2015, silver sales combine to 2,810,994 ounces for a drop of 18% from the same six-month start in 2014 when sales reached 3,428,336 ounces.

Perth Mint Gold and Silver Sales by Month

Below is a monthly breakdown of Perth Mint bullion sales from June 2014 to June 2015.

Perth Mint Bullion Sales (in troy ounces)
	Silver	Gold
June 2015	384,586	31,019
May 2015	337,511	21,671
April 2015	472,273	26,545
March 2015	638,557	34,260
February 2015	392,114	31,981
January 2015	585,953	23,174
December 2014	477,731	40,211
November 2014	851,836	49,904
October 2014	655,881	55,350
September 2014	756,839	68,781
August 2014	818,856	36,369
July 2014	577,988	25,103
June 2014	586,358	39,405

United States Mint Bullion Sales in June

U.S. Mint bullion sales in June soared over the prior month and the year ago levels. The agency’s core American Gold Eagles at 76,000 ounces leapt 253.5% higher than May sales and jumped 56.7% higher than sales in June 2014. Its flagship American Silver Eagles at 4,840,000 ounces in June surged 139.2% from the prior month and rallied 79.8% from a year ago.

The Shanghai Stock Market Crash and China Gold Demand

2015-07-11T20:40:00.001-07:00

What Does it mean for the future of the gold market?

At present, up to 12 trillion yuan stays in domestic residents' saving accounts. The launch of individual gold investment, therefore, will allow residents to change currency assets into gold assets. At the macro level, it will expand channels for changing savings into investment, thus adjusting the money supply; in the micro aspect, allowing citizens to trade and keep gold can improve social welfare, benefiting both the country and the population.

Moreover, with the dual attributes of common commodity and currency commodity, gold is a desirable instrument for hedging. Therefore, developing gold trade for individuals is practical." – Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor, the People's Bank of China.

Shanghai stocks have fallen over 30% since mid-June. The equivalent in U.S. terms would be for the DJIA to fall 6000 points to the 11,000 level – a crash by any definition. Most of the commentary on this important subject has centered around the potential contagion effect for stock markets in the rest of Asia and beyond. There is another aspect to the crash worth considering though, and that has to do with the effect it will have on Chinese gold demand.

The Chinese people, it is well known, already have a cultural affinity to gold. That attachment just received a shot of adrenaline. Prior to June, trading volumes on the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) were already running 20% higher than the previous year. Now, with crash psychology affecting thinking up and down the spectrum of investors, SGE is reporting volumes off the charts. In early July, Want China Times reported that "SGE posted a record trading volume of 48.33 million grams in a single day in late June." (48.3 metric tonnes, a big number.)

Typically stock market crashes inspire gold demand. In the case of China, where the government and central bank encourage citizen gold ownership as a matter of public policy, that lesson could become enshrined in the national psyche. The important consideration for investors elsewhere around the globe is what effect even stronger gold demand from China will have on the gold price both now and in the future.

Flow of physical metal between buyers and sellers will govern prices in China not paper trades

Ever since 2011 when China's demand began to ratchet up, clients have asked how the price of gold could be stagnant to down under the circumstances. The short answer to that question is that price discovery for gold does not occur in the physical market, but in the multi-trillion dollar leveraged paper trade in London and New York – a volume that dwarfs the physical delivery market. Now China is about to challenge that price discovery mechanism through significant infrastructure changes slated to take effect by the end of the year.

This new construct has as its base China's fundamental understanding and goals with respect to gold as summarized by Peoples Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan in our masthead quote above; its affinity for delivered physical ownership, as opposed to paper-based metal; and, the official measures it has undertaken to make inroads into the international gold market's price discovery mechanism.

To gain a better understanding of how China is likely to affect price discovery in the gold market, let's start with something of interest that surfaced as a result of the recent Shanghai crash. Financial Times reported rumors floating the markets that Goldman Sachs was responsible for manipulating stocks downward. Officials denied those rumors and a spokesman for the exchange stated that "foreign investors with access to the futures market via theQualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) program were only permitted to use futures for hedging operations and are not allowed to make directional bets.

All recent trades by QFIIs complied with regulations." Of course if any manipulation of stocks were to occur, it would be executed in the leveraged futures market where bets can be placed at pennies on the dollar.

Up until I read that quote I was unaware of the strict procedures governing foreign trading on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), China's only futures trading venue. A further investigation, helped along with some links from Koos Jansen, the Netherlands based expert on China's burgeoning gold market, revealed stringent rules governing trade on the SHFE for domestic participants as well, though not quite as stringent as the rules for foreigners.

At the heart of those rules, SHFE imposes strict position limitations and margin requirements on traders in order to keep price speculation (or directional bets to use its term) to a minimum. Futures trading in China, clearly is meant to serve as an adjunct to the physical market instead of the other way around as it is in western gold trading centers.

Hedging is maximized. Speculation is minimized. Leverage is controlled within reasonable parameters.

Link SHFE "Operational Manual for Gold Futures Contract Trading"

- See more at: http://chinabullion.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/the-shanghai-stock-market-crash-and.html#sthash.7H4M632E.dpufa

As Silver Prices Fall, U.S. Mint’s Silver Bullion Coins Sell Out

2015-07-11T18:01:00.001-07:00

Investors still like silver—so much so that the U.S. Mint sold out of its American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins.

The Mint announced the temporary sellout on Tuesday. It said that the U.S. Mint facility at West Point, N.Y., continues to produce the coins and resumption of sales is expected in about two weeks.

The shortages comes at a time when silver futures prices SIU5, +1.49% are falling.On Tuesday, they sank 5% to $14.969 an ounce, the lowest settlement for a most-active contract since 2009. They recovered a bit on Wednesday, though year to date prices have lost more than 3%.

“Silver demand has really come back in the last two weeks, on the break below $16 per ounce,” Adrian Ash, head of research at BullionVault, told MarketWatch.

