J&T Coins LLC Blog

Think Twice Before Cleaning Any of Your Coins

Forrest Gump’s words rang in his head, “Stupid is as stupid does.” Our numismatist’s 1945 “micro S” Mercury dime had come back from the grading service as “cleaned.” The dime’s value had been greatly diminished by his less than artful cleaning.He remembered the day of his fateful mistake. The sun was shining, birds were singing and flowers were in bloom. Amid all this loveliness, he was sorting his coins.

He had quite a few Mercury dimes in two-by-two holders. Looking through them, the 1945 “micro S” dime literally leaped out at him.

He had forgotten about this purchase of many years ago. It was a gem coin that he had meant to send off to the grading service. Examining the dime, he was impressed by the luster and wonderful strike.

The only thing wrong was some dark “rim toning” from 3 to 6 o’clock. The toning was a genuine distraction to the rest of the coin.

Examining the coin through his loupe, he saw that the coin had never been cleaned as was evidenced by the luster and lack of hairlines. The dark bluish hue of the rim toning just did not sit well. Without the toning the coin would be stunning.

What to do was his quandary.

The toning would not impact the coin’s high grade, but it would have so much more eye appeal if it were totally white. In his head he heard voices saying “Clean the coin. Clean the coin.”

Cleaning any coin went against the advice he always dispensed to newcomers, which was:

“Don’t clean coins unless you’re willing to suffer the consequences from a botched cleaning.”

It was only a little toning and a quick little swish of a commercial coin cleaner would eliminate it. What could go wrong? To be safe he would experiment with a coin or two from his pocket change to make sure he had his technique down so as not to mar the luster or leave any hairlines.

He had cleaned coins in the past with a simple washing, such as his coffee can purchases of coins deposited in can and jars over the years. He seldom used commercial coin cleaning solutions unless the coins had been badly contaminated with dirt, grease, PVC slime/residue and other foreign matter.

These solutions had been used with inexpensive coins. He considered this to be conservation vs. letting the coins deteriorate due to surface contamination.

He used a cotton ball to apply the cleaner in a gentle blotting motion so as not to create swirl marks or hairlines. Still the toning seemed resistant and stubborn.

As he prepared to blot again he heard the voices: “A little more pressure and rub it just a tiny bit to remove it all.” Now other voices called out to him: “Don’t do it. Don’t do it.”

Snapping back to the present, our numismatist murmured, “just a little rub,” as he applied the cotton. He followed the cleaning with a quick rinse of the coin in water. The toning had disappeared and the coin look wonderful, but perhaps with a sense of foreboding he did not examine the coin under magnification.

Now, weeks later, he had the dreaded results. “Stupid is as stupid does.” He would, of course, be quiet about his failure. Had the coin come back without mention of the cleaning and in the grade he wanted he would have proclaimed himself to be a genius.

The moral to our story is that sometimes things are best left alone. With cleaning coins you need to know what you’re doing.

There are several things along the way one needs to consider before cleaning any coin. The first one is: Why do you want to clean the coin? If it’s because of toning, remember toning is a natural condition that should not affect the grade unless it is covering marks, blemishes etc. Secondly, can you stand looking at a botched job? For instance, a “pink coin” is not attractive. This has been known to happen with copper and bronze pieces.

Thirdly, can you afford to lose the value of your coin if it is damaged in the cleaning? Additionally, get all the advice you can. Discuss the cleaning with a dealer or fellow collector.

There are books that discuss the cleaning of coins and all the pitfalls. Getting educated will help.

Finally, if you have a coin that you are tempted to clean, consider selling or trading in the coin to someone who may appreciate it. There are collectors who actively seek attractively toned coins. This is the preferable route to ruining a coin’s numismatic value.

If after all this you are still intent on cleaning your coin do be careful. Try your cleaning technique on some coins from your pocket change.

Looking over the demographics of the hobby most of us are not chemistry majors. Cleaning, or better said conservation is best left to the professionals.

Commodity Online

Platinum and palladium had a thrilling start to 2010 on the expectation and then reality of a US-based exchange traded fund, says a report from Fortis Bank Nederland – The Metals Monthly January 2010.

Platinum, trading at just $1,399/oz on 28 December, reached $1,627/oz by 20 January, a rise of 16%. Palladium saw an even more explosive rally, rising from $352.50/oz on 22 December to $462/oz by 20 January, an increase of 28%. This was its highest fixing since July 2008, when the price was coming down from the spike higher caused by South African electricity shortages.

