Twenty years ago in 1989 the Austrian State Mint passed from the Treasury into the ownership of the central bank. The mint was given the freedom to produce and sell products in accordance with the demands of the modern numismatic and investment markets. One of the very first innovations introduced by the new CEO, Paul Berger, was the production of a gold bullion coin for investment purposes: the Vienna Philharmonic.

On 16th October this year a limited quantity of 6,027 Vienna Philharmonic coins, each weighing 20 ounces of fine gold, will go on sale in Europe, America and Japan.

20 ounces to commemorate 20 years!

Why the odd number? The mint decided to offer 2009 coins (the date of the 20th anniversary) in its three major markets: in Europe, in America and in Japan. Investors still remember the 15 giant coins (each of 1,000 ounces) that celebrated the fifteenth anniversary in 2004, and that entered the Guinness Book of Records as the then largest gold coin in the world. All 15 giant coins were snapped up within days, and the excitement surrounding this special issue of a 20 ounce coin promises a similar market reaction.

The new 20 ounce coin has a diameter of 74 mm and a thickness of 8.3 mm and is housed in a prestigious wooden and red velvet case. Pre-orders for this unique anniversary gold coin have already started pouring into the mint in Vienna. It promises to be a major success as indeed the past 20 years of the Austrian bullion programme have been.

The Vienna Philharmonic Story

The decision in 1989 to issue a gold bullion coin in the two weights of 1 ounce and ¼ ounce was greeted with indulgent smiles. Austria, a small central European country since the destruction of her empire in 1918 and without any gold mining industry to support, was entering the bullion market, long dominated by the Krugerrand and that time divided between the USA, Canada and Western Australia.

Berger and his team decided that music was the ideal theme for their new coin. Austria was internationally renowned for its music, but they decided against the portrayal of one of the many great composers like Mozart, Haydn or Strauss. That would make the coin appear like a commemorative edition for collectors. Instead they chose a living and world-famous musical institution: the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. To their delight the members of the orchestra enthusiastically endorse this choice, freely grant the use of their name. The engraver, Thomas Pesendorfer, designed a collection of instruments to represent the orchestra itself and for the other side of the coin he took the great pipe organ of the Golden Hall in Vienna where the orchestra plays at home. It is seen on television around the world every year on 1st January during the New Year’s Day Concert.

The new Austrian coin was launched in Vienna on 10th October and was an immediate success. The demand in the home market was nothing less than ferocious. In two and a half months 419,000 ounces were sold, achieving with one blow an 18% world market share for the entire year 1989! It rapidly established itself as a serious participant in the international gold market. In 1992 and again in 1995, 1996 and 2000 the Vienna Philharmonic was ranked by the World Gold Council as the top selling gold bullion coin worldwide. In 2008 the Vienna Philharmonic continued to rank No. 1 in Europe and in Japan, and with a year’s market share of 25% it came in 3rd worldwide narrowly missing 2nd place. The “indulgent smiles” have long since disappeared.

A 1/10 ounce in 1991 and a ½ ounce coin in 1994 completed the traditional family of four sizes. In 2008 a silver 1 ounce Vienna Philharmonic was added to the investment range with resounding success.

Looking back on 20 years of continual growth and success, the Vienna Philharmonic has established itself firmly as one of the four great gold bullion coins offered on the international market of today. This one-time issue of a limited number of 20 ounce gold coins is but a fitting tribute to a 20 year long success story that shows no signs of letting up in the near future.

Related posts:

1. Last of the Austrian Mint’s “Vienna Jugendstil” Series
2. Austrian Mint Issues 5 Euro Silver Coin Honoring Great Conductor
3. Gold touches 27-year high of $746.30 an ounce; silver surges nearly 3%

Vancouver-based Teck Cominco may find itself sitting a lot more comfortably than was the case six months or so, but CEO Don Lindsay made it clear on Thursday that he won’t be happy until the company’s term loan is paid down and it once again merits investment-grade ratings.