BullionVault’s Silver Investor Index released Tuesday rose to 56.7 in June from below 50 in May, as the number of private investors buying silver climbed to its highest level in 9 months, while the number of sellers fell to its lowest level in 3 years. The index shows the balance of net buyers over net sellers.

In a note Wednesday, Capital Economics’s Julian Jessop, pointed out that silver has been a “notable casualty of the selloff in commodity markets in the last few days.”

That usually happens when prices of other metals, especially gold but also industrials, are falling, he said. But “assuming metals in general recovery over the remainder of the year, as we expect, silver could now be set to shine.”

Silver Prices About to Hit $50.00 Per Ounce?

2015-06-29T02:01:00.001-07:00

Silver is one of the most under appreciated commodities around. Back in 2011, an ounce of gold was worth 32 ounces of silver. Today, that same ounce of gold translates to 74 ounces of the grey metal. Does that mean gold has gotten more valuable or that silver has gotten cheaper?

Since its peak a few years ago, silver prices have dropped nearly 70%. Gold prices have also fallen by an astonishing 35% during the same period, which convinces me that investors got overly pessimistic about silver during the pullback.

So, what should the true price of silver be?

In order to properly value silver, we need the silver-to-gold ratio. Historically, silver shadows the movement of gold prices. When gold drops, silver prices are close behind.

Over the last 40 years, the conversion averages out to 42.8 ounces of silver for one ounce of gold. But the relationship fluctuates and sometimes one of the metals will become significantly undervalued.

When the ratio drifts too far from the historical average, it usually foreshadows a big run. This has happened three times in the last 20 years; in 1995, 2003, and 2011. The respective gains for silver prices were 70%, 200%, and 420%.

If we assume the same gold price and use the 2011 conversion rate, silver should be around $36.60. Right now, the price of silver is hovering around $15.90, with a conversion rate of 74.0.

That being said, how can silver possibly go to $50.00?

Well, despite its apparent cheapness, silver is simply not as abundant a metal as investors seem to think. When you compare the actual deposits of silver and gold in the earth, the natural multiple is 17.0. Ideally, the physical relationship between silver and gold deposits should dictate the price relationship.

In order for silver to hit $50.00, the ratio would have to drop to 23.0, assuming that gold stays at its current price of $1,170.

However, if the stock market bubble finally bursts, investors may flee to gold and silver as a safe haven. Under those circumstances, silver could rise to $50.00 much quicker.
Follow the Smart Money

I’m not the first person to notice this amazing buying opportunity.

In the first quarter of 2015, billionaire investor Ray Dalio loaded up on more shares of Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE/SLW). The hedge fund manager now owns 510,000 shares valued at roughly $9.0 million.

If you want to cash in on a huge silver run, but are hesitant to own silver directly, Silver Wheaton may be a wise choice. The company finances smaller mining firms and pays for any silver they find, thus limiting the downside risks associated with managing a mine.

The stock is down almost 34% over the last year because of depressed commodity prices, but Ray Dalio and I both think that will change.

Low interest rates from the Federal Reserve have been propping up the stock market, but a rate hike later this year is virtually guaranteed. And when the market loses support from the Fed, a flight to safety will mean huge gains for silver.

Marco Polo 2oz Silver Coin - Journeys Of Discovery

2015-06-22T04:32:00.001-07:00

Marco Polo 2oz Silver Coin - Journeys Of Discovery

The Marco Polo 2 oz Silver Coin marks the first release in our new Journeys of Discovery Coin Collection, which celebrates exploration and discovery of the unknown.

This proof quality, fully engraved and high-relief coin captures the moment of Marco Polo meeting the great Kublai Khan. The scene is set in a stronghold of the powerful Mongol Empire which Polo marvelled so much at discovering. The packaging of a protective draw string sack has been designed to model the transport materials to trade around the globe at that time.

With a limited mintage of only 2,000 coins worldwide, this would make a special gift for coin collectors and inspire intrepid travellers on their own Journeys of Discovery.

*Please note that the image shown on the website is artwork and may differ slightly from the final product.

Marco Polo:

Marco Polo (1254 - 1324) was an Italian merchant traveller from Venice, who recorded his travels in Livres des Merveilles du Monde (Book of the Marvels of the World, also known as The Travels of Marco Polo). This account did much to introduce Europe to Central Asia and Chinese culture.

Marco Polo learned the mercantile trade from his father and uncle, who travelled through Asia and met Kublai Khan. In 1271, the three embarked on a journey which would lead to 17 years spent in China. From his travels, Polo amassed great knowledge of the Mongol Empire. He marvelled at the use of paper money, and was in awe of its economy and scale of production.

Soon after returning to Venice in 1295, war broke out with the rival city of Genoa. While in command of a ship, Polo was captured and imprisoned. It was during this period of time that he dictated stories of his travels to a cellmate. In 1299 he was released, and went on to become a wealthy merchant. While his writings were published in French, Italian, and Latin, few readers allowed themselves to believe his tales of strange lands far away.

Although he was not the first European to reach China, Marco Polo’s detailed account of his experiences was ground breaking for its time. These writings went on to inspire Christopher Columbus and many other travellers. In the centuries since his death Marco Polo has received recognition that was not given during his lifetime, as much of his journey of discovery has been verified.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Coin Metal: 999 Fine Silver
Coin Weight: 2 oz
Coin Finish: Proof
Coin Diameter: 40mm (Nominal)
Coin Edge: Milled
Coin Denomination: $5
Year of Issue: 2015
Coin Mintage: 2,000
Effigy : Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Country of Issue : Niue

Purchase at the NZ Mint

Silver Buying Only Starting

2015-05-15T16:36:00.001-07:00

Silver Buying Only Starting - Silver Investment News

Silver has enjoyed a fantastic week, awakening from its bottoming slumber to surge with gold. And this strong silver investment demand is likely only starting. American stock traders and futures speculators control two of the world’s largest pools of capital active in the silver market. And the former group still remains woefully under-invested in silver, while the latter still has massive short positions left to cover.

