Gold coin sales increase by 400%

 

19 November 2010 Last updated at 11:25

Sales of gold coins have soared by 400% so far this year compared with 2009, according to the Royal Mint.

With the price of gold hitting record levels, the Mint says commemorative coins are in strong demand.
Sales of silver coins have also risen, though by a comparatively modest 20%.
"In these days of economic uncertainty people look for something they can see as being a bit more secure," Dave Knight, director of commemorative coins at Royal Mint, told the BBC.
The price of gold, currently at about $1,400 an ounce, has consistently reached new highs during 2010 as investors have sought a haven amid economic turmoil.
Mr Knight said it was not part of his role to comment on whether gold is a good investment, but he added: "Gold coins are something that have been around a long time and people have a lot of confidence in them.
"We sell a lot to the big institutions, which are presumably for investment. But there's also a big growth in the desire to collect coins.
"These coins are works of art. And they are something that can last forever," he said.
Last week, a limited edition silver £5 coin commemorating musician John Lennon sold out in five days.
Mr Knight said that to sell the 5,000-coin issue in such a short space of time was "extraordinary".
Royal wedding The sales growth is not confined to the UK.
The Royal Canadian Mint has said that sales of silver coins for 2010 are "very strong" and expects them to be at least 50% higher than in 2009.
A spokesman said: "We also do not anticipate a reduction in sales for 2011, and could see an increase.
The Royal Mint's next major issue is expected to be a £5 gold coin to commemorate next year's royal wedding.
It is thought that the coin has already been designed and is awaiting Buckingham Palace's approval.
 

Bond Market Implosion & Gold Tactics

Graceland Updates

By Stewart Thomson

              

1.      “I cannot overemphasize the critical importance of factoring the bond market into any analysis of the crisis now.”  That was the sentence I started yesterday’s update with, and it’s probably the sentence I should start every update with, for the next six months!    

2.       I see a lot of gold analysts trying to gauge the “gold market correction” but they are seemingly unaware that the bond market just imploded, and Bill Gross basically issued a massive sell signal on his own fund, the world’s largest bond fund.  For the past few months I’ve urged you to understand that when the bond implodes, there would be initial weakness in gold followed by tremendous strength.  Here and now, the words “Gold” and “Bond” must be mentioned in the same sentence, or you are out to gold market analysis lunch.

3.      The conventional view in the public, and a view held by many institutional money managers, is that lower rates produce higher gold prices (correct), and higher rates produce lower gold prices.  Well, sometimes, yes.  Sometimes, no.  Sometimes higher rates produce an upside gold parabola.

4.      On the second situation, higher rates and gold, in a commodity demand-related gold bull market, higher rates are a negative for the price of gold.  In such a situation, gold functions as a commodity, and the economy gets higher prices as demand for goods increases.  The cost of borrowing increases as the demand for loans increases because business conditions are solid.  As the cost of borrowing rises, that hurts demand.  Prices (int rates) for money and the price for goods both fall.

5.      Look out your market window.  Do you see a booming economy, or potential economic Armageddon?  My message to you: the new bankster game is in play, and it’s a big one; the bond market.  Bond market chaos that could send gold stocks parabolic on the upside.  Here’s why:

6.      I coined the term, “The Institutional Awakening”.  The awakening is a bankster game to create a mass mindset of terror amongst institutions, a mindset that further QE won’t work to continue the markets recovery, and instead further QE will see bond market prices stagnate or even fall, while the US dollar falls like a rock.  All in all, a nightmare situation, given the backdrop of the marked to model OTC Derivatives quadrillion dollar.  Marked to model is:  Marked to Lies.

7.      In practical terms, meaning flows of liquidity by institutions, what the institutional awakening means is a mass panic out of bonds and into…?

8.      What the gold community needs to understand is the LAW.  Institutional money managers have written mandates as well as unwritten mandates on what they can and cannot do with their assets.  Pouring money into gold is not on their “oh yeah, let’s do it!” list.   It’s on their “if we dump our assets into gold, then our investors pull out, we get no pay, and we could get charged with securities violations” list.

9.      The history of institutional money flows in a currency and bond panic is a massive flow of liquidity into the stock market.  Having said that, what do YOU think happens to the Gold Price Thermometer of global financial health what that occurs, or is thought to be about to occur?  I don’t think most in the gold community really understand what just happened to the bond market, and what this event means for gold. 

10.  I know that because, other than Bob Moriarty at www.321gold.com and Trader Dan Norcini at www.jsmineset.com, almost nobody is even mentioning the imploding bond market, yet they are conducting one study after another as to why gold “could be in a correction”.  Translation:  “Here’s all the reasons why I just sold all my gold and you should do the same.”  Thanks, but no thanks.  In regards to the bond market, to quote John “Sir Johnny” Templeton, who uttered these words after the first phase of the markets crisis began in 2000,
[CONTINUED]
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1289922503.php

Consider Gold in Overhaul of Bretton Woods, World Bank Head Writes in FT

By John Simpson - Nov 7, 2010 10:27 PM GMT 

 

The development of a monetary system to follow on from 1971’s Bretton Woods II will take time, but it’s time to start, World Bank President Robert Zoellick writes in the Financial Times.
This week’s summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in Seoul presents a test of international cooperation offering an opportunity for a key group of G20 countries to agree on parallel agendas of structural reform, Zoellick writes.
For instance, the U.S. and China could reach agreement on mutually reinforcing moves to stimulate further growth, such as a course for yuan appreciation, or a move to wide bands for exchange rates, the World Bank chief writes.
Other major economies should agree to forgo currency intervention, except in rare situations agreed to by others, Zoellick says. These moves would help emerging economies to deal with asymmetries in recoveries by applying flexible exchange rates and independent monetary policies, he writes.
The system should evaluate using gold as a reference point of market expectations about inflation, deflation and future currency values, Zoellick writes, noting that while textbooks may view gold as “old money,” markets use it today as an alternative monetary asset.
 
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-07/g-20-should-start-work-on-new-monetary-system-world-bank-s-zoellick-says.html

 

 

 

 

More Stealth Gold Buying, This Time it’s Iran to the Tune of $15B

11/02/10 Stockholm, Sweden – Perhaps the only thing more common these days than central banks increasing their gold holdings, is their ability to do it on the sly. Much like Saudi Arabia came out of nowhere to announce it more than doubled its gold reserves to 323 tonnes, Iran recently came out of the blue to announce it’s added about $15 billion worth of gold to its foreign exchange reserves.
According to Mehr News Agency:

“[Central Bank governor Mahmoud Bahmani] said that the country’s foreign currency reserve has gained several billion of dollars as a result of the rise in global gold prices. Bahmani said on October 23 that according to World Bank statistics Iran has $100 billion in foreign exchange reserves.

“Provided that the World Bank statistics are true any country with this amount of reserves would never hit a dead end, ISNA news agency quoted Bahmani as saying.

“It may be possible to exert pressure on a small country with $4-5 billion reserves, but the situation in regard to Iran is different, he said in a reference to efforts by Western countries pressure Iran financially.

“He pointed to Iran’s gold reserves and said it had multiplied several times in the past two years. Bahmani went on to say that currently gold consumption in the country is 30 tons per year and if the Central Bank doesn’t add to its gold reserves there will remain ample supplies for the next 10 years.”

Now, along with Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China, Iran is joining the club of surreptitious gold-hoarding nations. There appears to be ample evidence this club won’t stay too exclusive for very long. You can read more details on the story in Mehr News Agency’s coverage of how Iran now has no need to import gold for about a decade.