One year ago, Teck borrowed $9,8-billion to buy Fording Canadian Coal Trust, and spent the next 12 months scrambling to free up cash after debt markets turned sour late in 2008.

Read more….

New York gold futures ended lower Tuesday for the fourth straight day as the US dollar advanced on news of a decline in consumer confidence. Silver was hit exceptionally hard for the second straight day, falling more than 3 percent. Platinum declined as well. In other markets, crude oil finished 1 percent higher and US stocks ended mixed.

New York precious metals figures follow:

• Silver for December delivery plummeted 55.5 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $16.540 an ounce. It ranged from $17.250 to $16.500.

• Gold for December delivery declined $7.40, or 0.7 percent, to $1,035.40 an ounce. The yellow metal ranged from $1,044.30 to $1,032.90, which was the lowest level since Oct. 6.

• January platinum fell $26.80, or 2.0 percent, to $1,319.00 an ounce.

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Read the rest of Gold Drops for Fourth Day, Silver Plunges, Stocks Mixed (2,493 words)

Clive Corcoran submits:

The following are some musings on the U.K. economy, prompted by an adage that seems quite appropriate for our times of thinking the unthinkable.

1. The U.K. public finances are in dire straits with a likely deficit this year well in excess of £200 billion and with red ink as far as the eye can see. It seems highly likely that within the next three or four years outstanding public debt will exceed 100% of GDP.
2. The U.K. is still in recession with a -0.4% GDP reading for Q3, 2009
3. The fact that the U.K. faces a national election within the next nine months means that there is no immediate political will to address the problem or even to spell it out to the electorate.
4. The markets are expected to fund the deficit through the continued purchase of gilts despite the fact that the Bank of England has indicated that it is winding down its Quantitative Easing program.
5. Sterling recently has exhibited as its default mode a tendency for sudden plunges against other major currencies.
6. A recent posting here reveals that the price of gold as expressed in terms of a variety of currencies showed that holders of the U.K. currency had lost the most purchasing power vis a vis the precious metal over the last five years. The real point of this is to highlight that the U.K. economy has historically been more inflation prone than many others.
7. Could the U.K. government – whatever flavor it takes after June 2010 – be faced with the awkward choice of having to approach the IMF for an emergency loan to bail out the gilts market and prevent a collapse in sterling, or to adopt the euro to seek some safety under the umbrella of a more globally acceptable currency?
8. Will Tony Blair, as the possible new President of the European Union, find that he has been provided with the unique destiny of rescuing the U.K. economy by facilitating the early adoption of the euro in place of sterling?

Read more »

While financial stocks will take a back seat

Read more….

Silver prices returned with some luster following their declines last week when prices slumped below yearly highs. The metal enjoyed weekly gains of 2.0 percent in London and 1.7 percent in New York — both closing at their at their highest weekly levels this year.

New York silver futures for December delivery finished Friday at $17.723 an ounce, rising 30.3 cent cent from last Friday’s close of $17.420. The price has gained 57 percent this year after dropping 24 percent in 2008.

London silver was set to $17.65 an ounce, jumping to a weekly gain of 34 cents. The precious metal is now up an impressive $6.86, or 63.6 percent this year. London silver on Dec. 31, 2008 was fixed at $10.79 an ounce.

"In silver right now you have about an equal number of buyers and sellers between the range we have seen recently," said David Morgan from Silver-Investor.com."And this is very typical of all markets. A bull market is named bull for a reason. All bull markets shake off as many participants as possible, on the way up"

London precious metal weekly prices follow:

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Read the rest of Silver Prices Bounce Back in NY and London (465 words)

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The Daily Reckoning

If you’ve invested in gold, you’re about to gain a powerful ally: pension funds.

“I think the largest institutions like our own are realizing that we barely own any [gold]” Shayne McGuire, head of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas said in an interview in Hong Kong very early this morning. “The same thing applies to most of the pension funds which manage trillions of dollars in world wealth.”