The global leader in fundamental silver analysis is the venerable Silver Institute, a think tank primarily funded by the world’s biggest and best silver miners. Every year, it publishes excellent comprehensive data on global silver supply and demand. Last year, total worldwide silver demand ran 1067m ounces. But investing in silver coins, bars, and ETFs only accounted for 197m, less than 1/5th of total demand.

Silver investment’s relatively small slice of that demand pie implies it isn’t important, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Silver’s two largest demand categories are industrial fabrication and jewelry, weighing in at about 4/7ths and just over 1/5th respectively. But these are very inelastic, they just don’t change much regardless of silver’s price. This is readily evident in the Institute’s past decade of data.

The average silver price in the last 10 years has been a roller coaster, skyrocketing from just over $7 in 2005 to over $35 in 2011 before collapsing back down near $19 in 2014. Yet global industrial demand was 639m ounces in 2005, 628m in 2011, and 595m last year. There is often no substitute for silver in manufactured products, and they use so little per unit that companies really don’t care what silver’s price is.

But silver investment demand varies dramatically with the shifting whims of traders’ sentiment towards this volatile metal. Over the past decade it has ranged from 52m ounces on the low side in 2005 to 289m on the high side in 2008, an incredibly volatile range! And since any market’s prices are effectively set by marginal new buying and selling, nothing is more important for silver prices than investment demand.

The past decade’s average annual silver investment demand was 196m ounces, which 2014’s 197m is dead on. For our purposes today, let’s round that to 200m ounces per year. That works out to under 17m per month. This basic background knowledge of global silver investment demand is essential in order to understand just how bullish silver looks today since this latest round of buying is likely only starting.

Traditional silver investing in physical coins and bars is the largest category of investment demand, averaging 136m ounces per year over the last decade. But it’s challenging to track, since the myriads of silver dealers and investors around the world don’t have to report their transactions. Silver ETFs, on the other hand, report their holdings daily and are easily collated. Their demand averages 67m ounces per year.

The world’s flagship silver ETF is the mighty iShares Silver Trust, which trades as SLV in the States. Its holdings this week were nearly 324m ounces, the equivalent of about a year and 2/3rds of worldwide investment demand. Launched in April 2006, it is the easiest, fastest, and cheapest way for American stock investors to gain silver exposure in their portfolios. This opened silver up to vast new pools of capital.

Silver has always had a zealous hardcore base of investors who decry any type of “paper silver”, which includes ETFs. If it’s not physical silver in their own possession, they want nothing to do with it. While I’ve always personally used and recommended that classic method of silver investing, it’s not for everyone. A lot of investors ranging from hedge funds to institutions legally can’t buy or don’t want the hassles of physical.

And silver ETFs are a perfect alternative for them. These investors buy ETF shares for a trivial fraction of what the premiums run on physical silver, and SLV in particular tracks the silver price perfectly. This can only happen because SLV is a conduit for stock-market capital to flow into and out of physical silver bullion. SLV’s managers have to constantly adjust SLV’s holdings to keep their ETF’s price mirroring silver’s.

When stock traders buy SLV shares faster than silver itself is being bought, they threaten to decouple to the upside. So SLV’s managers issue enough new ETF shares to offset this excess demand. Then they plow the proceeds directly into physical silver bullion held in trust for their shareholders. Thus any differential buying pressure on SLV shares directly bids up the underlying global physical silver market.

And just as silver is on the verge of a major breakout following this week’s sharp rally, American stock investors owning silver via SLV are still woefully underinvested by recent standards. This first chart looks at SLV’s silver-bullion holdings, with SLV’s price superimposed on top. And it reveals big room for new SLV buying, which will shunt stock-market capital directly into silver and accelerate its price gains.

Despite the very weak silver prices in recent years and resulting extreme bearishness on this precious metal, SLV’s holdings have actually risen on balance. They have enjoyed an exceptionally well-defined uptrend channel in the last several years, which seems pretty amazing. But realize that as silver’s price dropped, the amount of stock-market capital invested in SLV shares still contracted though its holdings grew.

Over this chart’s span, silver peaked just under $37 per ounce in late February 2012. That day SLV’s holdings of 313m ounces were worth $11.6b. Silver’s brutal bear market finally looks to have bottomed in early November 2014 at just over $15 per ounce. By that day SLV’s holdings had grown to 343m ounces, but this hoard was only worth $5.3b. So the SLV holdings’ uptrend is not as counter-intuitive as it seems.

Though SLV’s holdings climbed 9.7% between silver’s two extremes of recent years, the value of that silver plummeted 54% which was right in line with silver’s 58% loss over this span. So American stock investors certainly haven’t been hot on silver. In the middle of this week, as silver surged 3.8% to retake $17, SLV’s holdings were worth just $5.5b. That is vanishingly small, a trivial drop in the stock-capital bucket.

For comparison, of the 500 companies included in the benchmark S&P 500 stock index, only 26 had market capitalizations of $5.5b or less as of the end of last month. So American stock investors still have virtually nothing invested in silver. As silver continues rallying, they will start getting interested and then excited and buy in. And that differential buying will catapult silver higher, accelerating its rally and allure.

Only time will tell how much SLV buying we’re going to see, but it has the potential to be really big. This ETF’s peak silver holdings of just over 366m ounces came back in late April 2011 as silver was rocketing up over $48 in a speculative mania. That day SLV’s holdings were worth $17.2b, or 3.1x higherthan this week’s levels! But it could take massive silver gains over years to fuel such a big jump in stock capital invested.

More interesting for the near-term is the SLV-holdings uptrend. Silver has remained epically out of favor since its dismal bottom late last year. Since then its price has largely languished in a super-low trading range, mostly grinding listlessly sideways. So American stock investors have had no incentives at all to up their silver exposure. But this week’s young rally is already starting to change that bearish psychology.

SLV’s holdings around 324m ounces in the middle of this week certainly reflect the universal apathy and antipathy towards silver. As sentiment shifts from extreme bearishness back towards neutral, SLV is likely to see serious differential buying pressure on its shares. Remember that if stock traders bid up SLV shares faster than silver itself is rallying, SLV’s managers have to issue shares to buy more silver bullion.

