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Forget commemorative mugs or tea towels, there's now a much more elaborate souvenir on sale to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee.
But with a price tag of 125,000, you'll need more money than taste in order to afford it.
The East India Company has released 60 minted gold coins, one for each year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, encrusted with diamonds to celebrate the royal milestone.
Despite the hefty price tag, the company has revealed that it has had 'brisk and determined interest' from monarchist collectors and investors from across the globe.
Diamond Queen: The East India Company have released 60 of these gold coins encrusted with diamonds to mark the jubilee
The gold coins weigh a kilo and feature the head of the Queen wearing a diamond tiara, necklace and brooch with the words 'Elizabeth Regina, Diamond Jubilee 1952-2012' around the outside.
They have also released 60 silver coins of the same design and weight but at a 'cheaper' price of 25,000.
Each kilo struck by The Royal Mint represents over 1,000 hours of craftsmanship - and the company has received particularly high interest in the coins from international buyers.
As a result, the company is now scheduling private viewings in Monaco, Moscow, Geneva, Hong Kong, the Middle East and India.
The East India Company, which has a flagship store in Mayfair, has long-standing links to the British monarchy.
Expensive souvenir: Diamonds are encrusted in the tiara, necklace and brooch of the Queen's image raising the price of the one kilo gold coin to 125,000
Queen Elizabeth I founded the East India Company in 1600 by Royal Charter.
In the 19th century, the company set jewels in a tiara for Britain's other diamond Queen, Queen Victoria, when she was crowned Empress of India.
Sanjiv Mehta, CEO of East India Company said: 'The company was instrumental in building the British Empire with its legacy still visible today in what we know as the Commonwealth Nations.
'We chose to commission the Royal Mint, another quintessential British brand who first minted coins for us over 200 years ago, with this unique project to create a timeless tribute that reflects the grand achievement it celebrates.'
Commemorative: Sixty silver coins have also been made and are on sale for 25,000
Given the expensive nature of the purchase, buyers get more for their money than just the coin.
It is presented on royal purple velvet in a bespoke presentation case, designed by British company Linley.
A diamond-magnifying loupe is hidden in the base compartment of the presentation case, which enables owners to get a close-up view of the encrusted diamonds.
The purchase also includes a book which tells the story of the Queen Elizabeth II's 60-year reign.
Trade Forex with Award Winning Provider FX Solutions - PR Newswire
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Forex: USD/CAD near session highs above 1.0250 - FXStreet.com
Living on mobile money - BBC News
Rory Cellan-Jones tries living without money
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my frustrating efforts to use various new mobile money applications on my phone. I promised then to have another go, to give up cash and try to pay by phone alone. So, how did it go? Not very well, I'm afraid.
I started by loading up my phone with a variety of apps which - supposedly - would help me get by without cash or even cards. My main weapons were to be O2 Wallet and Barclays Pingit, two new services which allow you to send and receive money from your phone. But I also installed the Paypal app, and a range of others that allow you to buy a coffee or pay for a taxi from your phone.
Within minutes of starting, I ran into trouble. It was my turn to buy the office tea and coffee round, and the coffee outlet only took cash. No problem - I would get my colleague Anthony to pay and refund him via one of my mobile money pay-by-text services.
With Barclays Pingit playing up (I never got it to work, even after deleting the app and going through the lengthy verification system again) I turned to my O2 wallet. Just two or three passwords later, I had texted a £2.80 money message to Anthony.
Then the fun began.
He spent days - quite literally - trying to make sure this and a couple of other payments from me made their way from his phone into his bank account. Much of that time was spent in increasingly intemperate phone conversations with O2. At one point the company told him their "triage unit" was on the case. Anthony's verdict? "No need for triage - it's terminal!"
I quickly realised that although I wanted to rely solely on my phone, this approach wasn't going to work. I would need to use credit and debit cards as well, plus my Oyster touch-and-go card for travel around London.
By paying for meals via my debit card - which meant I had to spend more than £5 - I did manage to get by without cash for a couple of days.
Then I took a trip to Oxford and had my first failure.
