S.Africa: Shocker: We ran out of Gold coins - KrugerRands! - A shortage of Gold coins?

I wanted to place an order for some Gold and had a chat to a broker at the Gold coin exchange. He told me that there are no KrugerRands as of yesterday. He said for the 3rd time in 2 years, there were no gold coins available for a given day.

He told me that they got an order for 5,000 gold coins from Switzerland and there is a rumoured shortage of gold coins in Germany.

He told me something about America putting a stop to all gold coin sales for quite a while - we reported this on AC a while back. Then he said that in America they had forward-sold something like 200,000 tons of gold and that was why they had put a halt to trade. (I don't quite understand it myself).

But yeah... interesting... people are buying gold despite market manipulation.

I see some of the charts predict the Dow Jones will rise to about 2,500 points. That is of course after a worldwide bailout. But do these loony Govts think you can keep markets going up forever? What's the bet that that market will rise somewhat and will then come crashing down again since we are in a bear market.

Anyway... I was quite astounded to see that we were short of KrugerRands, even if it is only for a day or two!! Not ONE available to buy in Johannesburg - once the golden city.

The current price of a KrugerRand is: R8,000 for a 1 oz coin. And R1050 for a 1/10th Oz coin.

So, perhaps the lesson is: When you get your gold, hang on to it.
Posted By: Jan
AfricanCrisis Webmaster
Author of: Government by Deception

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
(George Orwell)

My all time favourite movie quote is from the Dwarf in Lord of the Rings: "Certainty of death, small chance of success... what are we waiting for?"

Date Posted: Monday 06-Jul-2009
One cannot run out of gold - it is always available at a price that both the buyer and seller will be willing to trade at!

sites.google.com/site/pricedropclub/Home

Goldman
Johannesburg
RSA

Date Posted: Wednesday 19-Nov-2008
WhirlyBen, the Globo and the Great American Gold Grab
by Edgar J. Steele

January 10, 2006

"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson."
--- President Franklin D. Roosevelt's letter to Colonel House, November 21, 1933 (Sterling Library, Yale University).

"The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences."
--- Professor Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in our Time (Macmillan Company, New York, 1966), p. 324.

"Like gold, U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost...A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman's famous "helicopter drop" of money."
--- Ben S. Bernanke (incoming Federal Reserve Chairman), Deflation: Making Sure 'It' Doesn't Happen Here (Remarks to the National Economists' Club, Washington, DC, Nov 21, 2002)

"By coordinating with fiscal policy, the Fed could even implement what is essentially the classic textbook policy of dropping freshly printed money from a helicopter. In this case, the Fed would monetize government debt that had been issued to finance a tax cut."
--- Evan Koelnig and Jim Dolmas (VP and Senior Economist, respectively, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas), Monetary Policy in a Zero-Interest-Rate-Economy (May 2003).

What is it about Economics? Seriously. Why do so few people even try to understand economics, which simply is the study of the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services? There are whole schools of thought concerning economics, too, as though it is some arcane and mystical field incapable of human comprehension, akin to philosophy, theology or the mind of the teenage girl. There's Keynesian Economics, the Austrian School and Marxism, to name a few. Economics can be micro or macro; it can even trickle down, according to some.

The Secret of Economics

Ok. I'm going to clear it up, once and for all, here and now, for everybody. Here's the secret key to economics: There is no such thing as a free lunch.

That's it. Any time you find your eyes glazing over while economics is being discussed, simply repeat the mantra: There is no such thing as a free lunch. You'll be way ahead of those around yourself. A corollary of the "no free lunch" maxim, which served as the anthem for the 1930s and soon will again be popular: "Brother, can you spare a dime?"

Deficit Financing or... Just Put it on the MasterCard

Ok. Maybe there is a little more to it, but not much. Here it is: Spend more than you earn and you go into debt. Governments that print more money than justified by goods and services have to borrow the funds for the money, just like everybody else...if they have central banks, that is, which means virtually every government on the planet. Borrowing means debt. Go into debt deeply enough and you never will get out - you will go bankrupt...even if you believe in free lunches.