Today the upper resistance of SLV holdings’ uptrend of recent years is around 352m ounces. Regaining that level would require over 28m ounces of differential buying. And even in silver’s dark recent years, SLV has witnessed multiple holdings surges from support to resistance that didn’t take much time at all. They happened in early 2013, mid-2013, and mid-2014, and each only took a couple months or so.

So the near-term silver buying potential from American stock traders is great. They remain woefully underinvested in silver right as it’s starting to surge, and they are likely to buy SLV shares aggressively enough to force a holdings build on the order of 28m ounces in a couple months. Remember that global monthly investment demand averages under 17m, so that’s a colossal boost from SLV buying alone.

Running these numbers, enough SLV differential buying merely to return its holdings back up to recent resistance would boost global silver investment demand by 85% for a couple months! That’s one major reason why I suspect the recent silver buying is only starting. And the really bullish and exciting thing is nothing begets buying like buying. The more silver rallies, the more investors will notice it and start to chase it.

But despite that large pool of capital by silver’s standards deployed in SLV, there’s another pool that just dwarfs it. There’s no one on the planet that moves more capital into and out of silver than the American futures speculators. They aggressively trade silver’s flows and ebbs with extreme leverage, exerting the greatest influence on silver’s daily price action. And theirshort positions are the key to silver’s near-term fortunes.

This next chart looks at the total levels of long and short silver futures contracts held by these dominant American futures speculators. This data is published weekly by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission in its famous Commitments of Traders reports. And the latest read current to last Tuesday reveals high short positions remaining in silver futures. These large bets will soon have to be covered.

While silver’s long-term price levels are ultimately a function of global supply and demand, in the short term American futures trading is the whole game. Note the super-strong inverse correlation between the SLV price in blue and speculators’ total silver-futures short contracts in red. Silver plunges when they aggressively short it, and then rallies when they subsequently scramble to exit those leveraged bearish bets.

This outsized influence of futures shorting on silver’s price is primarily a function of two things. First, as silver has fallen deeply out of favor in recent years investing interest has dramatically waned. So the influence of futures speculation on silver prices rose proportionally. Second, futures trading is a hyper-risky zero-sum game played with extreme leverage. That gives futures speculators outsized silver-price impact.

Each silver futures contract controls 5000 ounces of silver, which is worth $85,000 even at this week’s still-terribly-depressed silver prices. Yet speculators only need to keep $7700 in their accounts for each silver contract they own, the current minimum maintenance margin. That means they can run leverage of up to 11x, which is extreme. In the US stock markets, leverage has been legally limited to 2x since 1974.

At 11x leverage, a mere 9% move by silver against speculators’ positions will wipe out 100% of the capital they risked. And they could lose even more than originally bet if they face margin calls! Silver has always had a well-deserved reputation as an exceedingly-volatile metal, so 9% moves are nothing. This past Tuesday and Wednesday, silver surged 5.4% and that was modest by silver’s wild standards.

Speculators shorting silver, betting on its price falling, effectively have toborrow that silver before they sell it. This saddles them with the legal contractual obligation to buy that silver back to repay their silver debt. So high silver-futures short positions by this group of traders are very bullish for this white metal since they represent guaranteed near-future buying. As this chart shows, silver soon rallies after major shorting.

While speculators’ silver-futures short positions today aren’t extreme by recent years’ epic levels, they are still very high. As of last Tuesday’s CoT data, the latest available when this essay was published, American speculators held 49.6k short-side contracts. That is a huge bearish bet on silver prices. Between 2009 to 2012, the last normal years for the precious-metals markets, their short-side bets averaged just 21.5k.

The reason silver collapsed in early 2013 was because gold suffered its worst quarterly loss in 93 years thanks to the Federal Reserve’s radically-unprecedented QE3 manipulations in the financial markets. As the Fed levitated the general stock markets, demand for alternative investments led by gold withered. And silver is ultimately a leveraged play on gold, amplifying the yellow metal’s price action in both directions.

But even since then in the Fed’s epically-distorted markets, speculators’ total silver short contracts have rapidly contracted to or near 27k four separate times. This is support for speculator shorting in recent years. So it’s highly likely this group of traders’ downside silver bets will once again sharply fall back to these levels in the coming months. And that represents incredible levels of buying to catapult silver higher.

As of that latest CoT report, American speculators would have to buy to cover 22.6k contracts merely to return to that 27k short-side support level. And in the futures markets, the price impact of buying a long contract to offset and cover an existing short and buying a new long contract is identical. With each short contract representing 5000 ounces, this support approach would require an amazing 113m ounces of buying!

Now remember annual global silver investment demand averages around 200m ounces, so this short covering alone is equivalent to about 7 months of normal demand. And as the chart above shows, once these short-covering episodes get underway they unfold fast. The more speculators who buy to cover, the faster the silver price rallies. And the sharper silver’s climb, the more pressure on remaining traders to cover.

It’s only taken two or three months in recent years for speculators to buy back enough of their shorts to drive them back down to that 27k-contract support line. And that was from even higher total-short levels. So let’s assume a couple months for this next support approach. Run the numbers on that, and this coming short covering equates to staggering buying of over 56m ounces per month. That’s incredible!

During that short-covering frenzy, silver demand from this mandatory futures buying would run 3.4x the normal monthly average just under 17m ounces! If investors are migrating back into silver at the same time, both in physical and ETF terms, silver is going to power dramatically higher during that brief span. And investors returning becomes more and more likely with each passing day of silver rallying on balance.

So looking at SLV holdings and American speculators’ silver-futures shorts alone, silver buying is only starting. Both groups of traders are likely to shift large amounts of capital into silver in a short period of time, on the order of a couple months. And they will soon be joined by investors from around the world, in a surge of new buying that will almost certainly ignite silver’s next major upleg. Its upside potential is great.

