Heritage Creates Internet Website for the Year 2000 - Y2K - Computer Crisis: www.y2kcoins.net

Dallas, Texas: Heritage, the world's largest rare coin dealer, has announced the creation of a new Internet website (www.y2kcoins.net) offering background information and bullion-coin packages for anyone concerned about the "Y2K" computer problem. Visitors can also sign up for free Y2K updates. As the Millennium approaches, newspapers and magazines have been increasingly filled with articles warning the public of possible consequences from this worldwide programming problem. In response to numerous inquiries from the public, Heritage created an Internet site to rationally explain the problem, with background data so that better informed hard-asset buying decisions can be made.

"We, at Heritage, are definitely not in the doom-and-gloom business," noted Heritage Co-Chairman Jim Halperin, "but there is no denying that the Year 2000 computer problem - nicknamed Y2K - is a very real economic problem. The Y2K computer glitch is an immensely complex problem with an easily understood cause: for decades, computers - and smart chips - have been programmed to interpret dates using only two digits for the year (that is, 10/31/98 is interpreted as October 31, 1998). One second past midnight, on January 1, 2000, hundreds of millions of computers, microchips and other so-called intelligent devices, unless reprogrammed or replaced on time, will believe the year to be 1900, not 2000."

"This problem has become better known over the past several years," added Heritage Co-Chairman Steve Ivy, "but it has really been several decades in the making. American businesses have already invested hundreds of billions of dollars correcting programs underlying many important aspects of American life. Many have been fixed, but nowhere near all, and the clock is ticking. Hundreds of billions more will be spent between now and the beginning of the year 2000. Even if no disasters occur at one second past midnight into the Millennium, this still ranks as one of the premier economic disasters of the century; the gloomiest experts have called this a fifty trillion dollar problem worldwide."

"It is possible - perhaps even probable - that Y2K problems in the United States will turn out to be minor," noted Heritage's Bob Korver. "But just last week my American Express card - with a 2001 expiration date - was declined as "expired." The owner of the small business informed me that I was her tenth incorrect decline that day. She also had figured out a manual method of fooling the system to conclude our business. You have to admire American ingenuity in getting the job done on this small scale, but what happens if all your bank accounts disappear at Y2K midnight - like Cinderella's gilded coach?"

"The real problem," continued Halperin, "is that we just don't know how big the problem will be, or even where the problems will occur. As a writer of science fiction books, I am considered a 'futurist,' and after years of analyzing this problem, I believe that the majority of problems will occur with embedded chips instead of with the more easily spotted program flaws. Every programmer is aware of the problem, and it is really just a matter of time and money to examine and correct every computer program. The greater problem is that we just don't know what microchip is lurking on the corner power pole or gasoline pump. Elevators could think they had never been inspected and cease to run. Train switching systems might revert to obsolete routes, causing unforeseen delays or accidents. Bank accounts and credit card balances are sure candidates for confusion. Electricity distribution grids could crash, utilities might shut down. The air-traffic control system can barely handle today's workload, but in 2000 perhaps some of the avionics systems might malfunction as well. Malfunctioning microwaves and automatic coffee makers could make morning traffic even riskier if drivers are denied their coffee! (Just kidding). Seriously, life - technological life - is so complicated and so inter-connected that a major problem in one area can ripple throughout the economic sector. No one knows with any degree of certainty, but the list of possible catastrophes and inconveniences seems endless."

"I certainly don't expect trains to derail or planes to crash," concluded Ivy, "but you cannot ignore a problem so real that the world's nuclear powers are placing observers in each other's top-secret control rooms for Y2K so that a computer glitch doesn't start a nuclear holocaust. Governments may be taking care of our nuclear arsenal, but what about our food distribution systems? Many people are aware of the substantial delays recently encountered in our railroads due to incompatible computer programs; now overlay additional Y2K problems on top of the current fiasco. Much of America's food moves by train, and at any given moment, our railroads have no idea where 10% of their rolling stock is. Increase that to 15% with Y2K and imagine all that food rotting on America's sidings. Who can know for sure how bad the results will be? Y2K may wreak havoc on civilization for minutes, hours, weeks, or – less likely – months or years. One expert has predicted problems through 2012 before all the replacements among the twenty billion programmed microchips are made. Another has stated that in a worst-case scenario, where electrical power is lost for sixty days or more, half the people in America will die. While this seems highly improbable to me, it appears a near certainty that some problems will occur."

"Since we will not know the scope of the Y2K bug until it's too late to plan," summarized Halperin, "it wouldn't hurt to stock extra flashlight batteries, firewood, water, and non-perishable foods. Make hard copies of all your computerized financial records. If you can afford one, buy a generator. But that's not our business - coins are. If having bullion coins makes the difference for just one month of economic dislocation, then we think that is cheap insurance for you and your family. A sensible position in gold and silver coins seems a prudent precaution. Some of the more popular American coins are favored as insurance against the temporary loss of fungibility of paper assets, and coins have numerous other advantages as well. At a minimum, we expect the value of these assets to rise as we approach the Millennium, as even more publicity is devoted to the unsolved problems."

Available coin packages (valued $1,000 to $100,000, at extremely competitive prices), and the comments of noted experts on the Y2K problem, can be viewed at www.heritagecoin.com.

Heritage is headquartered at 3500 Maple Avenue, 17th Floor, Dallas Texas, 75219-3941. Heritage's Internet website can be found at: www.heritagecoin.com.

Reasons for purchasing "insurance" packages of U.S. coins:

1. United States coins are legal tender, backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.
   
2. Numismatic coins have been an excellent store of value throughout the world for untold centuries.
   
3. U.S. coins are liquid, and their prices easy to track, even rarer issues are easily valued thanks to third-party certification.
   
4. Coins are portable, and their ownership is a private matter, with no government reporting requirements for buying or selling most coins (other than paying the appropriate capital gains taxes on any profits).
   
5. In previous financial crises, when merchants were reluctant to accept paper money or so-called "fiat" coins (and when fear of counterfeiting makes even genuine gold and silver bars illiquid), legal tender gold and silver coins have always been accepted as a medium of exchange.
   
6. The intrinsic metal content of United States coins is well known and documented.
   
7. Prices are still reasonable, with many numismatic coins selling for a fraction of their 1989 market peak values.
   
8. Even without the Y2K problem, rare coin values should benefit from the demographics of baby boomers entering their peak earning years, and growing interest resulting from the redesign of coinage.
   
9. As the year 2000 draws closer and more attention is drawn to the Y2K problem, we expect a move away from paper assets and toward hard assets.

Available coin packages, valued $1,000 to $100,000, can be viewed at www.heritagecoin.com