As most of you know the auction of the Eliasberg World Gold Collection was recently completed. This auction set a new benchmark for world gold coinage. Prices never before achieved were realized for South American, European and Asian coins. It was common in this auction for current market values for a given type of coin to be broken by factors of 5, 6, even 10 times as much.

At first I thought it was only because of the pedigree of the coins, and no doubt to a certain degree it was. But since the end of that auction I have been watching and tracking the same types of coins that I always do on a daily basis. And these coins are selling for double and triple the price they did before the Eliasberg auction. And the changes occurred in a matter of days. I won't say that it's right across the board because I don't track all coins. I only keep track of the types of coins I collect on a daily basis. But what I am really curious about is if this substantial increase in realized prices will continue or if it just a short lived effect due to the record prices realized in the Eliasberg auction. I guess only time will tell. But if it does last, then I'm afraid the days of undervalued world coinage may have reached an end.

That's about it for now - I hope you enjoy this as well as future issues of - The Tarnished Truth.

THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER - Words of inspiration from the WINS President. Read it HERE.

FROM BEHIND THE GREEN CURTAIN - IT tidbits, auction summaries and more. Read it HERE. Sorry, no report due to system difficulties.

MEMBER'S ARTICLE - The Trail of Tin Read it HERE.

TREASURER'S REPORT - The WINS PayPal account is - winstreasury@bellsouth.net

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The answer is: ? ? ?
The first gold dollars were actually struck by a private individual, Christopher Bechtler, at his private mint in Rutherfordton North Carolina. They were not struck by the US Mint.