Investors can certainly play this in traditional physical silver coins and bars or through the ETFs led by SLV. Since silver is so universally loathed these days, investors have forgotten that its price averaged over $31 in 2012 before the Fed’s extreme stock-market distortions. And as those are gradually unwound, starting with the coming rate hikes, precious metals should mean revert back up to pre-QE3 normal levels.

But however great silver’s coming gains will be, the beaten-down silver stocks will achieve multiples of that. This entire sector has been left for dead, but has extreme profits leverage to these dismal silver-price levels. At Zeal we recently finished a 3-month research project to uncover the silver stocks with the best fundamentals to thrive. Our dozen favorites are profiled in depth in a popular new report. Buy yours today and get deployed before silver’s upleg accelerates and silver stocks soar!

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The bottom line is the recent silver buying is likely only just starting. American stock investors remain woefully underinvested in silver, while American futures speculators remain heavily short it. Even in the anomalous recent years, it’s only taken a couple of months or so for both extremes to normalize. And that buying alone would run multiples of normal global silver investment demand over that span.

The resulting silver rally will probably be quite big and strong emerging from such bearish sentiment extremes. And it will motivate legions of investors around the world to redeploy in silver again. The more they buy, the faster silver will rally. And that will attract in even more investors, once again forming that very powerful bullish virtuous circle that silver is so famous for. Silver has real potential to surprise on the upside.

2015 Australian Wedge-Tailed Eagle 1oz Silver Bullion Coin

2015-05-12T15:22:00.001-07:00

2015 Australian Wedge-Tailed Eagle 1oz Silver Bullion Coin from the Perth Mint

The Perth Mint is delighted to offer investors a new bullion coin featuring this majestic bird which is known to soar to dizzying heights.

The coin’s reverse depicts an impressive Wedge-tailed Eagle in mid-flight as it prepares to land on a tree branch. The design also includes the inscription AUSTRALIAN WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE, the 2015 year-date and The Perth Mint’s ‘P’ mintmark.

Each bullion coin is presented in an acrylic capsule, from an unlimited mintage.

2015 Australian Wedge-Tailed Eagle 1oz Silver Bullion Coin

One of our favourite silver bullion coins of 2014, indeed of modern times, the Wedge-Tailed Eagle coin designed by John Mercanti for the Perth Mint had its debut last year. First released as high-relief silver and gold coins with mintages of 10,000 and 1,000 respectively back in January 2014, they followed up with a standard silver proof and a fantastic five-ounce high relief coin last May. This year will almost certainly see new releases of most, or all of those.

The bullion coin, while not as impressive as the completely sublime High-Relief versions, remains a beautiful piece, and if last years mintage limit is repeated, a relatively rare one by bullion standards.

COIN Specifications

Metal Content (Troy oz)	1.000
Fineness (% purity)	99.90
Minimum Gross Weight (g)	31.135
Monetary Denomination (AUD)	1.00
Maximum Diameter (mm)	40.600
Maximum Thickness (mm)	4.000

About the Wedge-Tailed Eagle

The Wedge-tailed Eagle is Australia’s largest bird of prey and one of the biggest eagles in the world. Found throughout mainland Australia, Tasmania and southern New Guinea, the Wedge-tailed Eagle has a wingspan of up to 2.7 metres, and displays a long, wedge-shaped tail and feathered legs.

Last year, 10% of the 50,000 mintage was sold by Australian dealer Ainslie Bullion but we’re currently unsure when or if they will be the dealer selling them this year. We understand that any Australian issued coin has to have 10% of its mintage sold in Australia, thus explaining why GovMint don’t get all the coins to themselves. This would indicate that the same would be the case this year, but GovMint do not list a mintage for the 2015 release, so how many an Australian dealer would get is unclear at present.

Chinese Demand for Silver Bullion Bars Halved in 2014

2015-05-08T19:39:00.001-07:00

Silver bars weren’t very popular last year — especially in China, where demand fell by half.

Chinese demand for silver bullion bars dropped 52% in 2014 from a year earlier, to 6.2 million ounces, according to the The Silver Institute’s annual World Silver Survey, which was produced by the GFMS team at Thomson Reuters. That was the lowest level since 2010.

“The sharp decline was attributed to the continual implementation of the anticorruption policy, which served a severe blow to the gifting sector, including bars,” according to the survey, which was released Wednesday.

A steep drop in silver prices certainly didn’t help. Silver futures SIN5, +0.79% on Comex fell nearly 20% last year, following a 36% plunge in 2013.

Total global demand for silver bullion bars fell 31% last year to 88.4 million ounces — in value, that’s about a $1.7 billion drop, the survey said.

Andrew Leyland, manager for precious metals demand at Thomson Reuters GFMS, told MarketWatch in an interview that he was surprised to see how weak demand from China actually was.

The government crackdown in gifting and its anticorruption campaign, along with a “softening of economic sentiment through the course of 2014,” impacted bar buying in China, he said. “A lot of luxury goods sectors didn’t have a particularly good year.”

Globally, investment in silver coins and bars fell by 20% last year to 196 million ounces, the survey said.

There was a slowdown in European buying of silver bars and coins, primarily due to an increase in sales tax in Germany that was applied to silver from the beginning of 2014, Leyland said.

He pointed out, however, that the market was coming from a record base year in 2013. Last year’s bar and coin investment figure was still the second highest on record.

And though the world’s silver mine production was up a 12th straight year in 2014 and supplies of the metal were at their highest in about 4 years, the market still saw a supply deficit of 4.9 million ounces last year.

Looking ahead, Leyland expects silver-mine supply to decline and is looking for growth in a number of demand sectors. He forecast an average silver price of $16.50 an ounce for this year.

Prices will see some short-term weakness, but are likely to end the year at more than $17 an ounce, with a couple of years of modest price increases to follow, he said.

