The Vancouver Numismatic Society
Giuseppe Iorio in the News by Peter N. Moogk
On February 12th when I opened the business section of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s leading newspaper, I found an article featuring our friend, Giuseppe/Joe Iorio. The pages of this article are in the attachments. Joe, as you know, is the owner of Chantou International, a shop for currency and stamp collectors at 6537 Fraser Street in Vancouver. As the price of silver and gold soared, Andrew Galbraith, a reporter, asked Joe about the effect on the collectable coin market. The rapid rise and fall in bullion prices were noted by Joe. Conflict abroad, inflation, and political uncertainty have fed this fluctuating pattern. The boom in bullion values has drawn “investors” – speculators too – into buying silver coins. Their melt value often exceeds their former market value for numismatists. Silver’s value is now close to Cdn $90-105 per troy ounce. The danger is that desirable collectors’ coins, such as American Morgan dollars, may be destroyed for their silver content alone. It is probably too late to cash in on the surge in the value of gold, which has exceeded Cdn $6,500 a troy ounce. Silver coins, however, remain within reach for most collectors. The incentive to go to Chantou right away is Joe’s remark that he has been too busy to re-price his silver coins.