Error On Yellowstone Silver Coin Discovered

Posted by admin on Monday, July 25th, 2011

During grading of a bulk submission of Yellowstone five-ounce coins the NGC has announced the discovery of the first error in the America the Beautiful five ounce series. This follows on from last week’s discovery of a light finish 2010-P Grand Canyon five-ounce variety coin as discussed in this blog on 21st July. The 2010-P Yellowstone has a mat finish on the Washington side, and a brilliant finish on the reverse. Whilst this appears unique at present, there may be other errors awaiting discovery.

There are two types of America the Beautiful five-ounce coins issued by the Mint: a lustrous bullion version and a mat collector version. Designated Specimen by the NGC, the collector version is vapour blasted in the final stage of production, and has the “P” mintmark.

The vapour-blasting process is applied after the coins are struck by “blasting” a compressed mixture of water vapour and ceramic media. On this error, only the Washington side was vapour-blasted – the Yellowstone side was untouched. The Washington side therefore resembles a Specimen while the Yellowstone side appears similar to a bullion issue. This error has been graded as Specimen 69, and has the description “With Unfinished Reverse” on the label.

Uncertainty Pushes Gold To New Highs

Though President Obama has given his assurance to the markets that the US will not default on its debt obligations, the political shenanigans between Republicans and Democrats continue. Both sides are now putting together their own separate plans for America’s debt and deficit reduction efforts, whilst Mrs Clinton has been at pains to reassure China that the USA will not go into default.

With the August 2nd deadline approaching rapidly, time is running short for a solution.

Under this cloud, markets have been nervous and gold has taken off. Today it has touched a record breaking $1622 an ounce, and whilst silver was weaker through much of the day this too has closed stronger.

Markets dislike uncertainty, and the US lawmakers are giving this in spades. Talk and no resolution, idealistic plans of short-term debt limit extensions, and warnings from the ratings agencies over America’s credit rating, have conspired to put investors on the edge of their seats.

Of course, markets must realise that a deal will be done – in the nick of time – and thus they are perhaps overdoing things. Look at the European solution to the problems posed by Greece’s debt last week. If this is the case, however, markets will have factored in this already. Just as they had with the Greek situation. And resolution there has not stopped the advance of gold and silver.

No, there seems to be more behind the uncertainty, and the nerves.

This could be why many market analysts are expecting silver and gold to continue the march north through uncharted territory.


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