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The Most Unexpected Desired Silver Coin of 2020

The Most Unexpected Desired Silver Coin of 2020

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The coin of the year for 2020 is an unexpected one because of the coronavirus. To ensure the safety of its workers and customers, the US Mint had to temporarily shut down its West Point and San Francisco facilities. The Philadelphia Mint has rarely struck American Silver Eagles in its 35-year history, but, this year, Philadelphia stepped in to meet gaps in the production of these coins. This time, these coins are minted as “Emergency Production.” This is an unprecedented event for this bullion coin and the US Mint, making these coins all that much more special and unparalleled.

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The Quarantined US Mint

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the US Mint temporarily froze operations at two of its minting facilities. The West Point facility, which normally mints the 2020 American Silver Eagles, closed in March because an employee tested positive for the virus. Therefore, the mint shut down for a few days to perform a deep cleaning of the facility.

Additionally, the San Francisco Mint also halted all production on March 18th, but later reopened on May 4th. Because of these shutdowns, the US Mint had to rearrange its coin releases schedule for this year. These closures further affected the American Gold Eagles and American Gold Buffalo coins, which were not minted during the shutdown of the West Point Mint. This also led them to utilize the Philadelphia Mint to strike a limited amount of the 2020 American Silver Eagle coins.

2020 Silver Eagles

According to this official US Mint statement, the Philadelphia Mint struck an estimated 240,000 2020 Silver American Eagle coins. However, these particular silver eagles do not bear a special Philadelphia mintmark. The US Mint wanted the 2020 Silver Eagles to be homogenous in their design. However, the mint also packaged these coins manually in “monster boxes” that contained 25 tubes of 20 each. Then, the mint set these coins further apart with handwritten tracking numbers.

Reportedly, box numbers 400,000 through 400,479 contained the Emergency Production Philadelphia 2020 Silver Eagles. This way, the grading services NGC and PCGS could differentiate the 2020 Silver Eagles from the Philadelphia Emergency Issue coins.

Significance Of The Philadelphia 2020 Silver Eagles

The production of Silver Eagles has shifted between minting facilities. Normally, production moved among the facilities to ease the burden of demand. However, the Philadelphia Mint has not had much to do with the American Silver Eagle coins except for more recently in 2015, 2016, 2017, and now again in 2020.

A Brief History of the Philadelphia 2020 Silver Eagles

Back in 2015, intense demand for the Silver American Eagles led the Philadelphia Mint to strike more Silver Eagles. This resulted in exceptionally rare Philadelphia Silver Eagles with a low mintage of just over 79,000. Some of these 2015 Silver Eagle coins sold for over $5000. Grading companies were able to only identify about 7% of these coins.

The Philadelphia Mint again struck Silver Eagles in 2016 and 2017 to meet the high demand. Philadelphia struck 1,151,500 Silver Eagles in 2016 and 1,000,000 in 2017. This makes these coins more common than the 2015 Silver Eagles. However, they are still rare enough that Mint State 70 coins sell for a few hundred dollars.

However, these coins are rarer than the mintage indicates. This information only became available in the early months of 2017 through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). So, dealers and collectors unwittingly opened many of the 2015-2017 Philadelphia monster boxes before they were graded. For NGC, PCGS, and other grading companies to properly identify these coins the boxes must be unopened. Otherwise, it's impossible for grading companies to distinguish between the Philadelphia Mint coins and other Silver Eagles after the seal is broken on one of these specially marked monster boxes.

According to the NGC and PCGS population reports, under 8,500 grading events have taken place for the 2015 (P) Silver Eagle between both grading services, which is just slightly over 10% of the already miniscule mintage. The 2017 (P) Silver Eagle has just 27,890 grading events—a mere 2.8% of the total mintage.

Emergency Silver American Eagle Coins

The Philadelphia Mint’s 2020 Emergency Production Silver American Eagle is a poignant release because this is the first time—that we know of—the US Mint had to redelegate production from a complete shutdown due to health concerns. Thus, the US Mint struck its Philadelphia 2020 Emergency Production Silver Eagles coins. This commemorates a truly significant, historical moment for the coin series and US history.

2020 Silver Eagles

From about April 8th to April 20th, 2020, the Philadelphia Mint struck about 240,000 of the 2020 American Silver Eagles coins. What investors should know is that these coins do not feature a Philadelphia “P” mintmark. The graded coins do, however, come inside a holder with a label that differentiates between the 2020 Silver Eagles and the 2020 Emergency Production Silver Eagles. The mintage of the 2020 (P) Silver Eagles is less than ¼ of the mintage of the 2017s—a coin that goes for hundreds of dollars in MS 70.

The 2020 Silver and Gold American Eagles resumed production at the West Point Mint on April 21st. This means the Philadelphia Emergency Production Silver Eagles are all that much rarer and more valuable for coin collections. So while these coins look the same as the other 2020 Silver Eagle bullion coins, these specific Philadelphia Emergency Production silver eagles commemorate a momentous event in global history.


