GoldFinger1969

No you didn't....Insider asked the question and you responded but I don't know why he even asked it and you weren't even more dismissive. I think that is what was confusing -- you seemed to think the question was plausible but no evidence had been found. The United States Mint/Treasury should not be sending dies to ANYBODY, IMO. If they ever did, wow. Like sending currency plates which would allow a foreign power to counterfeit.

Gold tones much much less than silver.

Yeah, I think Roger must have mis-typed.....sending them $20 DE dies would be like sending them plates for $20 or $50 or $100 bills. Ridiculous. Wouldn't send those to ANYBODY even our friends in the UK, let alone the USSR. Maybe he meant blank dies.

Why would closely-guarded and protected $20 dies -- any dies -- be sent to Russia to strike ANYTHING I would think they would be destroyed if not stored in locked vaults for historical reasons.

For general coin looking, I use one of those green-shade banker lamps with an LED light (no heat).

WHO can go to hell, AFAIC. They lied and are in the tank for the CCP.

Fair point.....I'm a quality over quantity guy so for me having the protection is important. I guess if I had thousands of coins and many were low-value I might not need them on a few dozen or few hundred or maybe even few thousand coins if I didn't care about condition, preservation, etc.

Yeah, I don't think you need AI for modern grading....maybe for more complex, die and other varieties on older classics....all you need is a 4K or HD-quality scanner/camera, lasers, and software. They've been using this stuff to look for tumours in healthcare or even to look for asteroids/planets in astrophotography CCDs for years.

Much of the descriptive information I see is so basic as to be useless....the exceptions are the borrowed material from Akers' book and yours. The detailed Saints info on high-end coins at HA comes from your book and is outstanding.

The LB Show is put on/sponsored by PCGS/CU ? Didn't know that.

I don't understand how anybody can want unslabbed coins or unprotected currency. Not only do you know have a professional estimate for the underlying grade, the coin or bill is not in a position to be properly handled and stored. Do overseas people -- and some Americans -- really want to finger-up their coins...have friends touching them....risk damage to their coins/bills ? Even if there weren't grades attached, I value the slabs and currency plastic holders.

Let's stick to the CU deal and implications for the hobby, guys..........

Possible, but again, that doesn't move the needle on a purchase like this after the stock is up 3-fold from a year ago and 5-fold from the March lows. Unless the private equity guys see something to move top-line revenue growth substantially, not sure where they see the opportunity to earn a decent ROIC.

Any comments on the popularity of $2.50, $3, $5, and $10 gold coins ? I know $20 DEs were tough to justify handling on a daily basis.

D1 and Steve Cohen see something the rest of us haven't. I'm not sure if it's global expansion or the stay-at-home thing. Clearly, they must see top-line growth somewhere because this isn't a cost-cutting thing you can make money on, not when the stock price is up 3-fold from a year ago and 5x from the March lows.

I'm not sure about that, Roger. I don't think CU has tons of overhead spread all over the world....yeah, it may be possible to do some grading at home (or maybe not)....but if anything, they should want to be in expansion mode. A large-cap company you can cut the fat. Doubt it on a small-cap like this whose very public trading existence was questioned over the years (it was probably done for liquidity for key employees).

This is really interesting because it is counter-intuitive to what I had gleamed from cursory readings concerning those times. My understanding was the disdain for the "Greenbacks" of the Civil War Era led to suspicion for paper money and you either wanted silver (agrarian and rural folks, the "Free Silver" crowd of WJB) or gold (more urban businessmen and shop owners). I thought it took decades for gold and silver certificates to gain acceptance.

Thanks for the portal information, Roger. The HA FUN catalog had commentary and a letter from a dealer circa 1948 (?) that I hadn't seen anywhere before. I can usually tell when someone or something is just regurgitating the same information. I see the same commentary from your book on many HA Saint auctions where they just recycle the basics for particular years. At least your information is new and pretty complete and often in-depth. Lots of other coins just shared the same generic paragraph or two.

Ditto, when I went to FUN earlier this year HA was promoting the sale of a 1927-D Saint so that booklet had oodles of information I hadn't seen before on that specific year and coin.

I was just sick, but no Covid-19 (tested negative with the nasal swab). Whatever the hell I had, it gave me a high fever and absolutely NO ENERGY for 3+ days. I've had the Flu before but never like this. I was pretty sure I had C-19. Agreed, Summer FUN or FUN 2022.

Has the buyer told us that ? I doubt it. This is a small-enough company that I cold see D1/Cohen keeping it a long time...or just fixing-it-up and expanding overseas/currency and re-IPOing in a few years. They may think they can get the valuation to $2 billion within 3-5 years.

This is a small-cap company that doesn't lend itself to that kind of situation.

I don't see any conglomerate M&A type stuff. This isn't s a large enough company where spin-offs and sales of divisions lead to a sum-of-the-parts value that is greater than the stock price. I have to think they believe the at-home thing is here to stay and that more collectibiles grading in the U.S. and oveseas means the topline can keep growing. This deal pays for itself in 3 years on an IRR basis if the top line can grow closer to 20% a year.

The stock price did NOTHING for 20 years. This looks like either D1/Cohen will be running a collectibles business for a long time (doubt it)...or they are going to fix-it-up and re-IPO it within 3-5 years and still triple their money.

I've been planning to attend, and I can make the drive from my parents both ways in 1 day, so no need to stay overnight in beautiful downtown Baltimore.