Turmoil in Greece leads to increased Royal Mint gold buying

By Joe O'Donnell

Published: Feb 11, 2015, 3 AM

1. Gold in Greece

The Greek people are buying more and more gold from the Royal Mint as the country's politics and economy remain tumultuous, according to Bloomberg Business.

"Greek investors are turning to gold with the nation heading toward a standoff with creditors over its international bailout program, fueling speculation that it may break its membership with the euro," the Bloomberg report reads. "The Royal Mint declined to provide exact sales figures for the gold coins, known as Sovereigns."

According to Bloomberg's reporting, the Bank of Greece sold 5,849 gold sovereign coins during the month of January. The bank sold 7,857 coins over the entire last quarter of 2014.

Read the full Bloomberg report here.

2. Precious metals pricing

Kitco.com listed the following prices per ounce at 8:50 a.m. ET Wednesday:

Gold: $1,233.90
Silver: $16.890

3. What's new on CoinWorld.com?

The U.S. Mint was live-tweeting its launch ceremony Tuesday for the latest America the Beautiful quarter dollar, which honors Nebraska's Homestead National Monument.

See all the Mint's tweets from the event.

4. Yesterday's most-read post

Years before convex/concave coins debuted, 'un ultime franc' coin made waves

5. What's the deal with the dollar sign?

Observation Deck traced the history of the $ in a Feb. 7 post.