Spot prices

Westminster Mint provides free real time price quotes on gold, silver, platinum and palladium. People interested in the precious metals market can follow the prices and see trends develop 24/7 on the world market by using our free current and historic price charts and graphs. Track your holding and measure how you are performing against other commodities and stock market indexes such as the Dow Jones, S&P 500, S&P Euro currency, Crude Oil and the U.S. Dollar. You get access to exactly what you need to know-when you need to know free and in real time.

Friday, September 18, 2009

The Winner of the Green Coin Design Contest is


Eau Claire, Wis. Resident Earns Grand Prize in Westminster Mint’s Inaugural International “Green Coin” Design Contest

MINNEAPOLIS, September 18, 2009 – Mallory Prucha Rishoi’s parents were ahead of their time. Today, no one bats an eye when people use phrases such as “greening the Earth” and “leaving a carbon footprint.” But in the 1970s, a much smaller percentage of Americans were talking about subjects such as renewable resources. Robert and Linda Prucha were among them.

“In the 1970s, my mom read books such as Diet for a Small Planet and both she and my dad were very interested in taking care of the Earth and society,” said Rishoi, 28, an Eau Claire, Wisconsin resident who attended the University of Nebraska on an art scholarship and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Arts and a Master of Arts in Theatre Arts. “My mom, who was a silversmith/goldsmith, and my dad, the former Director of Campus Horticulture at Father Flanagan’s Boys Town, both had a broad world view. They both integrated principles of Earth-conscious living throughout my life.”


With that kind of background in ecology and art, it’s no wonder Rishoi became interested in entering an international contest for the design of a .999 pure silver “Green Coin” from the Westminster Mint of Minneapolis. The company announced today that Rishoi’s design earned the grand prize of $2,009. She will also receive the first coin off the press, as well as the hand sculpts created by world renowned sculptor Caesar Ruffo.


One side of Rishoi’s coin features the Sun with rays transitioning into the wind and an electric plug, an ear of corn extending into a gasoline nozzle, wind turbines, and a hydro-electric dam. It also includes the wording “Renewable Resources,” “Solar-Wind-Bio-Fuel,” and “Hydro-Electric.” The coin’s obverse features a pair of hands holding a globe with arrows. An outline of the atmosphere bounces several arrows back to the Earth’s surface, representing global warming and human impact, as the Sun highlights the edge of space. This design is encircled by the words “Green Coin,” “The Future Is in Our Hands,” and “2009.”


“Both sides of the coin feature a circular design that serves as a reminder that living consciously and preserving natural resources is a theme that infiltrates all levels of society,” said Rishoi, currently an instructor and Costume Shop Supervisor in the Music and Theatre Arts department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. “The entirety of mankind is encompassed and connected by the precious circle of Earth and must unite in the mission to preserve, protect and renew it for future generations.


“Furthermore, the hands that I drew are actually those of my mother, as I could think of no better hands than hers to represent the gentle, loving and strong grasp that all of us have on the planet. It is inevitably this grasp that will shape and mold the future. I tried to balance the message that the current state of the environment is precarious with that of a hopeful bright future without being too didactic or esoteric.”


Rishoi has lived in Eau Claire with her husband, Greg, for the past three years. She frequently returns to Omaha to visit her parents and grandmother, Phyllis Mallory.


She was interested in art at an early age, opting to pursue the subject despite receiving scholarships to other institutions that would have afforded her study in the fields of astrophysics and meteorology. While at the University of Nebraska, she focused on Drawing, Painting, Costume Design and Politics, serving as the Student Body President/Student Member of the NU Board of Regents. Currently, Rishoi teaches courses in Theatre Appreciation, Stage Make-Up and Stage Costuming. In her spare time, she works as a freelance costume designer and artist.

“This Green Coin contest seemed like an appropriate chance to promote a vital cause that is emerging in the mainstream, while honoring my upbringing,” Rishoi said. “I’m extremely grateful to the organizers of this event at the Westminster Mint for choosing my design.”

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

2009 Silver American Eagles 100 Coins Box with free Silver Eagle

2009 Silver American Eagles 100 Coins Box with free Silver Eagle

Buy silver in bulk and get FREE silver eagle coins. Buy 100 American silver eagle bullion coins and we will send you a silver eagle FREE. The more silver eagles you buy the more free coins you will get. Buy 200 coins and get 2 coins FREE. Buy 300 coins and get 3 coins FREE. This is an incredible offer. All of the silver eagles are guaranteed to be brand new 2009 mint fresh coins that have never been issued to the public before. The coins come in their original “Green Top” U.S. Mint tubes. Each tube contains 20 American silver eagle bullion coins.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Gold at 6-month high, nears $1,000 an ounce

Gold prices bounded higher Thursday, nearing the $1,000 mark for the first time since February. Other metals followed gold higher. Prices have added about $44, or 4.6 percent, over the past three days, breaking free from two months of wayward trading between $930 and $970 an ounce.