Printing extra money dilutes the value of existing money. This is well understood by corporate executives who do the same thing when they give themselves stock options which, when exercised, dilute ("water") the value of already-outstanding stock purchased by mere mortals like you and I (who are referred to by corporate insiders as "suckers"), leading to a decline in the value of the stock. This is where stockholders (the "suckers") get sheared.

Eventually, the market gets wise, dumps the stock and the company goes out of business, thereby completing the sucker shearing process. The unemployed executives take their ill-gotten gains and open a new business, conduct an IPO and the process starts afresh. In this single paragraph, you have just learned everything of value that I ever learned in my former life as a financial analyst.

In the old West, unscrupulous bartenders added water to their stores of whiskey in order to increase profits; source of the term "watered stock." Eventually, their patrons went elsewhere and they went out of business. The term carried over to the securities field.

Diluted money is said to be inflated instead of watered, since more dollars chase the same quantity of goods and services, which inevitably leads to price inflation. This is where you and I, gentle reader, get sheared by our own government. Eventually, governments that print too much extra money go out of business. America's is living on time borrowed by virtue of the fact that its currency has served as the world's currency for so long. As China, Iran, Iraq, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates all have told us recently, by dumping the dollar themselves, America's time now is up.

The average American family well understands the consequence of deficit spending via those ubiquitous credit cards: they simply refinanced the house! Now they are about to learn a very painful lesson, one their grandparents learned nearly a century ago.

The Zen of Not Knowing

Used to be, when something seemed clear to me, yet befuddled others, I assumed that I simply didn't understand it. No more, though. Finally, I am attaining that degree of certitude reserved to the very young, the very old and the very pretty. When I was in my twenties, I thought I knew everything. I was wrong. Now, approaching my dotage, I know that I don't know everything. But, these days I do know when I don't know something. What's more, I know when somebody else doesn't know something, even if I don't know it either. You can tell by the way they act.

Doctors, in particular, hate it when I say this: If a professional cannot explain anything within his field of expertise to you in terms that you instantly grasp, then he doesn't understand it himself. Anything. Okay, lawyers, test yourselves: explain the Rule Against Perpetuities to your sons and daughters. Estate planning clients, test your lawyer by demanding that he or she explain that Rule to you.

Mechanics who can't explain how my automatic transmission works don't get to work on it. Ditto for HVAC guys who can't explain why heat pumps almost always make more sense than traditional furnaces and air-conditioning systems. And contractors who can't render a spot-on estimate almost instantaneously...well, don't get me started.

Here's another maxim concerning professionals, while we're on the subject: Any professional who does not bring more to a transaction on your behalf than he or she takes in fees is worthless. If followed, that guideline would render most lawyers and all judges in America unemployed tomorrow.

Government Economists, Central Bankers and Other Ignorant Thieves

Here's something you can take to the bank: The guys in charge of economics in America don't know what they're talking about. Actually, it's not that simple. I mean, they really don't know what they're talking about, but they purposely make it complicated in an attempt to hide something that they do know: they are robbing us blind. Their ignorance is belied by the fact that they think they can keep it from us forever. Ignorance, not stupidity. These guys aren't dumb. It takes a towering intellect to build a towering house of cards. America's current house of economic cards is the tallest ever built.

The Federal Reserve Bank ("the Fed") is a private organization. It is not Federal, it is not a Bank and it has no reserves. It is owned, in the main, by foreigners named Rothschild, Warburg, Seif and Lazard. Make of that fact what you will.

The Fed was established in 1913 to stabilize America's money supply by regulating the operations of all of America's banks. What a joke! For two hundred years prior to the Fed's establishment, without its "stabilizing" influence, the American dollar varied little, if at all. A 1910 dollar bought exactly what an 1810 dollar bought, not to mention all the other American dollars, right back to the founding of the Republic.

Know what today's dollar will buy? Exactly what two cents would have bought on the day the Fed was established! Two cents. What happened to the other 98 cents? They were stolen by the Fed, doing exactly what the quotes at the head of this article promise will happen in the future.