Short term outlook on platinum and palladium

If our projections for ETF demand are correct, we will see more buying in the next few months. This should support prices; however investors will need a compelling story to maintain their interest and so car sales, particularly in the US (for palladium) and Europe (for platinum) will be key. At recent levels a lot of good news from both appears already priced in. Short-term London fix, platinum: $1,475/oz-$1,600/oz, palladium: $400/oz-$475/oz.

What kind of impact will the US ETFs have?

After a nine-month wait, physical metal platinum and palladium exchangetraded funds (ETFs) were launched in the US on 8 January by a subsidiary of UK-based ETF Securities. Trading on NYSE Arca, the two products are called the ETFS Physical Platinum Shares (share code PPLT) and the ETFS Physical Palladium Shares (PALL). In their first 11 days of trading the platinum product acquired 194,000 oz of metal, and the palladium product had just short of 400,000 oz. This compares well to the already existing products, the UK ETF Securities and the Swiss ZKB, which collectively at the end of 2009 held 676,787 oz of platinum and 1,163,302 oz of palladium. But they have been in operation for nearly three years; it took the UK ETFs 40 (for platinum) weeks and more than two years (for palladium) to match the figures that the new US product has already managed. Trading volumes are higher still.

This bore out the confidence of the bulls, who had anticipated the launch of US PGM ETFs to boost the price. The thinking behind this is the larger size of the US domestic investment market, and, more crucially, the experience in gold and silver ETFs, where there are already US products. In gold the three US gold ETFs (SPDR Gold Trust, iShares and ETF Securities) at the end of 2009 held 1,222 tonnes, 2.6 times the holdings of the five European gold ETFs (ETF Securities, ZKB, Gold Bullion Securities – now owned by ETF Securities – Julius Bauer, and Xetra-Gold). In silver, the two US funds (BGI iShares and ETF Securities) hold 9,800t, 3.8 times the holdings of the two European (ZKB and ETF Securities).

If we assume the PGM ETFs do as well relative to their European cousins as the US gold ones have, say an average ratio of 3.2, it would suggest the US ETFs should eventually accumulate 2.2 Moz of platinum and 4 Moz of palladium. Given that annual supply/demand for both metals is around 7 Moz, these are big numbers. But there are reasons to think such estimates are too high. In silver the BGI iShares ETF enjoyed first-mover advantage, being launched a year before the two European ETFs. The ratio in the period all three have been launched has been a smaller, 2.1 times. In gold there was a UK ETF before the US ETF, but the Swiss/German ETFs post-date it, and in 2009 the ratio of inflows was a lower, 2.2 times. Furthermore, in gold there are ETFs outside Europe, which is not the case in PGMs; if we include their offtake over the year the ratio of US/rest of the world is a slightly lower 1.9. Using this ratio we might expect the US fund to eventually hold 1.35 Moz of platinum and 2.3 Moz of palladium.

This is supported by another method of estimating likely US PGM demand, by studying the most successful investment/speculative products that are currently available in the US for all four metals, the futures’ markets on Nymex and Comex. The most obvious measures of size for those markets are open interest – the number of contracts outstanding – or the non-commercial net long position, the standard measure of speculative interest. In terms of ounces, platinum is the smallest, both in terms of open interest and in terms of non-commercial net long. Palladium has volumes 1.4 to 1.5 times bigger, reasonably similar to the ratio of the two PGMs’ ETF holdings (1.7). Gold is between 30 and 45 times larger; silver is between 243 and 564 times bigger.

If we average the two ratios and assume that was to pertain between the US platinum ETF and the existing US gold ETFs, which have 39.2 Moz, then it would imply that the US platinum ETF should see overtake of 1.1 Moz and the palladium ETF 1.5 Moz. If we use the US silver ETFs, which have 31.5 Moz, it would imply 780,554 oz in the platinum ETF and 1.1 Moz in the palladium ETF. This is a lower projection for the PGM ETFs than obtained by our first method of extrapolating from the current European PGM ETFs.