Yamaguchi Silver 1oz Proof Coloured Coin 2015 - Prefectures of Japan

2015-05-08T17:08:00.001-07:00

Yamaguchi Silver 1oz Proof Coloured Coin 2015 - Prefectures of Japan

The Mint of Japan have announced their latest prefecture silver coin which features a well-known landmark or structure as its obverse design.

This coin features the Kintaikyo Bridge, in the prefecture of Yamaguchi which is a historical wooden structure that consists of a series of five wooden arches and spans the Nishiki River in Iwakuni City. Built in 1673 by Kikkawa Hiroyoshi, the third lord of the Iwakuni domain, this bridge is known as one of the three most beautiful or unique bridges in Japan and was designated as a place of scenic beauty by the national government.

The obverse design includes a depiction of the Kintaikyo Bridge and the Akiyoshidai Plateau, which is the largest area of karst topography in Japan, located almost at the center of Yamaguchi Prefecture, and designated as a Quasi-National Park and a Special Natural Monument.

The common reverse design of 1000 yen silver coin: Snow crystals, moon and cherry blossoms. Latent image technology is applied to the center of the largest snow crystal to show the numerals of “47” representing the number of prefectures in Japan, and “60” representing the 60th Anniversary of Enforcement of the Local Autonomy Law appear alternately when viewed from different angles.

Coin Specifications:

Denomination	Metal	Weight	Diameter	Quality	Mintage
1000 ¥en	.999 silver	31.1 grams	40 mm.	Proof & Colour	100,000

The coin, which is the 39th consecutive issue within the series, will be available to order from now until the 30th June when the coin will officially be issued. A 500 Yen bi-metallic coin intended for circulation with the same design though not colorized is also to be issued at the same instance as the silver coin.

For more information on this and other coins available from the Mint of Japan, please visit their website at:http://www.mint.go.jp/eng/buy-eng/eng_coin_international_index.html

For international distributors of Mint of Japan coins, please visit: http://www.mint.go.jp/eng/qa-eng/eng_qa_overseasqa_contract.html Information offered in English and Japanese

Houston – Perth Sister Cities Silver 1/2oz Bullion Coin

2015-05-04T01:18:00.001-07:00

This stunning coin pays homage to the special relationship shared by Houston, Texas and Perth, Australia.

The energy-themed coin originated with the founding of the Houston-Perth Sister City Association (HSPCA) in 1984, which was based on historical naval ties in WWII and the strong synergies between the two cities’ energy sectors.

Today, Houston and Perth are two of the largest energy hubs in the world, and recently celebrated 30 years of partnership.

The ties between Houston and Perth can initially be traced to the World War II battle of Sunda Strait, where both the USS Houston and HMAS Perth attacked a superior force of Japanese ships in an attempt to stall their advance towards Australia.

Both ships were lost along with many men, but their sacrifice allowed the American and Australian navies to halt the Japanese advance and helped forge the relationship now shared by Houston and Perth. The bond between the two cities was further strengthened during John Glenn’s 1962 spaceflight, when the citizens of Perth turned on all their lights, allowing the astronaut to view the city from orbit.

In the 1980s, when Houston sought to expand its global ties, Perth was an ideal partner for cultural, historical, and economic reasons.

This remarkable Sister Cities coin has been exclusively minted by Perth for Texas Precious Metals. Production will be limited to 500,000 coins.

QUALITY
The Perth Mint’s unbeatable minting experience and its use of advanced manufacturing technology contribute to the coins reputation of being the highest quality in the world.

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT GUARANTEE
Struck by the historic Perth Mint from 99.9% pure silver, each coin’s Australian legal tender status guarantees its weight and purity.

AFFORDABLE
Perth Mint bullion coins are universally recognised as the most affordable means of purchasing silver bullion in the secure form of official, legal tender coins.

BEAUTIFUL
Perth Mint bullion coins are tangible assets that are beautiful to behold. Featuring stunning new artistry each year, they are admired worldwide and are highly collectable.

NUMISMATIC APPRECIATION
As well as annual design changes, the coins’ restricted mintages create the potential for even greater investment return in the form of a numismatic premium.

COIN SPECIFICS:
Year:	2014
Condition:	Brilliant Uncirculated
Weight (Au, Ag, Pt):	1/2 ozt
Minted by:	Perth Mint
Mintage:	500,000
Face Value:	AUD$0.50
IRA:	Approved
Packaging:	Plastic Tube
Coins Per Tube:	25

Hammerhead Shark Half Ounce Silver Bullion Coin

2015-04-25T00:40:00.001-07:00

Hammerhead Shark Silver Half Ounce Bullion Coin – Brand new from the Perth Mint

The hammerhead shark is one of the most recognizable creatures on the planet, and the largest of the species, the great hammerhead shark, is now immortalized in Silver. The Perth Mint has introduced the second release in their Shark Series celebrating this unique and unmistakable hunter.

Each of these Beautiful Uncirculated (BU) coins contains 1/2 oz of .999 fine Silver and exhibits a beautiful representation of the strong great hammerhead shark swimming through the water. The coin displays the Silver weight and purity, providing assurance of the high quality of each coin.

Since opening in 1899, the Perth Mint has produced and refined large quantities of Gold, Silver and other Precious Metals.

Today, the Perth Mint is highly involved in producing a wide array of items for collectors and investors. They beautifully combine unique collectible designs with quality bullion value

Coin Highlights:

Contains 1/2 oz of .999 fine Silver.
Multiples of 25 come in a tube. 500 coins will come in “Monster” boxes. Individual coins come in a plastic flip.
Second release in the APMEX exclusive® Perth Mint Shark Series.
Obverse: The Ian Rank-Broadley likeness of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the monetary denomination.
Reverse: Features a great hammerhead shark, surrounded by the name, weight and purity, along with the Perth Mint’s “P” mintmark.

Keywords: silver, australia silver, hammerhead shark silver coin, shark coin, shark silver coin, australia silver

Privateer Elemetal 2oz Silver Round Ultra High Relief

2015-04-20T04:57:00.001-07:00

Each Elemetal Privateer Round consists of two ounces of .999 fine silver, and is manufactured in an IRA approved facility ensuring the metal purity and production quality.

