Thursday, June 28, 2007

Below is an article from Numismatic News...explains how quickly the First Spouse Gold Dollar sold out..

First Spouse orders at 25,000 first day of sale
The Mint says it accepted 25,000 orders from eager buyers in the June 19 sellout of the first two gold coins in the First Spouse series. The coins went on sale at noon Eastern Daylight Time on that date and they were sold out the same day.

Maximum sales of 40,000 coins were recorded by the Martha Washington and Abigail Adams designs. These were evenly divided between proof and uncirculated versions, according to Mint sales data.

Buyers were limited to five coins per household for each sales option for each design, making a maximum possible household order for each design 10 coins. No bulk orders were acceptd.

The Mint says the average accepted order was for three coins.

The speed of the sellout surprised the Mint. A spokesman said demand for the coins exceeded the Mint’s most optimistic forecast. Order fulfillment is on a first-in and first-out basis, and some Numismatic News readers reported receiving their coins as early as June 21. All are to be delivered by the end of August.

The Mint said 8 percent of the orders received were attempts to evade the household limits and would be cancelled.

Some 70 percent of the orders were taken online and the balance was by telephone. The Web site held up well, according to the Mint, though Numismatic News readers reported delays as long as half an hour.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Treasure is often carried on ships, and so are guns.

Ever wondered where the phrase "son of a gun" comes from? It turns out that during the Age of Sail when ships were in port and sailors went out to fraternize with the ladies, often the only privacy they could find was on the gun deck back aboard their ship.

If and when these ladies later found themselves with child, they would often apply to the Royal Navy for assistance for their newborn children conceived on ship. For liability reasons, naval records relating to these children often did not include the name of their father. Rather, instead of the father's name was listed the number of the gun to which the father was assigned, in order to help guard the father's identity.

Subsequently, sons of these sailors became known as "a son of a gun."

Friday, June 22, 2007

For those of you who haven't already heard - the U.S. Mint released its first round of Gold First Spouse commemorative coins on Tuesday and they sold out in about 2 hours! These coins are hot hot hot.....
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