Market insights and coinage history, written in plain English for collectors. Educational reading, never investment advice.
Educational reading for collectors: how the metals markets work, where American coinage came from, and what the numbers on the screen actually mean. No hype, no predictions, just the background every collector deserves.
How the benchmark prices for gold and silver are set, what a troy ounce is, and why the number on the screen is a starting point rather than a checkout price.
Read the article →What the gold-silver ratio measures, how it was once fixed by law, and why observers still track it today.
Read the article →The story of American 90 percent silver coinage, why it vanished from circulation in 1965, and why collectors still seek it today.
Read the article →From the Coinage Act of 1792 to the end of gold convertibility in 1971, the factual story of gold in the American monetary system.
Read the article →Silver is the rare metal that is both money and machine part. A factual look at the industrial demand that sets it apart from gold.
Read the article →Why physical coins always cost more than the spot price, what drives premiums up and down, and how to think about them as a collector.
Read the article →Three species of coin, three completely different worlds. The most expensive mix-up in the hobby, untangled.
Read the article →A 70 on a modern commemorative certifies quality control. A high grade on a classic coin certifies survival. Only one is scarce.
Read the article →A troy ounce of modern certainty versus ninety years of history in .900 silver. Both silver dollars, nothing alike.
Read the article →Circulation, bag marks, and the great melts: why beautiful classic dollars are genuinely rare.
Read the article →The rules, the fees, and the IRS collectibles restriction, from a dealer with no IRA to sell you.
Read the article →Overdates, repunched mintmarks, and the catalog that turned ordinary-looking Morgans into hunted treasure. The complete beginner’s guide to error dates and variety collecting.
Read the article →The complete standard: transparency, pressure tests, verifiable facts, and the questions professionals welcome. Grade every dealer with it, us included.
Read the article →The most expensive mistake in the hobby, and the two-minute check that prevents it forever.
Read the article →Local shops, coin shows, and phone dealers compared honestly, by a dealer who competes in one of those lanes.
Read the article →Every market quote is really two numbers. Knowing which one applies to you is half of metals literacy.
Read the article →The ounce on your kitchen scale and the ounce in a gold quote are not the same unit. Here is the difference.
Read the article →No one can predict gold. But the forces that have historically moved it are well documented, and worth knowing.
Read the article →Silver lives a double life: precious metal and factory input. That dual identity shapes its market character.
Read the article →Every silver or gold coin has two values living inside it. Collectors should always know both.
Read the article →The least glamorous name in coins hides the simplest math in the hobby.
Read the article →The price on the screen is born in places most collectors never see. Here is the family tree.
Read the article →The largest gold owners on earth are not collectors or jewelers. They are governments.
Read the article →One year splits all American gold coins into before and after. Here is why.
Read the article →A pocket reference every collector eventually memorizes. Until then, bookmark this.
Read the article →Same metal, three shapes, three very different objects. Here is how to tell them apart.
Read the article →Four forces set the value of every collectible coin ever sold. Learn them once, use them forever.
Read the article →It can feel old-fashioned until you understand the market underneath. Then it feels like the only honest way.
Read the article →Gold and silver have two quieter siblings. Both are rarer than gold, and both live very industrial lives.
Read the article →Those little decimal numbers on every bar and coin are a complete language. It takes two minutes to learn.
Read the article →Our Markets page streams live charts all day. Two minutes of vocabulary makes them genuinely readable.
Read the article →Twice every trading day, the gold world pauses and looks at London. Here is what it is looking at.
Read the article →Before anyone trusts a bar of metal, someone has to prove what is inside it. That proof has a name.
Read the article →Every major minting nation strikes its own one-ounce ambassador. Meet the family.
Read the article →The number stamped on a coin and what the coin is worth parted ways long ago. Here is the story of the gap.
Read the article →Occasional plain-English notes on the gold and silver markets and the coins we love, written for collectors. To join the mailing list, call us or send an email with the word Subscribe.