About Eric Gozenput

Eric Gozenput founded Bullion Exchanges at the age of 27 and has been featured in places such as Fox Business News, Forbes, Reuters, Seeking Alpha, Value Walk. Eric maintains that precious metals are vital for investment portfolios and that investing in precious metals should be convenient, transparent, and secure. Before beginning his business in 2012, he began his career at Merrill Lynch as a Financial Advisor, then transitioned into working at a Hedge Fund as an International Trader for six years. Today, Bullion Exchanges has grown to become one of the largest precious metals dealers in the world that buys and sells physical precious metals and numismatic coins online and in-person at our location in the Diamond District of NYC.

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Mike Pompeo Doesn’t Rule Out Serving In 2nd Trump Administration

Mike Pompeo Doesn’t Rule Out Serving In 2nd Trump Administration

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Former Secretary…

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Mike Pompeo Doesn't Rule Out Serving In 2nd Trump Administration

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a new interview that he’s not ruling out accepting a White House position if former President Donald Trump is reelected in November.

“If I get a chance to serve and think that I can make a difference ... I’m almost certainly going to say yes to that opportunity to try and deliver on behalf of the American people,” he told Fox News, when asked during a interview if he would work for President Trump again.

I’m confident President Trump will be looking for people who will faithfully execute what it is he asked them to do,” Mr. Pompeo said during the interview, which aired on March 8. “I think as a president, you should always want that from everyone.”

Then-President Donald Trump (C), then- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L), and then-Vice President Mike Pence, take a question during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus at the White House in Washington on April 8, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

He said that as a former secretary of state, “I certainly wanted my team to do what I was asking them to do and was enormously frustrated when I found that I couldn’t get them to do that.”

Mr. Pompeo, a former U.S. representative from Kansas, served as Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2018 before he was secretary of state from 2018 to 2021. After he left office, there was speculation that he could mount a Republican presidential bid in 2024, but announced that he wouldn’t be running.

President Trump hasn’t publicly commented about Mr. Pompeo’s remarks.

In 2023, amid speculation that he would make a run for the White House, Mr. Pompeo took a swipe at his former boss, telling Fox News at the time that “the Trump administration spent $6 trillion more than it took in, adding to the deficit.”

“That’s never the right direction for the country,” he said.

In a public appearance last year, Mr. Pompeo also appeared to take a shot at the 45th president by criticizing “celebrity leaders” when urging GOP voters to choose ahead of the 2024 election.

2024 Race

Mr. Pompeo’s interview comes as the former president was named the “presumptive nominee” by the Republican National Committee (RNC) last week after his last major Republican challenger, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, dropped out of the 2024 race after failing to secure enough delegates. President Trump won 14 out of 15 states on Super Tuesday, with only Vermont—which notably has an open primary—going for Ms. Haley, who served as President Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

On March 8, the RNC held a meeting in Houston during which committee members voted in favor of President Trump’s nomination.

“Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump on his huge primary victory!” the organization said in a statement last week. “I’d also like to congratulate Nikki Haley for running a hard-fought campaign and becoming the first woman to win a Republican presidential contest.”

Earlier this year, the former president criticized the idea of being named the presumptive nominee after reports suggested that the RNC would do so before the Super Tuesday contests and while Ms. Haley was still in the race.

Also on March 8, the RNC voted to name Trump-endorsed officials to head the organization. Michael Whatley, a North Carolina Republican, was elected the party’s new national chairman in a vote in Houston, and Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, was voted in as co-chair.

“The RNC is going to be the vanguard of a movement that will work tirelessly every single day to elect our nominee, Donald J. Trump, as the 47th President of the United States,” Mr. Whatley told RNC members in a speech after being elected, replacing former chair Ronna McDaniel. Ms. Trump is expected to focus largely on fundraising and media appearances.

President Trump hasn’t signaled whom he would appoint to various federal agencies if he’s reelected in November. He also hasn’t said who his pick for a running mate would be, but has offered several suggestions in recent interviews.

In various interviews, the former president has mentioned Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Vivek Ramaswamy, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, among others.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/13/2024 - 17:00

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Riley Gaines Explains How Women’s Sports Are Rigged To Promote The Trans Agenda

Riley Gaines Explains How Women’s Sports Are Rigged To Promote The Trans Agenda

Is there a light forming when it comes to the long, dark and…

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Riley Gaines Explains How Women's Sports Are Rigged To Promote The Trans Agenda

Is there a light forming when it comes to the long, dark and bewildering tunnel of social justice cultism?  Global events have been so frenetic that many people might not remember, but only a couple years ago Big Tech companies and numerous governments were openly aligned in favor of mass censorship.  Not just to prevent the public from investigating the facts surrounding the pandemic farce, but to silence anyone questioning the validity of woke concepts like trans ideology. 

