wren

That's because from 2001 gold in dollars was increasing faster than houses in dollars.

Yeah, well the site is down for the time being. Maybe subject to a D-Notice.

And presumably they would have charged a premium to convert your silver into coin, which could have been a fair deal. I'd be grateful to anyone who has good links to the specifics of these processes. I guess I'm trying to get a root understanding of monetary systems as they were and as they are. So I need to start from the basics.

But I have a newbie question which was on my mind. In the olden days when gold (and in everyday transaction much more silver) were used as money even before paper promises, what was the mechanism whereby the newly mined gold (and silver) entered general currency? If mines were not exclusively owned by some monetary absolute authority (king or emperor or "central bank") how would a mining business sell their gold or silver? I can understand that if there were minted "coins of the realm", for example, a one ounce coin could purchase one ounce plus a little premium. Is that how it worked? A good mine must have been making a mint. But if I owned a goldmine would the powers that be have stolen it from me?

What's this about post-offices? I hadn't heard.

Somebody asked yesterday (maybe you?). I suppose we don't know.

It's amazing how low inflation is, considering how much prices have been going up! And a great example of Newspeak from Pluto. Welcome to the site, bjm81.

The VAT exemption of gold bullion is an EU law. I doubt whether the UK could change it unilaterally.

BullionVault publishes a list of the bars with weight, % gold content and serial number on its website. The gold and the cash accounts are audited every trading day and certification is posted on the website. If somebody wants to take delivery (they're not primarily geared up to do that as a routine service but it can be done) the intention to do so has to be posted on their website 48 hrs beforehand, otherwise the security company won't allow the withdrawal. People get email alerts and if they wish text message alerts when their account is logged into. They can also get text message alerts if the vault alarm sounds. Payment of cash funds can only go back to the bank account from which they were originally sent, so even of a thief somehow obtained your username and password they cannot send money to a different bank account. This provides extra secutiy for the customers against theft. Remember the gold is allocated, the customers actually own the gold they have bought, not BV. It's in the form of 400 oz. Good Delivery Bars, so holders don't own any particular bar but they do own as a right the quantity of gold which they have purchased. As far as I can tell BV bend over backwards to be as transparent as possible.

Blimey, and I was worried this thread was getting quiet. But word is the older blonde in the video is the famous pornstar Linzi Drew. Not that I would know about things like that.

Which is barely gratfiying in an unspecified sort of way.

Does that make it official then? (Oddly incorrect use of official names, if I'm not mistaken.)

Although I don't have any link to hand, I believe the ECB has been supporting Spanish banks for a couple of months. Furthermore, I believe the Bank of England is now permitted to support banks without public disclosure (thanks to the Northern Rock episode). The FED is already accepting mortgage-based collateral. It seems to be all on. They will monetitize. Corporate Socialism. Private profit at public risk.

The volatility can be very unnerving and those entering only recently would, I guess, suffer more, not having a "profit buffer" behind them. I'm not at all interested in short term speculation. But those who invest for the long term need to establish their belief that the bull is not at its very end firstly, and secondly that it is likely to continue for a couple of years more, at least. The important long term ratios (DOW:gold etc.) convince me that the fundamentals are still good. As we all know dollar etc. prices are not themselves fundamental and the adjustments versus CPI are highly unreliable because those stats are unreliable. This is why I focus on the important ratios comparing real with real, like gold versus houses. I really wonder whether this spring and summer could be something like 2006, with lots of volatility but net sideways action for several months. Any arguments for or against that suggestion?

Wow! None at all? In Finland it's €25 000 per bank which I thought a bit stingy as it's £35 000 in the UK. But if you have multiple accounts you need to be careful as a few seemingly separate banks/building societies are not separate under the guarantee scheme. I'm hoping gold and silver will go sideways all spring and summer. I need more time!

I reckon Joe Public is small fry and pretty irrelevant and will be moreso when the reckoning comes. But as a Joe Public myself, I find it rather fascinating.

Blimey. Just 12 hours ago I was answering to gold comments at "that site" (forget the thread, probably the same one) and when typing prior to posting, I actually typed a challenge to people to say outright if they really meant to claim that BullionVault was a fraudulent company, which has repeatedly been implied in an underhand manner. And that it might unfortunately add to the many solicitors' letters which the owners of "that site" say they have received already this year. As the post was quoting and answering a post which was not guilty of such, on second thoughts, I deleted that challenging paragraph before posting (I'm not sure whether my otherwise unnotable comment was posted). In the last few days I've posted over there trying to correct extreme, and possibly slanderous suggestions, but my posts don't always appear. Thanks for posting that link. I'm so pleased that BV has answered in person.

I wasn't there before the policy of one gold thread in the main forum was decided (a good policy all in all). I get the feeling they may be getting back to what I suppose was the earlier problem: multiple gold threads, which understandably could get on people's nerves. Some days recently they've had 2 or even 3 gold threads on page 1 of the main forum. Gold gets repeatedly mentioned in other threads as well: the "yellow metal" and so on. Shot themselves in the foot for sure. Nice to hear that cgnao is still going strong. I don't post much over there partly because I'm back on moderation after linking to this site. My posts either don't appear at all or take 10 hours to do so.

He's Charlie†, the gold bear. He's sitting pretty now, but I have a feeling sometime later this year things could go awry for our mate Charlie. The thing behind him is a massive steamroller. You can't see most of it. († Any similarity in name to posters here or on any "other site" is merely coincidental.)

I wonder what the cartel might do today in New York and London. It didn't recover much in Asian trading overnight, $936.90 now. They could go for an almighty smackdown, maybe below 900, and frighten the bejeepers out of people. Then again they might try a protracted approach of repeatedly letting it rise to $1000 then smacking down. A few weeks of that could wear people down. Time will tell.

Nah, just found the picture yesterday and thought he looked cute. He might get steamrollered later in the year but I'm not very good at computer graphics, will have to see.

Got a link to the thread?

Only January. About €570 is needed to reach the November peak.

Any news about IMF gold sales?