Gold coins 'drying up'
Arizona Coin Collector
http://business.iafrica.com/news/1376660.htm
Last Updated: 03:50pm 11 Dec 2008
Gold coins 'drying up'
The supply of gold coins globally is drying up,
the SA Gold Coin Exchange said on Thursday.
"Unsurprisingly, coin dealers the world over are
starting to run out of stock of all manner of
gold coins," said Alan Demby, executive
chairperson of the SA Gold Coin Exchange.
(News Story Photo Image Holding Gold)
http://business.iafrica.com/cm_pics/business/2669-0-0-0_1518114.jpg
"Those who have the coins are selling them at
often significant premiums."
Demby said investors, "rushing to safety" in the
current financial crisis, were clamouring to buy
gold in its physical form.
Traders confirmed it had become extremely
difficult to purchase the yellow metal in the
form of bars or coins.
"People are panicking - they're looking for a
tangible asset," Demby said.
The "rush to safety" showed a number of fears
about the fragility of global finance.
It underlined concerns that the move towards zero
interest rates could trigger an inflationary surge
in the future - and this would bring into question
of the value of some paper currencies.
The latest figures available from the World Gold
Council illustrate that demand for coins, bars,
and exchange traded funds (ETFs) has doubled in
the third quarter of 2008 to 382 tons compared to
a year earlier.
Demby said the growing global shortage of gold
coins "pointed unerringly to a pending strong rise
in the gold price".
Evy Hambro, manager of BlackRock's US$4.7-billion
World Mining Fund, had pointed out that since the
beginning of the year gold had handsomely
outperformed virtually every stock market in the
world - "a compelling reason why the supply of
gold coins had begun to dry up".
"Also, gold production has been declining
year-on-year since 2001 when production peaked at
a gold price of only US$250 an ounce," said Demby.
"It looks as though production's going to fall
significantly again for 2008, with a bigger fall
in prospect for 2009."
With production declining and demand strong,
central banks selling less gold and jewellery
demand recovering rapidly, the outlook for gold
was "as bright as it had ever been." Demby said.
...
Frank Provasek
prints enough paper money to bail out the banks and stock brokers.
----
Frank Provasek Rare Coins
http://www.frankcoins.com Ebay Powerseller FRANKCOINS
Member ANA, Texas Numismatic Assoc, Texas Coin Dealers Assoc,
PCGS, NGC, & ANACS authorized dealer, Texas Auctioneer Lic 11259
RWF
news:afcf1e42-198c-400d...@r15g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
> Enough people realize the inflation forecasts after the government
> prints enough paper money to bail out the banks and stock brokers.
Better go polish up your tinfoil hat, Fwankie!
Uncle_vito
T-Bills that the public is buying up like no tomorrow. Paying close to 0
percent interest too. So the government likely has trillions of dollars
from folks like you and me. No need for any printing press.
Also with the credit crunch, banks are not lending money. The money supply
is very low. Deflation is in the cards. Again not a case for inflation.
Maybe this is why gold has dropped 30% in the past months.
I am surprised that coin dealers are running out of coins. Must indicate
that the majority of gold is not in coins in sufficient quantity to satisfy
the folks that want to hold the coins and not just the gold backed paper. I
would think food, ammunition, and other barter items would be more valuable
than gold coins.. if it comes down to that.
Vito
"Frank Provasek" <fr...@frankcoins.com> wrote in message
news:afcf1e42-198c-400d...@r15g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
Bruce Remick
"Uncle_vito" <uncle_v...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5JmdnacE9OMWlNnU...@linkline.com...
>I do not think the government needs to print much money. Only a bunch of
>T-Bills that the public is buying up like no tomorrow. Paying close to 0
>percent interest too. So the government likely has trillions of dollars
>from folks like you and me. No need for any printing press.
>
> Also with the credit crunch, banks are not lending money. The money
> supply is very low. Deflation is in the cards. Again not a case for
> inflation.
>
> Maybe this is why gold has dropped 30% in the past months.
>
> I am surprised that coin dealers are running out of coins. Must indicate
> that the majority of gold is not in coins in sufficient quantity to
> satisfy the folks that want to hold the coins and not just the gold backed
> paper. I would think food, ammunition, and other barter items would be
> more valuable than gold coins.. if it comes down to that.
>
> Vito
In that extreme case, guns/ammunition and barter probably would cancel each
other out.
Mike Marotta
wrote:
> FROM:http://business.iafrica.com/news/1376660.htm
> Gold coins 'drying up'
> starting to run out of stock of all manner of
> gold coins," said Alan Demby, executive
> chairperson of the SA Gold Coin Exchange.
Well, it is his job to help keep demand high, so there is that.
Nonetheless, this situation has been playing out for some months now.
At the end of the summer, I did not see any such shortage at the
retail level. Now, I do. There are still plenty to go around, but
your local coin dealer might not have any AGEs right now and you might
have to buy sovereigns, or French 20s or something. In fact, it is
the 1 oz and 1/10 oz coins that disappeared first, the most popular
denominations. So, too, did AGEs and Buffalos sell out at the Mint,
again, the most popular coins.
Uncle Vito's keynesian analysis failed to take into account INDIA and
CHINA, literally a billion buyers of small gold at retail. Uncle Vito
is correct, however, that most of the consumer gold in the world is
_not_ in the form of coins and likely never was. The primary
consumers of gold are jewelry manufacturers and it was (and likely
remains) in that form that most of the people in the world buy it,
rather than gold mining stock future options or whatever. Coins are
for Americans and Europeans ... and Americans, in particular, seem to
have an insatiable appetite for them, at any price.
It has nothing to do with millennarian scenarios or eschatology or
whatever. It doesn't have to be the end of the world. You spend FRNs,
but you save in gold. What's hard to understand about that? And
there's long-term versus short term savings. I mean there is no
"profit" in selling a gold coin for more than you paid for it, unless
that is, indeed, your business. Cash FRNs have a utitlity that it
will take much more inflation to erode. (Again, a nod to Uncle Vito.
He's right about the deflation of the FRNs -- for the moment.
However, the IRS only collects about $1.2 trillion in income taxes
from us annually and that is not enough to cover the projected outlays
for the next year, especially with the bailouts and programs and
such.
It is true that they do not need to _print_ money. Only about 8% of
the economy is in cash. However, the federal Treasury is _creating_
money (without the printing presses) and that comes to the same thing
as physical inflation in the olden days.
So, yes, by the time President Palin is sworn in, gasoline will be $5
a gallon and bread will be $5 a loaf and eggs will be $5 a dozen and
cigarettes will be $10 a pack.... and gold will be $2000 an ounce,
though not _more_ but still nothing less....