The dollar has declined over 30% just since George W. Bush first assumed office, five years ago. You saw it happening. You heard about it. Deficits, donchaknow. Towering deficits, as far as the eye can see. Spending deficits. And trade deficits, which simply are spending deficits at the international level. Deficits of monumental and historical proportions. Humongous deficits. Deficits that defy description.

Gotta pay for that pointless war in Iraq (coming soon to an Iran near you), all that health care for the illegal immigrants, all that welfare for the now-permanent underclass in America, all those new government workers, all that price gouging by Halliburton...and so on.

When the government spends five dollars, yet takes in only four dollars, it simply prints the fifth dollar, which it then, incredibly enough, proceeds to borrow from the Fed. Counterfeiting, if you will, but they call it deficit spending. I call it theft.

Every phony dollar printed by the government dilutes the purchasing power of those dollars you already possess, as those of you who have received the secret key to economics now understand. Theft, pure and simple - which you have come to accept, even expect as normal, in the ever-increasing prices of everything you buy. Taxes are bad enough, but theft by inflation is bankrupting America.

Even a small amount of inflation, over a long enough period of time, will result in theft of the entire money supply. Remember, only two cents are left and, boy, do I intend to give you mine here today!

Any amount of inflation is too much. Zero inflation. Like gravity, it's the law. Violate it at peril of getting badly hurt.

Gold used to regulate inflation for us, effortlessly. But gold prevented theft by the Fed, so it had to go.

Monetary Inflation

There is no such thing as a free lunch. When the government goes to lunch, you get to pay for it. The first four dollars of its five-dollar lunch might come from your taxes. The fifth dollar simply is printed and, when spent, dilutes the value of your remaining dollars. And that literally is what happened this past year, since America's money supply now is increasing at a clip of about 20%, but with no corresponding increase in the goods and services produced by America.

More dollars chasing the same goods and services: monetary inflation. Money, like work, expands to fill the space allotted to itself, with the result that prices are bid up: price inflation.

Here's the whole point of a gold standard: they couldn't dig gold out of the ground any faster than the total supply of goods and services increased worldwide. Gold as money worked and was stable because of that simple fact. Paper money doesn't work, never has worked and never will work simply because there is no limitation on how much a government prints.

Yes, it really is that simple. Now you understand economics better than the PhDs running America. Historically, all governments have printed their paper currencies into hyperoblivion. If you think the American dollar's experience will be any different, then you might be an Economist.

That is why, in March 2006, the American government is going to stop reporting how much the money supply grows - to keep guys like me from seeing its excess and telling you exactly how much was stolen from you. Why? Because a growing number of Americans are starting to listen to guys like me and mumble aloud things like: "Git a rope!"

WhirlyBen and Easy Al

Incoming Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has made it clear that he intends to continue the disastrous polices of outgoing Chairman Alan Greenspan: inflate the money supply mercilessly. Maybe even rain it down from helicopters, needs be. That's why I call him "WhirlyBen" Bernanke.

Neither WhirlyBen nor "Easy Al" understands economics, though both know full well that they have been stealing from you. They think that there is a free lunch and that the tab can be held at bay forever. They are wrong and we are dangerously close to the tipping point right now - the point beyond which too few of us have enough wealth or income after taxes (not to mention the government theft that is monetary inflation) to pay the mortgage and feed our families.

Gonzo Economists

There are some economists in America who seem to understand things. Predictably, they are viewed as, well, nuts by their brethren. Richard Daughty (http://www.321gold.com/archives/archives_auth...aka "the Mogambo Guru," bills himself as the "the angriest man in economics" and writes a weekly column funnier than you might imagine. Robert Chapman, who pens a weekly stream-of-consciousness screed called "The International Forecaster (http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com/), is another. Both of these guys walk around wearing sandwich boards that proclaim "The End is Near" on the front and "Buy Gold" on the back. Naturally, these guys are my economics gods. And Bill Bonner, founder of The Daily Reckoning (http://www.dailyreckoning.com/) Though Bonner is far too normal and nice a guy, his head pretty much is screwed on correctly, too, which means backwards. He wears a sandwich board, too.

The Mogambo, Chapman and Bonner all claim to not understand why the Fed does what it does. I wonder. Of course, they are right, insofar as they insist upon measuring the Fed against its own charter and thereby expect our government to do right by its citizenry. It seems pretty clear to me, though, exactly what is going on: a shearing.

