I believe the year 2006 must have gotten an early start; 2005 can't be finished already ... can it? If 2006 is as good a year as 2005 was - numismatically speaking - then we're in for another treat.

This past year, the world's mints produced some very interesting and beautiful coinage. Technology generally seems to be working in favor of coin and currency production. Now, if only the United States government could recognize the beauty being produced on the world's coins and currencies. The closest the U.S. has come to entering that arena are the security changes we've incorporated on our currency. A little color is nice, but it doesn't hold a candle to the color, designs and compositions being utilized by other governments.

2005 saw coin values generally continuing to increase, albeit at a slower pace than the previous few years. Buyers have become a bit more selective, but they're definitely buying. The key coins seem to know no upper-value limits, and the supply of key dates on the market appears to be approaching exhaustion. The better quality keys are finding homes where mature collectors will have them impounded for many years. The lower grade keys are temporarily satisfying the new collectors entering the hobby.

And while key coins have been a good investment for the last several years, bullion coins have also begun to enter the forefront. How about those precious metals prices!! Silver, gold and platinum have really come to life. These noble metals have recently realized values that haven't been seen in more than two decades. And the last time precious metals' values were this high was arguably because they were artificially inflated. This go around, it appears that demand is fueling the rise, and the values seem to holding. I happen to believe that we'll see similar increases again in 2006. If you've been a contrarian and have held some bullion in recent years, then you've probably done alright.

WINS will soon enter its seventh year as a coin club, having been founded in May, 2000. We continue to grow at a steady pace. Any day now, we should see our 600th member. About 100 of those members have been pretty active on our email lists. Our newest members are jumping right in and participating. And I believe our active participation is slowly gaining strength.

Your Board of Directors continues to work hard for you behind the scenes. We're consistently addressing the challenges we face. One difficulty has been some minor glitches in our email communications. We're looking at and discussing potential alternatives, but we're not having much success. Better list servers don't seem to be available, even at a fairly high cost. And those servers we could employ are either similar to what we currently have or are not as good.

JD White, our list mommy, continues to research. But I'm not holding my breath that we'll find anything soon that's better and affordable. Hang in there. Our communications seem to work well about 99% of the time. For those of you who experience occasional problems, JD seems to able to resolve the issues pretty quickly most of the time. Someday soon I hope we'll find the perfect, affordable solution. Thanks for your patience.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I wish you and yours a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous 2006.

Best Regards,

Ralph J. Huntzinger
WINS President