There is a good reason why our first method might overstate likely offtake. US investors can already purchase the UK and Swiss ETFs. Both products have been around for more than two and a half years, giving ample time for investors to become aware of them. So although the ratio of likely US demand to European demand might indeed be about two, some of the likely US demand might have already been satisfied by the European ETFs. Indeed, at the extreme all US demand might be satisfied by the European ETFs; in which case the only impact of the US launch would be in each product’s market share. However this is not that likely – instead we expect the US PGM ETFs will expand the market, for this is what happened in gold. The first gold ETFs were not in the US but Australia and the UK, and these had acquired 57t (50 in the UK, 7 in Australia) by the end of October 2004. In November 2005 the US SPDR ETF was launched; by the end of that year it had 104t, nearly double the previous holdings of the UK/Australian ETF, which fell by just 3t to 54t.

Combining our two methods might suggest an approximation of demand for the US platinum ETF of about 0.9 Moz and for the US palladium ETF 1.2 Moz, but perhaps 200,000 oz and 300,000 oz respectively of that projected demand will already be held in the European ETFs. This might or might not be transferred over in due course, but it means global offtake will be in the order of 1.35 Moz of platinum and 2 Moz of palladium, of which half has already been satisfied. So additional demand caused by the US ETFs will be in the region of 650,000 oz of platinum and 0.9 Moz palladium. This is in essence a doubling of current ETF holdings.

Other News & Articles

• COTY in Berlin
• Treasury Chief Seeks Power
• Design Panels Agree on Two Selections

The big story this week is the continued retreat in the precious metals sector and its effect on bullion-related type gold coins. While gold is down about 1 percent, silver and platinum have eroded by 6 to 7 percent and all are near the bottom of the recent trading range. Trading in this area and lack of strong investment buyer demand has hammered many of the premiums on eagles and double eagles of the generic variety. So far there has been little to no effect on better date issues.

Circulated common date Morgan and Peace dollars remain firm at recent levels due to promotional demand and tight supplies. There has been some minor softening in lower grade S-mint Peace dollars starting with the 1924-S followed by the 1927-S and 1928-S with the 1934-S bringing up the rear. With the exception of 1928-S, only the VG to Fine show decreases, typical of the grades that set promoters buy for their mass marketing programs.

While there has been little price change noted, both varieties of the 1879-CC Morgan are showing strong activity. Also the 1889-CC has advanced in MS-60 through MS-63 and was joined by the 1884-S. ably a good buy.

Proof sets and mint sets remain active and demand lead by the 2008 issues is healthy.

Seeing Genuine Coin Helps to Catch Fakes

There have been several letters published in this newspaper offering suggestions for articles. I read the letters too and one sure way to success is to give readers topics they want.

Let me answer one of the issues dealing with counterfeit coins that all authenticators have faced in their professional career: How much information to divulge to the public about specific counterfeit coins.

I became a coin authenticator in 1972. Looking back, the fakes of that time were crude compared with some of those we see today. Armed with the knowledge we possess today, nothing back then would have been deceptive; however, authentication was also in its infancy. Forty years ago, fakes were detected by measuring their weight, diameter, fineness and style. The general use of stereo microscopes for coin authentication had not caught on even though this tool, coupled with fluorescent light, was regularly used at the U.S. Mint Lab to examine coins.

When the American Numismatic Association established their Authentication Service in Washington, D.C., a stereo microscope was on the list of necessary equipment. In a relatively short time, we realized how great an authentication tool it was. Coins looked different under high power. It became obvious; why try to authenticate a coin with the naked eye or using one eye and a 10x hand lens when you could examine the fabric of its surface closely with two eyes at up to 80x?

The counterfeits of the day “fell apart” under that close scrutiny. The ANA launched a new era of counterfeit detection. We faced a dilemma each time we discovered a new fake coin at the ANA Certification Service. Some wanted to keep all diagnostics of the new fakes private so as not to help the counterfeiters. The biggest proponent of this view wrote an entertaining column featuring fake coins; yet he rarely gave readers a clue about how to detect them.

At first, I agreed with this approach; but more liberal minds, plus the need to educate dealers and collectors convinced me that the best approach was to divulge just enough diagnostic information to help collectors even though the fakers benefited too. We knew that publishing diagnostic information would definitely make our job harder as it would help the counterfeiters improved their product.

The validity of our concern was quick to come. In the ANA counterfeit detection course at the 1974 Summer Seminar, we showed slides of a newly discovered $10 Indian counterfeit and not two months later we saw the exact same fakes at the Certification Service, but missing the diagnostic markers we had revealed to the class! Today, some counterfeits are so deceptive that I should hesitate to release any diagnostics in print but then my columns would become virtually worthless.