Goodbye, Dollar - Hello, Globo

The Fed and its surrogate, the United States government (yes, that is the correct order, boys and girls), intend to crash the dollar like the mortally-wounded eagle-cum-albatross it has become. Perhaps the impending Iranian move to demand Euros instead of dollars for its oil (not so coincidentally, that is exactly what Iraq did just before we decided to invade it) will be the final straw. If not, we are dangerously close, regardless.

Think deflation, which has been masked for several years now by the monetary inflation being spewed by the Fed (except as regards your paycheck, of course). When that no longer works and the final refuge of the inflato-dollar, real estate, has its not-so-little bubble burst, think true hyperinflation, Weimar style.

This is the way it has to be, if one-world government, over a hundred years in the making, is to be implemented. We will need a one-world currency. It can't be the mortally-wounded dollar and it sure won't be the Euro. This is not idle speculation on my part. It is intense speculation and the result of years of seeing Feds under every bed and behind every tree. You see them now, too, don't you? If not, you will.

I call the coming new money the "Globo," for lack of a better term. I should trademark that, I suppose, so that I can charge them big bucks for using it when the time comes. Of course, they would just pay me in useless dollars, anyhow, so what's the point?

The Globo primarily will be electronic, transferred as debits and credits via what we now call "ATM" or "debit" cards. The embedded chip will be the preferred mode. That's "the Mark of the Beast" to you Revelations fans.

Of course, WWIII and Depression II will accompany the transition to the Globo, to mask the real reason for the changeover and facilitate the real shearing, which has yet to take place, but that is a story beyond the scope of today's discussion (though not beyond the scope of my book, Defensive Racism (http://www.DefensiveRacism.com),which I recommend you get and read immediately, before the dollars you pay for it become even more worthless).

The Globo is absolutely necessary if they are to monitor the movement of all money, rather than just most of the money, as at present. That way, they get their vigorish every time a Globo passes "Go." Besides, with the Globo they will procure the ultimate ability to micromanage each and every one of us ("Ye shall neither buy nor sell," to put it in terms to which you Revelations fans will relate).

Ok. That takes care of "WhirlyBen" and "Globo" from the title of today's piece. What about "the Great American Gold Grab?" Glad you asked. I also hear a number of shrieks out there just now, along with the Biblical weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth: What will we do? Save us! Save us!

I hope I'm not being too melodramatic here.

The Great American Gold Grab

Well, I'm with my economics gods on this one: buy gold. With one reservation: after you buy it, I think they're going to take it away from you. After all, they did it before, the last time they threw us into a stock market crash, worldwide depression and a world war that redefined the borders of several countries. This is where my economics gods turn their backs on me, be warned. That's ok. I'm used to it.

See my article, Peak Silver (http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/columns/peak...., in which I make the case for precious metals as a means for transporting one's wealth from one side of an economic chasm, like the one now before us, to the other side, intact. Indeed, I see the opportunity for great increases in wealth during the trip. In that article, I also explain why I think silver actually represents the better investment since its demand derives from sundry industrial uses, not just as a hedge against the end of the world, and there actually is less of it available than gold.

Most writers use the word "gold" to mean all precious metals when they advise that you shift some or all your investments into them. As I said to a fellow customer in a coin shop recently, who was wondering aloud what might be a good investment: "Paper bad. Metal good." At times like these, that advice really should rank right up there with "Buy low. Sell high."

But, back to gold confiscation. Many say the government will not confiscate gold today because Nixon took us off the gold standard in 1972, thereby removing gold as backing for the dollar. When Roosevelt outlawed the personal holding of gold bullion, they argue, there was lots of gold in bank vaults and it served as the dollar's guarantee. That argument is ridiculous.

FDR didn't need to confiscate gold because it served as backing for the dollar. He seized gold because our masters wanted to ensure that they made the windfall profit on its possession when FDR devalued the dollar, not common riffraff like you and I (known to government insiders as "suckers"). And when FDR announced the new price for gold, after he had confiscated as much as he could from private citizens, those guys made a killing.