McGuire, who oversees $95 billion, just opened an internally managed gold fund for his 1.3 million public education employees, and suggests other pension funds follow suit. Owning gold is “financial insurance,” he said, sounding a lot like David Einhorn at the Value Investing Congress earlier this week. “Consider the tremendous fiscal excess that major governments have made to prevent the world economy from collapsing… I don’t think the question really is what is gold worth but what are currencies not worth.”

According to the FT, there are 2,600 public pension plans in the U.S., worth over $2 trillion.

“If we believe we’re in a secular bear market or entering a world of hyper-inflation and debased fiat currencies,” Eric Sprott, fund chief at Sprott Hedge Fund LP, added. “There’s no better place to be than gold and precious metals. I find it quite instructive that the price of gold has gone up every year for the past nine years, since the bear market started. That’s not a coincidence, and we think the full cycle could easily reach 15-20 years.

“There is a survivalist aspect to having such a big stake in tangible assets. As long as governments show such low regard for policies that support the real value of paper financial assets, investing in precious metals is about the only way to guarantee the preservation of your wealth.”

“Sprott is our kind of guy,” notes Addison Wiggin, fresh back from the Congress himself. “His $4.2 billion hedge fund is long 30% in silver bullion, 15% in gold bullion, 30% in gold stocks, 10% in energy, 5% in miscellaneous stocks and 10% in cash. Suspicious of equities going back to the tech bust, Sprott played what we had termed ‘The Trade of the Decade’ like an impresario…”

Now, after nearly 10 years, “bargains are harder to find today,” Sprott continued, “but we’re still finding small gold miners that appear to have slipped through the market’s cracks and trade — based on what we believe are reasonable production estimates and no increase in the price of gold — at only around five times estimated 2011 earnings. When we find those, we’ll buy them all day long.”

Gold’s New Ally originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning, a FREE daily e-letter, offers a “uniquely refreshing” perspective on the global economy, investing, and today’s markets.

More articles from The Daily Reckoning….

Precious metals enjoyed modest gains on the week as the US dollar was the predominating driver of where prices went. A weaker greenback on Friday combined with lower crude oil prices helped gold slide slightly from earlier week highs. Oil did jump nearly 3.5 percent this week while gasoline prices at the pump were almost 13 cents higher than last Saturday.

In other markets, US stocks declined for the first week in three while European indexes finished mixed with the London FTSE advancing.

In London bullion weekly figures, gold climbed 1.4 percent, silver rose 2.0 percent and platinum jumped 2.4 percent. Friday precious metals prices follow:

London silver closed to $17.65 an ounce, rising 34 cents from last Friday’s close. New York December silver futures ended at $17.723 for a 30.3 cent weekly increase.

London gold was fixed at $1,061.75 an ounce for a $14.25 gain on the week. New York gold for December delivery finished at $1,056.40 for a weekly gain of $5.70.

London platinum ended at $1,372.00 an ounce, advancing $32.00 since last Friday’s close. New York platinum for January delivery ended at $1,369.50 for a $21.00 weekly rise.

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Read the rest of Bullion & Business Weekend Report – Oct. 24 (1,447 words)

The Daily Reckoning

The central banks of the world are changing tune. Since 1989, the banks have been net sellers of gold reserves, meaning that as a group they have sold more than they have taken in. This is an important point because the large gold sales of central banks tend toward lowering the spot price of gold. The news emerging from a September 2009 GMFS report is that central banks as a whole are once again becoming net buyers, and their purchases have the potential to put upward pressure on the price of gold in the public markets.

According to GFMS, “this represents a remarkable change of direction for a market that has been used to absorbing substantial volumes of gold sold by central banks over the last decade.”

Central bank gold sales may have been initially enlisted in an effort to support the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, especially since 1971 when the US de-linked the dollar from gold. The changing trend may be related to recent renewed interest in the SDR, which has been getting a lot of attention in media as a potential replacement reserve currency. Or, it could reflect an anticipation of a continued increase in the value of gold over time.

