SCULPTURE BY MICHAELANGELO, JULIUS CAESAR, VENICE & TIGERS IN THIS WEEKS MIX

Here’s a look at a few items that we’ve picked up through the week, as well as some notes on site updates to some of our Coin Series Profiles. The two silver sculptures are something a little unusual for us here, but we felt them extraordinary enough that quite a few of you would salivate over a 1,000 ounce chunk of the shiny. Enjoy.

ARTE DIVINE CAESAR AND MADONNA

For reasons of sheer workload more than anything, we tend to stick to just precious metal commemorative and bullion coins, choosing for the most part to avoid bimetallic coins and medals. Thirty kilo statues are well off of our radar, but we couldn’t help featuring these two statues that APMEX are currently selling. At 1,000 and 500 ounces in weight, they generate an interest all of their own.

Arte Divine, authorized by the Vatican Observatory Foundation (VOF), (a foundation that works with scientists, philanthropists and the Catholic Church to facilitate and promote scientific research of the heavens. They have a big telescope apparently.) produce reproductions of works in the Vatican for people to purchase. These aren’t plastic replicas however, but ones formed in bronze, marble resin, or even precious metal. All are made from molds taken of the original works, so are completely faithful to the originals in every way. Often donated or paid for by donations, they replicas are found in museums, churches and other places, allowing many to see these fine works without a visit to Italy. These aren’t cheap, so don’t be expecting to pick one up for a spot+ price…

We’ve combined the APMEX images to form animated gif pictures so you can get a better look at the incredible work on offer her. The Madonna is clearly a staggering piece of work, even more so knowing the original by Michaelangelo was chiselled from marble. The Caesar is quite sublime. I’d buy that in a second if I could, especially knowing the original was sculpted just a few years after Caesars death and not a centuries later guess (the blurb below is almost certainly incorrect and this was sculpted shortly after Caesar died).

Both come in solid boxes with supporting documentation. APMEX won’t let you put these in the cart, so if you want one, give them a call on (800) 514-4958 and tell them Mik sent you….

APMEX MADONNA

APMEX CAESAR

This extremely rare Madonna cast commemorates the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo’s completion of the Pietà and is produced by Arte Divine under the worldwide exclusive license of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. For the first time ever, a bust of Mary, produced from a mold derived from the original Pietà, is being produced in 1,000 ounces of .999 fine Silver. Casting of the original statue has given artisans the unique ability to produce a sculpture that is absolutely faithful to the masterpiece carved from marble by Michelangelo at the end of the 15th century. Every exquisite detail lovingly chiseled into marble is faithfully recreated in this sublime work.

The Madonna della Pietà has been a classic icon of the Christian faith for over 500 years. Originally carved circa 1498-1500 by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni in Carrara marble, the Pietà depicts Jesus held in the lap of his mother, Mary, after his crucifixion and is considered by many to be Michelangelo’s greatest work of art. These statues in silver are cast from Mary’s bust of the original Pietà, meaning that Michelangelo’s own hand has affectionately designed these as well. Measuring at 15 inches tall, 11.5 inches wide, and 13 inches deep, this statue carries with it transcendent physical and spiritual beauty equaled by no other work of art. This truly is a masterpiece in silver!

COMPOSITION	WEIGHT	DIMENSIONS	MINTAGE	BOX / COA
0.999 SILVER	c. 31 kg	380x280x330 mm	199 (+12 proofs)	YES / YES

For the first time ever, a limited-edition bust of Julius Caesar, produced from a Vatican-licensed mold derived from the original, is being produced in .999 fine Silver. Casting from this mold gave artisans the unique ability to produce a sublime sculpture, absolutely faithful to the masterpiece, with every exquisite detail recreated in 500 ounces of .999 fine Silver. Measuring 14 inches tall, 10.25 inches wide ,and 9 inches deep, this statue is cast from the original bust of Julius Caesar and rests on a marble slab. The original artist of the sculpture is unknown; however, historians have speculated that the Chiaramonti Caesar bust was commissioned by Caesar himself and likely accompanied Caesar on his travels. Therefore, the bust would have been directly connected with one of the most compelling stories in history, the life of Julius Caesar.