Silver prices, which have trailed gold this year, got a boost as well. December silver soared 6 percent, rising 92.5 cents to $16.29 an ounce, after earlier hitting $16.31, its highest point since August 2008. Silver prices have surged more than $2, or 14 percent, in just five days.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

China pushes silver and gold investment to the masses

China pushes silver and gold investment to the masses

A report suggests that the Chinese government is pushing the general public into buying gold and silver bullion, which could have a dramatic effect on the markets.
Author: Lawrence WilliamsPosted: Thursday , 03 Sep 2009 LONDON -

We are indebted again to Paul Mylchreest's Thunder Road Report for news that will bring big smiles to gold and silver investors everywhere. Apparently China is pushing the idea of buying gold and silver for investment purposes to the general population in the way that Western television sells soap powder. If 1.3 billion Chinese citizens start buying gold and silver, even in tiny quantities, imagine what that will do to the market!

The report notes that China's Central Television, the main state-owned television company, has run a news programme letting the public know how easy it is to buy precious metals as an investment. On silver investment the announcer is quoted as saying " China has introduced its first ever investment opportunity for silver bullion. The bars are available in 500g, 1kg, 2kg and 5kg with a purity of 99.9%. Figures show that gold was fifty times more expensive than silver in 2007, but now that figure has reached over seventy times. Analysts say that silver has been undervalued in recent years. They add that the metal is the right investment for individual investors and could be a good way to cash in."

What appears to have happened in China is a total relaxation of strictures on holding precious metals by the individual with the government pushing gold and silver as an investment option, seemingly at every opportunity. This is a far cry from the situation only a few years ago where the distribution of gold and silver was strictly controlled. Now, the Thunder Road Report notes that every bank will sell gold and silver bullion bars in four different sizes to individuals and gold related investments are said to be soaring in popularity.

Around a year ago, Leyshon Resources managing director, Paul Atherley, in an investor presentation in London - and no doubt delivered elsewhere in the world too - commented that some employees at the company's gold mining project in northern China would, on pay day, go to the local bank and buy a small gold bar as an investment and wealth protector. To an extent we put this down at the time to mining company hype - but this seems to be exactly the same phenomenon noted by Thunder Road. The Chinese are being converted from being the lowest per capita gold consumers in the world to a nation of small precious metals investors. Now, by next year, Chinese consumption of gold is likely to exceed that of India, which has been for years the world's biggest gold market. And one suspects that the potential for gold purchasing by individuals is only in its earliest stages. As more and more Chinese move into the cities and individual wealth grows, this trend is only likely to accelerate.

Paul ends the piece on Chinese gold and silver potential with the following comment: "Simply put, the Chinese government is trying to trigger a national gold craze...and it's working. The Chinese public now has gold trading platforms on steroids.... ...Also, for the first time in history, Chinese investors can even trade gold abroad (in London) with the swipe of a ‘Lucky Gold' card. I can't even get Bank of America to open a foreign currency account."

This may be an overstatement of the case from a precious metals bull - or it may not! Certainly if China is indeed pushing the public to buy gold then there may well be a hidden agenda here. It's unlikely they are doing it and will suddenly pull the rug out from under millions of investors. A cynic (or a raging gold bull) would suggest that this will precede a move to switch a good proportion of the country's reserves into gold which would have a huge effect on the global gold price and could prove disastrous for the dollar. Maybe it's not in China's interests to drive the dollar down too much until it has managed to divest itself of the huge dollar overhang (see the article on Chinese Sovereign Wealth Funds we published yesterday - Chinese sovereign wealth fund dumping dollars for strategic investments like gold ). The country may well already be, of course, surreptitiously building its gold reserves without reporting the build-up.

If the Chinese are indeed beginning to buy gold and silver as the quoted report suggests then this has to be a strong signal that prices are going to rise, and perhaps rise dramatically, in the relatively near future. We await comment from other China watchers for confirmation of the gold and silver buying spree, but with global gold production at best flat and probably in decline, even a small increase in Chinese buying could have a substantial impact on gold and silver prices.