Aloha Friday Metals, 15May20

renman95

1) 10 oz Deak-Perera: Buy the plastic, not the silver. Note, on the plastic...'Downtown....Waikiki....Airport'.
My first 10 ounce bar in years. I was attracted more to the story and lineage than the actual silver. Didn't get it at spot, so no you-suck for me. Paid $210. Anyone know the year of strike?

Nicolas Louis Deák (8 October 1905, Transylvania, Hungary—18 November 1985, New York City, US) was a Hungarian-born American banker, chairman of the Deak-Perera group and a secret service operative, serving both in the OSS during World War II and its successor the CIA during the Cold War.

Deak earned a Ph.D. from the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland in 1929. In 1939 he came to New York to open Deak & Company, a foreign exchange business. During World War II he worked for the Office of Strategic Services, serving in Egypt, Burma, Thailand and Malaya.

In 1946 he returned to New York and resumed his business, subsequently acquiring Perera U.S., Inc. His business expanded into banking and dealing in gold coins and bullion.....

His worldwide financial group, spanning both legitimate enterprises and fronts for CIA operations, was shaken in the late '70s and early '80s by multiple scandals involving money laundering and criminal connections. In 1984, Deak & Co. faced allegations from the President's Commission on Organized Crime that they laundered money for Latin American drug traffickers, facilitated the Lockheed bribery scandals, and smuggled currency from the Philippines.

As a result, Deak & Co. declared bankruptcy in December 1984 in order to reorganize.

In 1985, the company was purchased by a Singapore lawyer for $52 million — the most valued asset was Deak's Swiss bank. In 1986, the foreign exchange and gold business was sold to Australia's Martin Properties Ltd. (later renamed Deak Morgan) for $12 million. At the same time, Deak Investor Services, Inc. changed its name to Deak International Goldline Ltd,...Thomas Cook Group (1990),...months later bought by A-Mark Precious Metals Inc. In 1992, Deak International Goldline (US) Ltd. changed its name to Goldline International, Inc.

In 2005, the A-Mark Corporation sold Goldline to three investor groups, each of which acquire minority stakes: Prudential Capital, Goldline management, and Goldline’s former chairman.

In August 2017, Goldline sold its assets to A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc. The newly formed company is called Goldline, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc.

On November 18, 1985, a mentally unstable and homeless woman, Lois Lang, entered Deak's office and shot and killed both Deak and his receptionist. He was 80.

2) 1911-S $20: Buy the coin, not the holder.
Nice strike for a 63.

SurfinxHI

Nice write up!!

Downtown1974

Very nice! I especially love that Saint.

LukeMarshall

Aloha,

Two contributions here... I read about the bizarre series of events surrounding Deak some time ago and became intrigued. I picked up this piece because of its ties to Deak, and Engelhard, the bar having a diagonal Engelhard logo reverse.

There are also some Deak International bars, one of which matches the profile of the Australian silver kilo bar... they come up for sale from time to time.

Coincidentally I got this bit of Royal Hawaiian Platinum this week!

Cheers

Timbuk3

Yup, I'm very familiar with the story, mahalo nui loa !!!

Dscoin

That a great Saint and a great write up on the bar!! I need to start finding more non 1920s Saints, congrats!

ricko

Thanks for the great background information...and that is a really nice Saint...Cheers, RickO

TwoSides2aCoin

The time you took to share that was worth every second I used reading it.