The face of Caesar shows his most defining character trait of determination and is a striking image of the man considered by many to be one of the greatest of all ages. He was a brilliant general, statesman, lawgiver, orator, and historian. He reformed the calendar, which we still use to this day, and was the first to have his image imprinted on a coin of the realm during his lifetime. Caesar’s remarkable life was ended in 44 B.C. on the Ides of March (which in Roman times meant March 15), when the very men who had sustained his rise to power assassinated him in the Senate. This important sculpture, from the Vatican’s Chiaramonti Museum collection, is the most highly regarded of only two surviving portraits of Caesar that were likely to have been commissioned during his lifetime. Having survived two thousand years, this rare image of the man who inspired awe in millions is being produced in a numbered edition of 99 plus 12 foundry proofs and therefore has both rarity and intrinsic silver value.

COMPOSITION	WEIGHT	DIMENSIONS	MINTAGE	BOX / COA
0.999 SILVER	c. 15.5 kg	350x260x230 mm	99 (+12 proofs)	YES / YES

TWO NEW SOS TO THE WORLD COINS FROM THE MENNICA POLSKA

We covered this series not so long ago in a round-up of the Mint of Poland’s many series of nature coins and found it to be one of the better ones they do. Another pair have just trickled into existence on the interweb and continue the theme and design style of the earlier entrants. Called SOS to the World – They are gone!, each one features an extinct animal.

Issued for Niue, they combine microprinting, laser engraving and high-end digital printing on the reverse face of these 17.5g 0.999 silver coins. Nicely packaged, we believe the mintage for each remains at the series regular 999 pieces. There are no sign of the gold or 750g silver variants that have appeared on the first coin in the series, but not since. These two feature the Caspian Lion and the Cuban Macaw, both now gone through the actions of that most disgusting element of nature, and a creature so stupid it will eventually make itself extinct: us.

OUR COIN SERIES PROFILES EXPAND AND UPDATE

Our popular Coin Series Profiles continue to get more numerous, and ones that we’ve done in the past are constantly kept up to date, or what’s the point?

Updated ones are the Perth Mints Gods series (Loki added), MDM’s Norse Gods series (5oz special added), and the Mint of Polands SOS Venice series (new Piazza San Marco added). New to the mix is Scottsdale’s epic undertaking, the Biblical Series. With ten coins out now it seemed a good time to start covering the series. We may do one for their 15-coin Viking range when the second trio is launched this year.

As always, if anyone has any they’d particularly like to see covered, let us know and we’ll add to the list. Click the images below to go take a look at the relevant ones.

BULLION COIN SALES GRAPHS UPDATED WITH JULY NUMBERS

With all the market turmoil caused by Brexit, and a combination of the ineptitude of world finance ministers and the greed of banks, it was always looking like the precious metal markets would be exerting extra influence on bullion coin sales. They were, and it was all negative. We’re lucky with our timing as the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) finally released its Q2 report, but the numbers won’t take July into account and they aren’t broken down by month, so keep that in mind. The graphs, now updated, can be viewed on our Bullion Sales page.

US Mint Silver Eagles sales for July are the lowest since December 2013 and down three-quarters on July 2015.
US Mint Gold Eagle sales for July were even worse, down 79% from the same month last year, and less than half the sales of June.
Perth Mint silver is down by 43% on June, but only 7% down on July 2015. That isn’t a good as it sounds since last year there was no unlimited Kangaroo coin to generate the big numbers, so the former figure is more relevant in this case we think. The Kangaroo came out in September and has generated over 10 million ounces of sales, double the rest of the mints output combined.
Perth Mint gold plummeted 46% from June, and a huge 67% compared to July 2015.
RCM gold sales, mainly Maples, rose 53% compared to Q2/2015, from 163.8k up to 251.4k ounces.
RCM silver sales, again mainly Maples, rose 24% compared to Q2/2015, from 6.8m up to 8.4m ounces.
Interestingly, RCM numismatic sales were down 9% compared to last year over the same period because ” Numismatics sales continued to be soft during the quarter mainly due to lower sales of the face value products“. Lower sales are leading management to “..monitor the performance of the face value program“. Looks like the wheels are coming off this type of coin as collector anger over them has increased.