Mike Rivkin

That little nothingburger chain with a tiny "14k" stamp that you haven't worn forever is likely worth an airline ticket somewhere.

The Navajo hold a giant place in the annals of Native American arts, and deservedly so.

It seems likely that the modern world's fair grew out of national fairs held in Great Britain during the 18th century. Those were half carnival/half trade show and eventually spread to France as the two countries competed for business and tourism.

It's a near certainty that your precious metal valuables are worth more today than they were a few years ago. Maybe a lot more.

Very few countries still mint silver coins, and those that do make them almost exclusively for collectors and investors.

OK, let's get back to gold and silver. Judging from your recent inquiries, there is still a lot of interest out there in capitalizing on the current rise in precious metal prices. As I write this, the spot price of pure silver stands at $32.23 per ounce and gold at a near-record $2,563.51. Many of us have a few bits of jewelry or flatware that we don't use and wouldn't miss, and now might be a good time to sell. There are dozens of retail buyers out there clamoring for your attention, but you might want consider another route if your jewelry box or flatware hutch is overflowing.

A cameo is a scene carved in relief on a seashell or other material. All sorts of subjects were immortalized that way.

If you're not buying your costumes at antique and thrift stores, you are paying too much!

Gold is selling at record prices and seems to hit a new high almost every day while diamonds prices have collapsed. What's going on?

From the beginning, the firm's intentions were clear: to manufacture the most unusual and unique high-end watches they could come up with. Their insignia was and remains an ornate key pointing up to the heavens, ostensibly representing some mumbo jumbo about exploration, innovation and a bunch of other stuff. Anyway, the firm's first model was introduced in 1956, followed a year later by the Golden Tube, basically a hollowed out gold cylinder with a movement configured to fit. Apart from its innovative style, the model dispensed with the conventional two-piece band in favor of a one-piece design on which the watch could be slid up and down for comfort.