The Elemetal Mint is a collaborative effort between three of the most prominent names in the

Precious Metals industry: Ohio Precious Metals (OPM), NTR Metals, and Provident Metals. The goal of this collaboration is to offer high quality, investment grade bullion at a price that is accessible to every investor.

Each partner in the Elemetal Mint offers unique attributes and assets that accommodate this goal. OPM, an LBMA certified mint, has a legacy of producing high quality Precious Metal Bullion that meets standards required for global institutional trades.

NTR Metals offers a production capacity that allows the Elemetal Mint to produce bullion as demand requires. Provident Metals leverages advanced fulfillment technology and processes to ensure that bullion is offered at the lowest possible price, and delivered in a timely manner.

The obverse of the ultra high relief Elemetal 2oz Privateer Silver Round carries the inscription “NO PREY NO PAY”, which is a piratical term meaning that unless a raid was successful at acquiring valuable commodities, the privateers would not receive a commission.

Likewise, if contemporary investors are unwilling to invest in Silver Bullion, they will miss the security and value that only precious metals offer.

The obverse of the Elemetal Privateer Round also features a skull over a ship’s wheel, reminiscent of the Jolly Roger, and the inscription "2OZ FINE SILVER .999".

The reverse of this 2oz silver round features the stern of a pirate ship, the ship drifting through rough seawaters. High waves roar across the design as the ship’s sails flutter in the wind. The moon peaks out from the clouds on the right of the image.

The Elemetal 2oz Ultra High Relief Privateer Silver Round is a beautiful addition to Provident Metals’ offerings of Privately Minted Bullion. Each of these 2oz Silver Rounds is IRA approved and will ship in New Condition. Individual rounds ship in poly bags, and quantities of 10 or more ship in plastic tubes.

Expand your treasure chest with an Elemetal 2oz Privateer Silver Round

Blue Tongue Lizard 2015 1oz Silver Proof Coin – Australia’s Remarkable Reptiles 2015

2015-04-14T16:52:00.001-07:00

PROOF QUALITY 99.9% PURE SILVER

The coin is struck by The Perth Mint from 1oz of 99.9% silver in proof quality.

STUNNING COLOURED REVERSE DESIGN

The coin’s reverse portrays a coloured Blue Tongue Lizard displaying its tongue, bordered by a montage of exotic reptile skin patterns. The design also incorporates the inscription BLUE TONGUE LIZARD.

LIMITED MINTAGE

No more than 5,000 Australia’s Remarkable Reptiles – Blue Tongue Lizard 2015 1oz Silver Proof Coins will be available for sale worldwide.

TUVALU LEGAL TENDER

Issued as legal tender under the authority of the Government of Tuvalu, the obverse of the coin depicts the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the monetary denomination and the 2015 year-date.

PRESENTATION CASE AND NUMBERED CERTIFICATE

The coin is housed in a wooden presentation case and custom designed shipper, and is accompanied by a numbered Certificate of Authenticity

Australia’s Remarkable Reptiles – Blue Tongue Lizard 2015 1oz Silver Proof Coin at The Perth Mint, featuring:

Proof Quality 99.9% Pure Silver
Stunning Reverse Coloured Design
Limited Mintage – 5,000
Tuvalu Legal Tender
Presentation Case and Numbered Certificate
Third Coin Release in Series

The Blue Tongue Lizard is native to Australia and is recognised by its bright blue tongue and brownish grey scales. They are not poisonous and can often be found living peacefully in the same backyard for years, conveniently consuming slugs and snails and sunning themselves by the backdoor, or out under the clothesline.

These slow-moving creatures are found in just about every part of Australia: on the coastal plains; in the mountains; in rainforest; deserts and at least one species is found in every Australian capital city.

Previous releases: Frilled Neck Lizard, Thorny Devil Lizard

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Silver Content (Troy oz)	1
Monetary Denomination (TVD)	1
Fineness (% purity)	99.9
Minimum Gross Weight (g)	31.135
Maximum Diameter (mm)	40.60
Maximum Thickness (mm)	4.00
Maximum Mintage	5,000

Funnel-Web Spider Silver Bullion Coin 2015 Perth Mint

2015-03-17T05:13:00.001-07:00

Australia has more than 40 species of funnel-web spider which fall into two genera: Hadronyche and Atrax. Australian funnel-web spiders are medium to large in size and vary from one centimeter to 5 centimeters in length.

The male funnel-web is more lightly built than the female. Both sexes have a body color that can vary from black to brown, but the hard carapace covering the front part of the body is always sparsely haired and glossy.

Not all species are known to be dangerous, but several are renowned for their highly toxic and fast-acting venom. Funnel-webs make their burrows in moist, cool, sheltered habitats—under rocks, in and under rotting logs, some in rough-barked trees (occasionally metres above ground). They are commonly found in suburban rockeries and shrubberies, rarely in lawns or other open terrain.

This 1oz silver bullion coin is issued as legal tender under the Australian Currency Act 1965.

MINTAGE: The Perth Mint will release no more than 1,000,000 of these coins worldwide in 2015.

REVERSE: The coin’s reverse features a large funnel-web spider, displaying its sprawled legs and hairy body. The design also includes the inscription AUSTRALIAN FUNNEL-WEB SPIDER, the 2015 year-date, the coin specifications, and The Perth Mint’s traditional ‘P’ mintmark.

OBVERSE: The coin’s obverse depicts the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the monetary denomination.

PACKAGING: These bullion coins are presented without capsules in protective tubes of 25 coins. There are 20 tubes to a box. Each tube is sealed with The Perth Mint’s tamper evident security seal.

Last year saw the debut of a new series of bullion coins from collector favourite, the Perth Mint. Released much earlier in the year that it’s usual triumvirate of semi-numismatic silver bullion coins (Koala, Kookaburra, Lunar), and with a considerably higher fixed mintage at one-million units, the first coin depicted one of Australians best-known threats to human life, the Saltwater Crocodile. It was a hit and the mint sold out in just a couple of months.