Enough background, let me address each reader who wishes they could open a book and look up the diagnostics for a specific counterfeit coin. It has been done before and it was only useful over a short period of time. Many of the fakes had the same dies. Soon, the book became obsolete as technology changed, the fakes improved, and we became more experienced authenticators. Remember, I’ve experienced first hand that the stereo- microscope allowed us to quickly surpass all the reference books available to us in the 1970s.

Let me suggest a better approach based on my experiences. In 1972, the Certification Service blindly followed the spurious opinion of a respected numismatic authority concerning the authentication of a foreign coin. When we learned of our error, I voiced what should have been plainly obvious at the time: “The most important requirement for coin authentication is to know what a genuine specimen looks like. That is why a book or collection of columns showing the defects of a specific counterfeit coin is less important than your own study of the characteristics found on genuine coins while using a stereo microscope. With study, you may not know for sure if a specimen is counterfeit; but you will be positive that it looks different than any genuine coin you have seen.

With that for you to think about, here is this month’s fake. Micrographs 1 shows a genuine Cuban 1915 5-peso gold coin. The piece shown in Figure 2 is a counterfeit. Both coins are virtually uncirculated. The counterfeit is a tenth of a gram light and its edge reeding does not match that of the genuine coin. Neither of these characteristics is alarming by itself. In fact, the different edge reeding became apparent only after I obtained a genuine comparison coin.

Now, let’s compare the micrographs. The digits on the counterfeit look fine until we compare them to those on the genuine coin. The genuine coin also shows radial metal flow near the edge and between the letters. Note that the shape of the denticals is different on the fake. In the shield design, there are many subtle design differences between the two coins. The key, sun, and scene are different and the horizontal lines on the fake are crude. The color of the gold is correct so the composition of the fake is good. Thus, anyone not familiar with the appearance of a genuine specimen could easily overlook this fake. If you fall into this group, it is best to purchase coins certified by a major grading service.

Buy Bullion Coins Now if You Need Immediate Delivery

By Patrick A. Heller  November 2, 2009 

I have heard several anecdotal stories reinforcing my belief that there is developing a huge shortage of physical gold and silver. Multiple sources have told me that owners of maturing commodity contracts who give notice that they want delivery are either getting very slow delivery or are being offered cash payments in lieu of metal at prices significantly above the spot prices.

In my mind, this reflects a looming risk of defaults in paper contracts for gold (and silver). Should this occur, “paper precious metals” may soon be worth a significant discount to physical goods. For now, most forms of physical gold and silver bullion-priced products are readily available at reasonable premiums. These reasonable premiums and ready availability could evaporate on short notice. If you need to add some precious metals to your holdings, I recommend doing so sooner rather than later – even this week.

Ever since the introduction of HR 1207, Rep. Ron Paul’s bill that calls for an audit of the Federal Reserve System that has 308 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, Federal Reserve officials have tried a variety of tactics to prevent passage. As of this moment, they may have succeeded.

Such an audit, if it gains congressional approval, would almost certainly include auditing the U.S. government’s gold reserves and trading activities.

The Financial Services Committee began hearings on this bill in late September. Committee Chairman Barney Frank assigned it to the Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology Subcommittee. The subcommittee chair, Rep. Mel Watt, D-NC,, whose district includes the headquarters of Bank of America (the largest U.S. lender regulated by the Federal Reserve), has amended the bill, according to Rep. Paul, to eliminate “just about everything.”

A spokesman for Rep. Watt declined to comment on this development and explained that the congressman would not be available for interviews on this issue. Rep. Paul said he intends to introduce an amendment when the bill is being considered on the House floor to restore the bill’s original language. In light of the number of co-sponsors in the House, this might save the bill, at least until it gets to the Senate.

The Senate version is S. 604. It has only 30 co-sponsors, so Senate support of Rep. Paul’s legislation is not as strong as it is in the House. There is a competing bill in the Senate called the Federal Reserve Accountability Act, which was probably sponsored by Fed allies. This bill, S. 1803, could be maneuvered to displace H.R. 1207 should it be restored to its original language as it comes out of the House.

