Liberty Coin Service

Go to https://www.numismaticnews.net/you-can-help-protect-coin-bullion-sales-tax-exemptions to read this week's Numismatic News column titled "You Can Help Protect Coin/Bullion Sales Tax Exemptions."

Whether a dealer or collector, there are easy no-cost steps you can take that could help protect existing sales and use tax exemptions in the states that have them (which includes almost every state), including probably the state where you live.

You Can Help Protect Coin/Bullion Sales Tax Exemptions Sales tax exemptions can significantly reduce the cost of buying coins and bullion, making efforts to protect and expand them worthwhile for collectors and dealers alike.

Tomorrow at noon Eastern the US Mint is putting on sale the commemorative copper-nickel half dollar, silver dollar, and gold $5.00 honoring the FIFA World Cup 2026 (soccer in the US and football almost everywhere else in the world).

Prices for numismatic coins sold by the US Mint this year are far higher than they were in prior years and are far higher than the value of the metal content. For the uncirculated/proof versions of the Half Dollar, the discounted introductory price is $61.00 and $64.00, respectively. For the Silver Dollar, the discounted introductory prices are $174.00 and $179.00. The price of the $5.00 Gold isn't yet specified but looks like it might be about 30% above gold value.

Even though there is excitement about the 2026 one-year design circulating coins, we suspect that other numismatic sales will decline sharply at these much higher prices.

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The US Dollar Index a couple minutes ago was at 99.54. That is not today's close but it is higher than any close in almost two months when it ended at 99.88 on April 7, 2026.

US stock indices are in negative territory enough today that precious metals prices have been clobbered. At the COMEX closes today gold was at $4,436.75, silver at $73.27, and palladium was $1,317.00. The close for platinum is not yet posted but the latest was $1,869.00.

As of a couple minutes ago here were the bid and ask spot prices at which Liberty Coin Service was calculating its buying and selling prices on physical precious metals:

Gold: bid spot price $4,434.25/ask spot price $4,439.25
Silver: $72.89/$73.19
Platinum: $1,859.00/$1,869.00
Palladium: $1,300.00/$1,320.00

Gold and silver prices are still higher year to date, while platinum and palladium are lower than they were at the end of 2025. We still expect far higher prices for gold and silver by the end of this year.

Keep an eye on US Treasury interest rate yields. Today, the 30-year yield dropped to 4.97%, which was its lowest since it was 4.95% on May 8, 2026. This is still close to the highest rate since early in the Great Recession almost 20 years ago, which had a temporary peak about 2 weeks ago.

The 3-month Treasuries today had a yield of 3.78%, which was its highest since it was 3.81% over six months ago on December 1, 2025.

With too many foreign governments, central banks, and investors either dumping or simply not reinvesting the maturing US Treasury debt they held (about $9 trillion of which matures in 2026), it is inevitable that the US government will be forced to pay ever higher interest rates over the rest of 2026. This ensures that consumer prices will rise and the purchasing power of the US dollar will continue to decline.

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