Heritage 2015 Sales $860 Million
Regarding the Antiques and the Arts Weekly interview excerpted last week, Russ Sears writes:

Jim adds:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
INTERVIEW: JAMES HALPERIN OF HERITAGE (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n52a06.html)

Counterfeit Countermarks on Counterfeit Coins

Jeff Rock writes:

Jeff adds:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
BRITISH COUNTERMARKED SILVER INFORMATION SOUGHT (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n52a10.html)

More Official U.S. War and Stamp Greeting Cards

Ron Haller-Williams writes:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
OFFICIAL U.S. WAR AND STAMP GREETING CARDS (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n52a33.html)

Cash In the Economy and the Coin Business
Patrick Perez of Coin Dealer Newsletter writes:

While it is true that the overwhelming amount of daily transactions in this country are facilitated by credit or debit card, many small- and medium-sized business owners conduct their business incash. By brushing this off with the oft-cited quote "no one carries cash anymore," a whole segment of American business is marginalized. If a business owner does not want to subject themselves tofees imposed by credit card processing companies, why does their government force them to do it by limiting how much cash is available for their customers to spend? As it is, cash transactionsalready have many restrictions. To my mind, it comes down to personal freedom.

So what does this all mean for the rare coin business? There are negatives and positives. The obvious ones first: negatives. Anyone who has ever been to a coin show knows the ubiquitous sight of$100 bills being used to buy coins and bullion. At a large show, there may be more cash on the floor than a small bank has in its vault! It is unusual to see a vendor who accepts credit cards attheir table. Furthermore, a collector who comes to sell coins at a show expects to walk out with cash, unless he is selling a large amount of material. If left to deal with nothing but $20s, $10s and$5s our business would be severely hampered. Would the industry find other ways? Probably so, but it would be a slow process.

Where are the positives to be found? Rare coins and bullion are a proven store of wealth which are tangible and cannot be manipulated by the decisions of policy makers. Policy can influence theirvalue, but cannot change the fact they will never be worth zero. The item that is seemingly ignored by economists is the impact of negative interest rates on savers and retirement accounts.Pensioners - such as teachers, public workers, and those in the trades - rely on managers for their annuities, which can amount to billions of dollars under investment.

In face of all of this, rare coins and bullion become a very attractive asset to add a part of a savings portfolio, perhaps even better than cash.

To read the complete article, see:
Monthly Supplement: IS "CASH" THE NEW 4-LETTER WORD?(http://blog.greysheet.com/2016/10/01/monthly-supplement-is-cash-the-new-4-letter-word/ )

Apollo 11 Moon Rock Bag Ruling

An Illinois woman is the legal owner of an Apollo 11 lunar sample storage bag that was mistakenly sold by the United States government at auction, a judge ruled on Wednesday (Dec. 14).

Judge J. Thomas Marten ruled in the U.S. District Court for Kansas that Nancy Carlson of Inverness, Illinois, obtained the title to the historic artifact as "a good faith purchaser, in a saleconducted according to law." The government had petitioned the court to reverse the sale and return the lunar sample bag to NASA.

The zippered cloth pouch, which was labeled in bold black letters "Lunar Sample Return," was used on July 20, 1969, as an "outer decontamination bag" to protect the first moonrocks retrieved from the surface of the moon as they were delivered to Earth by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.

Carlson purchased the bag for $995 in February 2015, at a Texas auction held on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service. The bag had been forfeited along with other artifacts found in the home of MaxAry, a former curator convicted in 2006 of stealing and selling space artifacts that belonged to the Cosmosphere space museum in Hutchinson, Kansas.

The bag's history was only discovered after Carlson sent the artifact to NASA to be tested for the presence of moon dust. After identifying remnants of lunar material from the Apollo 11 moonlanding site, NASA retained custody of the bag and contacted the U.S. Justice Department.

Kavan adds:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
Apollo 11 Moon Rock Bag Belongs to Buyer, Not NASA, Judge Rules(www.space.com/35067-apollo-11-moon-rock-bag-result.html)