Last week, I stuck my neck out to make a short-term prediction. I explained that the recent pattern of gold trading in a week when options expired and the U.S. Treasury sold a large quantity of debt was for gold prices to be driven down until Thursday afternoon. Once the final Treasury auction closed on Thursday, I reasoned, the pattern was for gold to quickly climb back up to its pre-suppression levels. In my mind, I expected the price of gold to start climbing Thursday afternoon and get back to its level of a week earlier on Friday.

Making short-term predictions is fraught with danger, though the pattern in the past week has pretty much repeated the experience of recent months. The price of gold got all the way down to $1,023 at the low point last week. The price actually started to climb Thursday morning, rebounding all the way to $1,049 in Asian markets overnight. The gold market was poised to rise again Friday morning, but was sidetracked by investors worried by the significant drop in the U.S. stock market. The U.S. price closed about $1,040 that day.

On Nov. 2, however, the recovery finally got back up to levels I expected last Friday. The U.S. markets are still open as I write this, but gold has been over $1,060 several times today. I think there is a substantial prospect for gold to finally breech and hold the $1,070 level in the near term, maybe even this week. Once this occurs, it should be easy for the price to climb above $1,100.

CIT Group, Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on Nov. 1. One notable loser from this event is the U.S. taxpayer, with all $2.3 billion of the federal bailout money previously advanced to the company expected to be wiped out. CIT is not exactly a household name, but it provides financing to almost a million small- to medium-sized businesses. There are thousands of U.S. wholesalers and retailers who depend on CIT every year to finance their inventory for the Christmas selling season. This bankruptcy filing could jeopardize retail operations for the rest of 2009 and beyond.

Patrick A. Heller owns Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Mich., and writes “Liberty’s Outlook,” the company’s monthly newsletter on rare coins and precious metals subjects. Past newsletter issues can be viewed at http://www.libertycoinservice.com. Other commentaries are available at Financial Sense University (www.financialsense.com). His periodic radio interviews on WILS-1320 AM can be heard at http://www.amlansing.com, on the Korelin Economic Report at http://www.kereport.com, and on Coin Chat Radio at www.coinchatradio.com.

Above is a picture of Rep. Paul enjoying a casual moment with the author last month at the New Orleans Investment Conference

Reward in Montville coin theft grows to nearly $160K

By JIM NAMIOTKA • STAFF WRITER • October 17, 2009

MONTVILLE — Reward money is rolling in from across the U.S. in the case of a valuable cache of rare coins that was stolen from a coin dealer’s car while it was parked at a Pine Brook restaurant last weekend.

The reward has grown to nearly $160,000, due largely to the contributions of coin dealers and collectors who want to see the thieves brought to justice.

Meanwhile, a private coin theft investigator assisting with the case says evidence appears to indicate that Julian Leidman – the Silver Spring, Md., coin dealer whose car was burglarized at Tiffany’s on Route 46 – was targeted by professionals.

“It’s more than likely he was targeted and followed to the location,’ said Doug Davis, a former Texas police chief who runs the non-profit Numismatic Crime Information Center, which has offered its expertise in coin-related crimes to Montville detectives.

Montville police were unable to be reached Friday.

Leidman was driving home from a coin show in Stamford, Conn., on Sunday when he stopped off in Montville to have dinner with his brother-in-law. When he left the restaurant, he found a passenger-side window on his 2009 Toyota Sienna smashed and four bags — three of which were heavier than 50 pounds — missing from the cargo hold.

Inside the bags were more than 1,000 rare and collectible coins, estimated to be worth in the millions of dollars, Leidman said.

The inventory included individual pieces valued as high as $160,000, as well as many extremely rare and unusual coins and currency dating to the Colonial era, he said.

Leidman said Friday he was overwhelmed by the generosity of his colleagues in the Professional Numismatic Guild, a trade group for coin dealers that has organized the reward fund.

“I’m truly speechless,” he said.

Donations are coming from other dealers and collectors who want to solve a crime that struck their tight community, as well as lend a hand to Leidman, the current Coin Dealer of the Year who is respected by both dealers and collectors, a PNG spokeswoman said.

“There are a growing number of crimes against numismatists,” she said. “People want to crack down on that.’

Leidman said the stolen coins included not only his personal collection, but also items that belong to collectors for whom he is working. Leidman said his insurers have denied his claim for reimbursement because he was not in the car when the coins were stolen.

