by Björn Schöpe
August 22, 2013 – Although experts are finding explanations now, it caught everybody on surprise that Robert Jackman’s Albany-based Rare Coin Company has entered voluntary liquidation. The company helped people invest in rare currency targeting medium to long-term investors and liquidating immediately collections. In 2009 Rare Coin Company sold a collection of extremely rare Australian coins totalling over A$ 10 million.
Established in 1982 the firm’s revenue grew from A$ 600,000 in 1997 to a peak of A$ 44.3 million in 2010. But according to the liquidators various factors have led to the end of the firm’s operations: expensive lawsuits, the acquisition of another rare currency dealer – Monetarium in Sydney – and the global financial crisis. All this halved the company’s annual turnover in only two years.
On the company’s property clients’ stock (some 1,400 clients’ banknotes and coins) has been stored worth over A$ 237 million – but only half of it is covered by the firm’s insurance as now was stated. There are 21 creditors who claim around A$ 11 million. As for the stock it probably will take months to get it back to the proprietors, said Jennifer Low, liquidator of Sharidans Chartered Accountants. Much longer, probably years, it will take to sell the complete company’s assets being thus mainly rare coins and banknotes which cannot be sold by one single lot, stated Ms Low at a creditors meeting in Albany by the end of July. And its exact value is unknown. So, nobody knows how much the creditors will loose in the end.
You can read articles on the company’s liquidation here …
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… and here.