The same situation exists today. When the dollar does its best imitation of a dead-cat bounce, the price of gold (and silver and platinum and rhodium and palladium) will go to the Moon, Alice. Don't forget: Paper bad. Metal good. Those who hold precious metals will make a killing. Guess who thinks that only they deserve to make that killing? The same guys as before, that's who, which is why the private ownership of gold bullion in any form almost certainly will be outlawed before the dollar does its swan dive.

Some like to say there exists too little of any of the precious metals to amount to enough to warrant confiscation. True enough, valued by today's dollar. However, consider gold valued in dog dollars, at $5,000 per ounce or more, as it will be once the deed is done. Different story, isn't it?

That's the logic behind my belief that gold will be confiscated before the festivities begin. Is there any hard evidence, other than the fact that they did it before and that other countries have done the same thing before devaluing their currencies? Well, yes, there is, in fact. And it is most interesting, since it is embedded within a somewhat obscure law that took effect precisely one week ago.

The Old Gold Grab

First, though, let's take a look at the actual language of a selected portion of FDR's gold confiscation order of April 5, 1933 (http://www.the-privateer.com/1933-gold-confis... "...All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal Reserve Bank...all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates now owned by them...except...gold coins having recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins." (emphasis supplied)

It is a popular myth that FDR merely set a date beyond which gold could not be exchanged for paper money. The actual wording of FDR's order explodes that myth: "All persons are hereby required to deliver...all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates." (emphasis supplied) Gold was confiscated from us suckers...er, citizens, pure and simple, and paid for at the much lower pre-revaluation rate of only $20 per ounce.

There were a couple of exceptions to the confiscation order, such as gold used in commerce and trade (gold tooth fillings, for example). But, the most interesting exception, by far, was made for what are known as "numismatic" coins. Remember the wording: "...except...gold coins having recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins." You can bet there will be an equivalent exception made during the upcoming gold confiscation simply because so many of those who run things still own a large proportion of existing numismatic coins.

The New Gold Grab

Most laws in the United States really are the result of agency "rulemaking," and tend to be the most verbose, obtuse and obscure of all laws. Yep, written by people not elected by us. Given equal weight with other laws - more, if, like myself, you believe the courts now disregard the Constitution altogether. IRS regulations are perhaps the best-known collection of these agency rules.

Something called the "Financial Crimes Enforcement Network" (FinCEN), a US Treasury division, issued just such a rule last year, which just went into effect and which I believe reveals the government's intention to confiscate gold again. The rule, entitled "Anti-Money Laundering Programs for Dealers in Precious Metals, Stones or Jewels," (31 CFR Part 103 or http://www.fincen.gov/antimoneylaundering0609...was first brought to my attention by Lawrence Patterson, founder and publisher of Criminal Politics magazine (http://www.criminalpolitics.com) In his magazine, three months ago, Mr. Patterson quite efficiently connected the dots which are buried within FinCEN's obscure piece of agency rulemaking to gold confiscation.

Let's have a look at the relevant portions of this rule that lead to this conclusion:

Section 103.140(a)(4) of the rule specifically "defines 'precious metal' to include gold, silver and the platinum group of metals, at a level of purity of 500 parts per 1000 (50 percent) or greater, singly or in any combination." For example, US Gold Eagles are merely "precious metals" and covered unless rare enough to be worth more than twice the value of their gold content. Pay attention here, because, by inference, numismatic coins have just been very strictly defined - they are only those coins that are worth at least twice their melt value. This is an important point.

The rule specifically applies to retailers who sell or buy more than $50,000 per year of "jewels, precious metals, precious stones and finished goods (including jewelry, numismatic items and antiques) that derive 50 percent or more of their value from jewels, precious metals or precious stones contained in or attached to such finished goods." (emphasis supplied.) Covered retailers must file "Suspicious Activity Reports" (SARs) with the government concerning sales and purchases that might possibly be connected to money laundering, specifically identifying customers.