Either way, this is an important trend to watch. Central banks are significant players in the gold market and can affect the value of your personal gold holdings.

The full story is available from Jesse’s Cafe Americain which has more details on the official central bank purchases and several insightful charts.

Gold May Have More Price Support now Than at any Time Since 1989 originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning, a FREE daily e-letter, offers a “uniquely refreshing” perspective on the global economy, investing, and today’s markets.

More articles from The Daily Reckoning….

What’s New on CoinLink ……..

Olympic Medals – As unique as the world’s top athletes and their awe-inspiring performances, every medal won at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will be a one-of-a-kind work of art.

NGC recently certified the unique Ecuador 1862 50 Francos struck in gold. This classic rarity of 19th-century South American coinage is an experimental denomination that conforms to the European coinage standards of the era. It is graded NGC AU 55.

Unusual Items: Lowest Graded Half Eagle Gold Coin to be Sold by Heritage – The mantra in almost all areas of collecting is Quality, Quality, Quality! High end coins are always in demand, regardless of the series.

The American Numismatic Association Board of Governors has approved a balanced operating budget for the 2010 fiscal year (November 1, 2009 to October 31, 2010), signaling the continued financial turnaround in fiscal performance for the Association.

1810 Half Eagles By Doug Winter - In a recent blog about undervalued early gold issues, I mentioned that the half eagles of 1810 were confusing enough (even to a specialist such as me) that this tends to suppress values for some of the rare issues that are known from this year. Let’s take a more in-depth look at the various 1810 half eagles.

CoinLink is always on the lookout for new sites related to numismatics, and especially ones that have the potencial to offer valuable new information to the collecting community. A recent article in the NGC Newsletter caught our eye. They profiled Coin Society, a new site which just released an open beta at www.coinsociety.com.

A new series of informative and entertaining educational videos, “Spare Change: Coin Collecting Guide,” is available free at the recently-launched website, www.CoinsTV.com.

Coin Dealer Julian Leidman Victim of Vehicle Burglary. Reward Grows to $156,000. The Township of Montville, New Jersey police department is investigating the October 11, 2009 auto burglary of coin dealer Julian Leidman. Mr. Leidman was en route home after participating in Coinfest Coin Show held in Stamford Connecticut.

Ponterio & Associates, a division of Bowers and Merena Auctions, will bring 1,250 lots of world paper money to Baltimore, Md., as part Bowers and Merena’s Official Auction of the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Baltimore Expo scheduled for November 10-14, 2009.

Stella Coin News (SCN) is very pleased to announce their latest online reference book, The Complete Guide to Certified Barber Coinage, written in 1999 by John and David Feigenbaum.

PNG – Millions Lost From Coin Fakes, Hobby Leaders Warn – Chinese-made counterfeit coins pose a significant financial threat to unsuspecting consumers, according to leaders of five of the country’s most influential rare coin organizations. They warn the public is spending millions of dollars on fake U.S. coins offered in online auctions and elsewhere, such as flea markets and swap meets.

On September 29th, Spink held a sale in London of A Superb Set Of The 1913 – 1914 Commonwealth of Australia Banknotes. The notes were found in a chest of drawers in the North Yorkshire home of an elderly man when his home was being cleard out for an estate sale.

PCGS - An informative video news report about the rare coin market has been posted by CNBC on its web site. PCGS Co-Founder David Hall is prominently featured in the story.

Laura Sperber Market Report – First, we’d like to congratulate and thank Jon Lerner (Scarsdale Coins) putting on one of the BEST shows there is! Jon fought a nasty cold and made sure everything was “just right” for everyone. We also would like to offer a huge thank you to John Albanese and his team over at CAC for donating their time and effort to offer free submissions for the collectors who attended.

Continuing with News across the web, we have a new posting of – Coin News Daily – providing short excerpts and links to other news across the web that we have found, and which you may find of interest. We also provide Daily Updates on Precious Metals in The Bullion Report, with Charts, Video Headlines and News.

You can access ALL the News Here