GOLD KENNEDY PROXY BUYERS LINE UP AT DENVER MINT

Hundreds of people lined up at dawn Tuesday for a chance to buy one of 500 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Gold Proof Sets at the Denver Mint.

Some were there for the pleasure of owning a coin commemorating the March 1964 release of a silver 50-cent piece bearing the likeness of President John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated four months earlier.

But many were being paid by coin and bullion dealers trying to get around the one-per-customer rule implemented for the coveted $1,240 coin that contains three-quarters of a troy ounce of .9999 fine, 24-karat gold.

People were lured by cash to the line from as far away as Colorado Springs. Others were promised a chance at a "casting call."

Across from the Mint, workers at a table looked through a list of names, handing out sandwiches and crisp $100 bills to those who successfully purchased coins.

One man said he had been offered $100 for the work but wasn't successful. A woman flashed $400 in her purse as she waited for a cab.

Robert Higgins, co-president of The Argent Group, a Delaware-based bullion company, said his company hired about 100 people from Fort Carson to stand in line and buy coins.

He said people were put up in the Hilton and paid $300 — even the 18 who weren't able to snag a proof set.

The company also paid about 150 people from Fort Dix in New Jersey to stand in line at the Philadelphia Mint, he said.

"We've got three more days to go," Higgins said.

U.S. Mint spokesman Mike White said the one-coin limit is intended to make sure the sets are available to as many people as possible, but he said the dealer workarounds are being used in other locations, too.

"Is it right what they are doing? I would say no," White said. "Is it illegal? No, it's not illegal."

In Denver, as a woman who said she represented an East Coast coin dealer handed out preloaded Visa cards to people hired through temporary agencies or recruited "on the street," some who showed up at a 5 a.m. "casting call" for extras were confused to find themselves lined up to buy coins.

Denver photographer Annie Bade showed up thinking she was needed as an extra — and got $200 after purchasing a coin.

"This is people with money using people without money to get more money for the people with money," she said.

However, many of those in line were there for the coin and in memory of Kennedy.

Isabel Vigil, 66, of Lakewood — who was there with her husband, Sam, who celebrated his 69th birthday Tuesday — said she already owns a 1964 silver half dollar.

"I was in high school when he was assassinated," she said. "I felt he was a great president who loved his country."

Mary Greimann, who was there to buy a Kennedy coin because her husband, Hal, is a coin collector and dealer, said the proof set has special significance.

"I think, to a lot of people who grew up during the Kennedy years, it is a special coin," she said.

To read the complete article, see: Proxy buyers clog long line at Denver Mint sale of $1,240 Kennedy coin (www.denverpost.com/business/ci_26278636/line-long-at-u-s-mint-denver-sale)

Wayne Homren, Editor

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web