Fast forward to 2015 and yet another of Australia’s menagerie of psychotic killers gets its own coin, the Funnel-Web Spider. Growing up to 5cm in length (the spider, not the coin…), these quite beautiful creatures are capable of inflicting a particularly nasty bite, and doing it in your own garden. Nice. The fangs in particular are an arachnophobes worst nightmare, along with their ability to walk along the bottom of your water-filled swimming pool for a couple of days while still being able to attack you.

The coin follows last years quite closely in design concept, a clean representation of the animal on a clean background, with all the inscriptions in a bordered surround near the rim. The spider lends itself well to this style, and we think it’s actually a slight step up from last years design as the crocodile seems a difficult animal to get right on a coin, although Perth did a good job twelve months ago.

Available in 25-coin tubes, or in monster-boxes of 500, it’s a low-premium, good quality silver bullion coin of good design and restricted mintage. Only available in the one-ounce format, there were no proof, or other collector versions of the Saltwater crocodile released last year, so we wouldn’t expect any of this either. Seems like a bullion winner to us. At present we’ve only seen it up for bulk sale at Texas Precious Metals, a big Perth Mint bullion dealer in the US, but expect this to crop up in loads of places over the next week.

SPECIFICATIONS:


DENOMINATION	$1 AUD
COMPOSITION	0.999 SILVER
WEIGHT	31.10 g
SIZE	40.6 mm
FINISH	BRILLIANT UNCIRCULATED
MINTAGE	1,000,000
ARTIST	ALEYSHA HOWARTH / IAN RANK BROADLEY
BOX / COA	NO / NO

Leaellynasaura 2015 1oz Australian Age Of Dinosaurs Silver Proof Coloured Coin

2015-03-08T04:28:00.001-07:00

The Leaellynasaura is the third coin in this exciting five-coin series which features Australian dinosaurs that existed during the Cretaceous Period between 112 and 102 million years ago.

PROOF QUALITY 99.9% PURE SILVER

The coin is struck from 1oz of 99.9% pure silver in proof quality.

UNIQUE COLOURED DINOSAUR DESIGN

The coin’s reverse depicts the Australian dinosaur Leaellynasaura amicagraphica set against a starlit prehistoric scene. The inscription LEAELLYNASAURA, the coin’s weight and purity, and The Perth Mint’s ‘P’ mintmark are also incorporated into the design.

AUSTRALIAN LEGAL TENDER

Issued as legal tender under the Australian Currency Act 1965, the coin’s obverse features the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the 2015 year-date, and the monetary denomination.

LIMITED MINTAGE

The Perth Mint will release no more than 5,000 of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Series – Leaellynasaura 2015 1oz Silver Proof Coloured Coin.

PRESENTATION PACKAGING AND NUMBERED CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY

The coin is housed in a classic display case within an illustrated shipper, and is accompanied by a numbered Certificate of Authenticity.

FIVE-COIN PLASTIC DISPLAY BOX

A superb way to protect and present all five coins in their illustrated shippers, this series display box comprises an easy-to-assemble polypropylene charcoal tray and a transparent sleeve, and is complimentary with the delivery of the third coin release when purchased as a subscription.

Third Release in Series
Proof Quality 99.9% Pure Silver
Unique Coloured Dinosaur Design
Australian Legal Tender
Limited Mintage – 5,000
Presentation Packaging
Numbered Certificate of Authenticity

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Silver Content (Troy oz)	1
Monetary Denomination (AUD)	1.00
Fineness (% purity)	99.9
Minimum Gross Weight (g)	31.135
Maximum Diameter (mm)	40.60
Maximum Thickness (mm)	4.00
Maximum Mintage	5,000
Designer	Tom Vaughan

Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater Silver Coin Crater Meteorites series $1

2015-03-08T04:04:00.001-07:00

Silver coin Crater Meteorites series $1 Antique finish 2015 Wavy Ultra High Relief with Real Meteorite Stone 1 oz

Wolfe Creek Crater is a well-preserved meteorite impact crater (astrobleme) in Western Australia. It is accessed via the Tanami Road 150 km (93 mi) south of the town of Halls Creek. The crater is central to the Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater National Park.

The crater averages about 875 metres in diameter, 60 metres from rim to present crater floor and it is estimated that the meteorite that formed it had a mass of about 50,000 tonnes, while the age is estimated to be less than 300,000 years (Pleistocene). Small numbers of iron meteorites have been found in the vicinity of the crater, as well as larger so-called 'shale-balls', rounded objects made of iron oxide, some weighing as much as 250 kg.

It was brought to the attention of scientists after being spotted during an aerial survey in 1947, investigated on the ground two months later, and reported in publication in 1949.The European name for the crater comes from a nearby creek, which was in turn named after Robert Wolfe (early reports misspell the name as Wolf Creek), a prospector and storekeeper during the gold rush that established the town of Halls Creek

The crater was featured in the 2005 horror film Wolf Creek, and the sequel in 2013, Wolf Creek 2.

It was the setting for Arthur Upfield's 1962 novel The Will of the Tribe.

The Wolfe Creek crater has considerable claim to be the second most 'obvious' (i.e. relatively undeformed by erosion) meteorite crater known on Earth, after the famous Barringer Crater in Arizona.

The crater is mentioned in the children's science fiction book Alienology that says (in its universe) that a space craft crashed there.

Niue Island WOLFE CREEK METEORITE CRATER

Specifications
Metal	Silver
Mintage	666
Fineness (% purity)	99.9
Content (Troy OZ)	1 oz
Denomination (NZD)	$1
Weight (g)	31.10
Diameter (mm)	38.61
Year of Issue	2015
Country	Niue Island
Edge	Smooth
Quality	Antique finish
Exterior Decoration	Wavy Ultra High Relief; Real meteorite inlay
Package type includes	Luxury themed wooden box
Certificate of Authenticity	Yes
High Quality VIDEO	Available below for viewing