LONDON (Commodity Online):

ETF Securities, one of the largest European ETF issuers based in London, has filed the prospectus for what would be its third US-listed ETF and the first physically-backed platinum ETF on NYSE Arca Exchange.

The ETFS Platinum Trust will seek to reflect the performance of the price of physical palladium, offering a cost-effective and convenient way for investors to gain exposure to one of the world’s rarest metals.

Over half the world’s palladium use related to the manufacture of catalytic converters, which convert harmful gases from automobile exhaust into less harmful substances. As consumers and regulators have moved towards increasingly stringent emissions regulations from the U.S. automotive industry, demand for palladium and platinum, another metal found in converters, has soared.

Palladium, platinum, and four other metals make up the platinum group metals (PGMs), which have a variety of industrial uses as well as uses as a store of value to investors. PGMs are found primarily in South Africa and Russia – Russia is the world’s largest palladium producer while South Africa is the leader in platinum production. These two countries accounted for nearly 80% of PGM supply in 2008.

Automotive customers accounted for the largest portion of palladium demand at 55% in 2008, followed by industrial users (chemical, electronics, etc.) at 23% and jewelry demand at 9%. Palladium investors range from sophisticated hedge funds and mutual funds to amateur coin collectors.

In its prospectus, ETF Securities notes that palladium prices may be influenced by a number of factors, including hedging activity by palladium producers, attitudes of speculators towards palladium, interest rate differentials between cost of money and cost of palladium, demand from the global automotive industry.

As uncertainty has mounted and the US dollar has plummeted, many investors have turned to precious metals as a store of value. These holdings are dominated by gold ETFs (led by GLD) and silver funds (such as SLV) that have billions of dollars in AUM. ETF Securities has broken into this field in recent months, attracting huge cash flows to its physically-backed gold (SGOL) and silver (SIVR) ETFs.

There are several ETFs offering exposure to platinum, including the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Platinum Trust ETN (PGM) and the E-TRACS UBS Long Platinum ETN (PTM). But these products both rely on futures contracts to achieve their objectives as opposed to physically-holding platinum.

Commodity investments push up palladium prices

 LONDON (Commodity Online): Palladium popped above 300/oz in mid-September, with its highest London fix $299/oz, on the 17th of the month. A rally in other precious and base metals, together with a general sense of economic optimism and renewed commodity investment inflows, all helped push palladium prices to their highest since August 2008.

More specific positive factors were a strong August for US car sales and a continuing car boom in China, both of which are palladium-biased autocatalyst markets. The US reclaimed its mantle as largest single car market, with passenger vehicle sales of 1.17m units in August, up from 935,250 units in July and the highest monthly figure since May 2008.

It was also 3.9% higher yearon- year, a remarkable turnaround from earlier this year, when year-on-year sales were at one point some 40% down. Of course, as has been the case in other countries, these US sales were boosted by government incentives, in this case the “cash for clunkers” scheme. That programme ended on 24th August, so what September sales figures reveal will be critical.

There seem to be no such concerns in China (although it too has its own incentive schemes), with August seeing sales of 858,300 passenger vehicles, 90% higher year-on-year. That comparison is flattered by a weak August 2008, but it was nevertheless the second highest month for car sales on record, beaten only by June 2009.

Judging by the steady expansion of exchange-traded fund’s palladium holdings, investors continue to like what they see in prospect for palladium. Total ETF holdings as of 18th September were above 1 Moz, with the UK ETF Securitie’s ETF held 498,212 oz and the Swiss ZKB ETF 546,424 oz, up collectively over 100,000 oz from the position at the end of August, with almost all the fresh inflows into the UK ETF. The ratio of palladium ETF ounces held to platinum hit 1.98, the most in palladium’s favour since March this year.

Palladium Outlook

Palladium’s rally is all down to the rebound in the major car markets, and investors have taken note. But the risks are evenly balanced right now. If the September figures for US new vehicle sales are perceived to be disappointing, then $300/oz will be difficult to cling onto, even with the current boom in Chinese sales.

And, having reached $300/oz, some investors may decide to take some profits. After all, palladium has found cracking $300/oz difficult, even as platinum has kept on rising – the ratio between the two widened from a low of 4.25 on 2nd September to 4.47 by the 17th.

Short-term London pm fix: $265/oz-$310/oz.

Courtesy: Fortis Metals Monthly.