Getting on a bus to the city centre without a travelcard, I found myself obliged to dip into my pocket for some coins to pay the fare. And my bus trip proved a timely example of how useful mobile money could be if it were more widely adopted. On a busy route, every time we stopped dozens of school children and students queued to pay by cash, making our progress very slow.
While neither of my mobile money services proved at all useful over the week, there were two things - taxis and coffee - that proved easy to pay for by phone. The taxi app market is now fiercely competitive and I found Hailo, a service that lets you order a London cab, pretty efficient at delivering a driver to me within five minutes.
I also tried Ubicabs to order minicabs, and this again worked fine - although my driver ended up asking me to navigate to my destination. These services make it very easy to move around without cash or credit cards - if only in the London area - but they have one major downside. You end up racking up big bills without even thinking about it.
The same applies with the Starbucks app, which allows you to load money onto a virtual payment card on your phone, then swipe your phone against a reader to pay for coffee or a sandwich. Because this was the only easy way I found to buy food from my phone, I ended up spending far too much on cappuccinos.
When I ended my experiment, I breathed a sigh of relief - as did my colleague Anthony, who is still trying to extract from his phone the money I owe him. Trying to live off mobile money, which is supposed to make life easier, has been a stressful experience. The inevitable concerns about security are making most of these new services so complicated to use that you have to be slightly deranged even to bother.
That is not to say the whole idea is doomed to failure. We will see further innovation over the coming weeks as payments firms unveil plans to allow visitors to the London Olympics to pay with their phones.
But here's my advice to the companies pushing these services - your "triage units" are in for a busy time.
FOREX-Euro drops to near 2-year low on Spain bank woes - Reuters
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When money talks, MLS teams play at home - Tri-City Herald
After earning a draw in its weekend Major League Soccer match at Chivas USA, Seattle Sounders FC traveled north, not east.
The club had originally planned to travel from Los Angeles to Georgia, where the Sounders were scheduled to face the Atlanta Silverbacks in a third-round U.S. Open Cup match.
That plan changed after the MLS club bought hosting rights from the second-division Silverbacks. The game is now scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Starfire Sports Stadium in Tukwila.
And so, the Sounders spent Memorial Day practicing, then headed home – not to an Atlanta hotel.
“It’s huge,” veteran defender Zach Scott said. “… We were talking about it on Sunday as we were headed back to Seattle, like, ‘We could be on a flight headed back to Atlanta right now.’ So that’s something we’re very grateful to the organization for doing for us, and definitely we want to thank (general manager Adrian Hanauer) and the top brass for getting the game here.”
The switch wasn’t negotiated merely to play on a familiar pitch in front of a home crowd, Hanauer said. Instead, it was to save a couple of cross-country trips for a club that already piles up more travel miles than most teams in MLS.
“My main priority is my team … and winning as many tournaments as possible, and as many games as possible,” Hanauer said. “… So a big portion of the thinking was, ‘We’re sitting up here in the Northwest, we already travel tens of thousands more miles than teams that aren’t in the Northwest. We’ve won three Open Cups. We’ve played Champions League … We’ve dug up the stats: We’ve played 20, 25, 30 games more than other teams … That’s a lot of mileage on the players. And so we engaged in conversations with Atlanta.”
Those conversations would have been unnecessary under previous U.S. Open Cup rules, which awarded home games through a sealed bids process. U.S. Soccer switched to a blind draw for allocation of home games this season – and with it, the right for host clubs to sell games.
Portland was the first to recognize the opportunity. Salt Lake and Seattle followed.
Some have complained that MLS clubs buying competitive advantages from lower division teams spoils the purity of the tournament, which is open to all clubs in U.S. Soccer. However, the Sounders say the rule can work for both sides.
“It’s to our benefit because of the amount of miles that we travel,” Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said. “… It’s to their benefit as well because they got something out of the deal in terms of cash … That’s sort of a win-win situation.”
Hanauer, who owned the Sounders when they played in the second-division USL, knows the financial realities at the sport’s lower levels.
“It’s a matter of survival,” he said. “And sometimes taking a check helps you survive and thrive better than the purity of whatever was envisioned by the bureaucrats (making) the structural decisions.”