From 2020-2022 was the closest the west has come in a long time to a complete erasure of freedom of speech.  Even today there are still countries and Europe and places like Canada or Australia that are charging forward with draconian speech laws.  The phrase "radical speech" is starting to circulate within pro-censorship circles in reference to any platform where people are allowed to talk critically.  What is radical speech?  Basically, it's any discussion that runs contrary to the beliefs of the political left.

Open hatred of moderate or conservative ideals is perfectly acceptable, but don't ever shine a negative light on woke activism, or you might be a terrorist.

Riley Gaines has experienced this double standard first hand.  She was even assaulted and taken hostage at an event in 2023 at San Francisco State University when leftists protester tried to trap her in a room and demanded she "pay them to let her go."  Campus police allegedly witnessed the incident but charges were never filed and surveillance footage from the college was never released.  

It's probably the last thing a champion female swimmer ever expects, but her head-on collision with the trans movement and the institutional conspiracy to push it on the public forced her to become a counter-culture voice of reason rather than just an athlete.

For years the independent media argued that no matter how much we expose the insanity of men posing as women to compete and dominate women's sports, nothing will really change until the real female athletes speak up and fight back.  Riley Gaines and those like her represent that necessary rebellion and a desperately needed return to common sense and reason.

In a recent interview on the Joe Rogan Podcast, Gaines related some interesting information on the inner workings of the NCAA and the subversive schemes surrounding trans athletes.  Not only were women participants essentially strong-armed by colleges and officials into quietly going along with the program, there was also a concerted propaganda effort.  Competition ceremonies were rigged as vehicles for promoting trans athletes over everyone else. 

The bottom line?  The competitions didn't matter.  The real women and their achievements didn't matter.  The only thing that mattered to officials were the photo ops; dudes pretending to be chicks posing with awards for the gushing corporate media.  The agenda took precedence.

Lia Thomas, formerly known as William Thomas, was more than an activist invading female sports, he was also apparently a science project fostered and protected by the athletic establishment.  It's important to understand that the political left does not care about female athletes.  They do not care about women's sports.  They don't care about the integrity of the environments they co-opt.  Their only goal is to identify viable platforms with social impact and take control of them.  Women's sports are seen as a vehicle for public indoctrination, nothing more.

The reasons why they covet women's sports are varied, but a primary motive is the desire to assert the fallacy that men and women are "the same" psychologically as well as physically.  They want the deconstruction of biological sex and identity as nothing more than "social constructs" subject to personal preference.  If they can destroy what it means to be a man or a woman, they can destroy the very foundations of relationships, families and even procreation.  

For now it seems as though the trans agenda is hitting a wall with much of the public aware of it and less afraid to criticize it.  Social media companies might be able to silence some people, but they can't silence everyone.  However, there is still a significant threat as the movement continues to target children through the public education system and women's sports are not out of the woods yet.   

The ultimate solution is for women athletes around the world to organize and widely refuse to participate in any competitions in which biological men are allowed.  The only way to save women's sports is for women to be willing to end them, at least until institutions that put doctrine ahead of logic are made irrelevant.          

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/13/2024 - 17:20

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Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-March 2024

Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-March 2024
A brief excerpt: This 2-part overview for mid-March provides a snapshot of the current housing market.

I always like to star…

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Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-March 2024

A brief excerpt:
This 2-part overview for mid-March provides a snapshot of the current housing market.

I always like to start with inventory, since inventory usually tells the tale!
...
Here is a graph of new listing from Realtor.com’s February 2024 Monthly Housing Market Trends Report showing new listings were up 11.3% year-over-year in February. This is still well below pre-pandemic levels. From Realtor.com:

However, providing a boost to overall inventory, sellers turned out in higher numbers this February as newly listed homes were 11.3% above last year’s levels. This marked the fourth month of increasing listing activity after a 17-month streak of decline.
Note the seasonality for new listings. December and January are seasonally the weakest months of the year for new listings, followed by February and November. New listings will be up year-over-year in 2024, but we will have to wait for the March and April data to see how close new listings are to normal levels.

There are always people that need to sell due to the so-called 3 D’s: Death, Divorce, and Disease. Also, in certain times, some homeowners will need to sell due to unemployment or excessive debt (neither is much of an issue right now).

And there are homeowners who want to sell for a number of reasons: upsizing (more babies), downsizing, moving for a new job, or moving to a nicer home or location (move-up buyers). It is some of the “want to sell” group that has been locked in with the golden handcuffs over the last couple of years, since it is financially difficult to move when your current mortgage rate is around 3%, and your new mortgage rate will be in the 6 1/2% to 7% range.

But time is a factor for this “want to sell” group, and eventually some of them will take the plunge. That is probably why we are seeing more new listings now.
There is much more in the article.

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