The bottom line might not differ much from what happened through sealed bids. In winning the 2009 Open Cup, the Sounders played four of six games at home; in their 2010 defense, they played three of four at home; and they won their third straight Cup last season while playing all four matches at home.
If the Sounders advance Wednesday, their fourth-round pairing would likely send them to Portland on June 5 to play the Timbers.
Hanauer said he doesn’t think there’s anything he could offer Timbers owner Merritt Paulson to switch the venue for that match.
ADDED TIME
Schmid said the Open Cup match combined with an MLS Reserve game Friday should allow little-used Sounders to get game experience. … Neither defender Leo Gonzalez (quadriceps) nor goalkeeper Michael Gspurning (hip) is expected to return this week.
don.ruiz@thenewstribune.com 253-597-8808 blog.thenewstribune.com/soccer @donruiztntFOREX-Euro pinned near 2-year lows as Spanish angst deepens - Reuters
* Euro stays near last week's low just below $1.25
* Spanish banking problems overtake worries about Greece
* Doubts grow whether Spain can support ailing banks on its own
LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) - The euro slipped against the dollar on Tuesday, edging closer to two years lows as investors and speculators sold the common currency on persistent worries over Spain's escalating borrowing costs and its weakening banking sector.
Analysts and traders said the euro could weaken to fresh lows in the near term given the extent of the concerns surrounding the euro zone debt crisis and the risk of contagion.
Worries about the cost of shoring up Spain's banking system kept Spanish debt yields elevated while the gap between them and German 10-year yields remained near euro era highs, as the risk grew that Spain may be forced to seek an international bailout.
The euro traded at $1.2530, off a day high of $1.2575 as demand from corporates and Middle East names faded.
Having failed to clear resistance at previous support around $1.2625 for three days in a row, the euro was vulnerable to another test of Friday's low of $1.2495, which marked its weakest level since July 2010. Bids just below $1.25 could offer some support, though further losses could see it drop towards $1.2450, where traders reported stop-loss sell orders.
"The widening of spreads between Spain and Germany and Italy and Germany keeps worries about the debt crisis very much alive," said Niels Christensen, currency strategist at Nordea in Copenhagen.
"I don't see the euro moving above $1.27. It's only a matter of time before it breaks $1.25. This is psychological support but it's not a big level like the January low was (around $1.2624) and that has clearly broken."
The euro gave up most of the gains made on Monday after Greek polls showed more support for pro-bailout parties ahead of the country's election on June 17. That had salved fears Greece may leave the euro zone.
PAIN IN SPAIN
Many traders expect further downside in the euro as they fear troubles at Spanish banks, hit by a property slump, could further complicate Madrid's efforts to rein in its debt.
Spanish 10-year bond yields hovered around 6.5 percent. A level of 7 percent is seen as critical. Euro zone countries that have previously requested bailouts did so soon after their 10-year yields rose above that mark.
"The bad news just keeps coming and if Spain were to ask for a bailout we would see the euro come under more pressure," said Steve Barrow, head of G10 currency research at Standard Bank.
"The euro remains a currency that is sold at every opportunity. We have revised our three- to six-month forecasts down to $1.15 from $1.20 earlier."
Spain's fourth-largest lender Bankia has asked for a bailout of 19 billion euros, in addition to 4.5 billion euros the state has already pumped in to cover possible losses on repossessed property, loans and investments.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has ruled out seeking outside aid to revive Spain's banking sector, but many investors are sceptical that this will be possible.
Any buying in the euro may be curbed ahead of Ireland's referendum on Europe's new fiscal treaty on Thursday, although the market is cautiously optimistic that the Irish will support the treaty on fear that a "no" vote could add fuel to the fire.
Against the yen, the common currency fetched 99.75 yen , not far from a four-month low of 99.37 yen hit last week. The yen, along with the dollar, was supported by the market's risk averse mood.
The dollar stood at 79.55 yen, up 0.1 percent on the day and not far from a three-month low of 79.002 yen.
Forex Flash: EUR/USD to stabilize on overextended short positioning – Wells Fargo - FXStreet.com
Pity they didn't get a portrait of HM for the coin.!
- Norman, Durham, England, 30/5/2012 01:47
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