Now, technically, only large transactions and those which are "suspicious" must be reported, but this will result in every transaction being reported, just as it has in banks, because of the penalties attendant to not reporting something that some bureaucrat might say should have been reported. Recently, I bought a $2,500 cashier's check at my personal bank, at which I have more than one account and where all the tellers and clerks know me - yep, I got detained for ten minutes while the clerk filled out an SAR.

The reporting requirements apply to all transactions, even those including numismatics (the 50-percent rule is used simply to define who must report in the first place). The days of walking into a coin shop and anonymously buying or selling a thousand dollars' worth of anything are over, folks. Unless, of course, the shop is one which deals exclusively in numismatic coins (again, those worth more than twice their melt value) - look for these specialty shops to spring up now.

Now, let's step back and take a look at what's really going on with this rule. Allegedly, it is an anti-money-laundering regulation. It says so right in the rule: "Precious metals, precious stones and jewels are easily transportable, highly concentrated forms of wealth and can be highly attractive to money launderers and other criminals..." Right. Sure. Then why exclude numismatic coins, which are an even more highly concentrated form of wealth than the bullion coins specifically included? This internal contradiction points up two things.

First, the target of this law is not criminals, it is ordinary American citizens, as we shall see in a moment.

Second, however, for the first time, numismatic coins are being defined and excluded...for what reason, exactly? There is only one possible interpretation: so that all other coins and forms of precious metals will already have been tracked and reported upon when the government issues a confiscation order for gold. This is the same thing as gun registration, which always precedes gun confiscation, folks. That's why this type of law, until now restricted to banks and securities firms, has been expanded to include dealers in all forms of precious metals, particularly coin dealers. A great many pawn shops will fall in line now, too.

I said that ordinary citizens are the real targets of this law. Here's why: reporting will allow the government to see "structuring" (conducting a large deal surreptitiously by breaking it into many smaller, hopefully unnoticeable, deals) by citizens who buy or sell a few coins from or to each of several coin shops. Until now, each deal has kept such people below the reportable threshold, so that the IRS never was the wiser. Now it will be a snap for government computers to aggregate all sales by individuals, no matter where made in the United States. Since a lot of people currently hold bullion which has doubled in value recently, this is a big deal. It will become a much bigger deal when bullion becomes valued in dog dollars. It also is a big deal if the government is to effectively implement the Globo once the dollar is dumped - they've got to stamp out the cash economy.

Too paranoid, you say? No. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that this law, designed to stamp out money laundering by coin dealers, in the main, actually will encourage a great many coin dealers to take up money laundering, due to the profit potential that will accrue from individuals wishing to evade the reporting requirements, for whatever reason.

Silver's Special Allure

Interestingly, the proposed FinCEN rule last year asked for input from the public as to whether or not silver should even be included in the final regulation. When the public comment period closed with no such input having been received, FinCEN said it would still accept such recommendations, right up until the effective date of January 1, 2006. On January 5, 2006, FinCEN Ruling 2006-1 told silver dealers that they can hold off on implementing their anti-money-laundering programs until further notice. This is a clear tipoff that silver will not be confiscated when gold is called in.

What to Do

Here's the bottom line:

1. Don't buy gold bullion in any form, not even in the form of the less-rare gold coins that aren't worth more than twice their melt value.

2. Instead, buy silver bullion, which I believe has a better upside potential than gold, anyway.

3. What's more, consider trading in your gold bullion right now for silver or for true numismatic coins that have a broad, well-defined market, such as $20 St. Gaudens gold coins in PCGS-certified MS 63 to MS 65 condition. Chalk it up to my paranoia if you like, but do you suppose it is just coincidence that the lower-range St. Gaudens coins, the best-known and most-collected gold coins in the world, just happen to be worth about twice the spot value of gold?

I possessed a modest number of gold eagles (my retirement nest egg, such as it is) that I removed from my safety-deposit box and traded to my local trusted coin dealer for 10-ounce silver bars and some St. Gaudens coins (PCGS graded only) before the end of 2005 and already have made back the commissions on both sides of the deal from the appreciation seen in both, versus the appreciation that has taken place in gold since I traded. It was a no-cost trade for me. Given the way silver still is going, vis-a-vis gold, it can be a no-cost trade for you, too. Go to the on-line version of this article and search the reader letter responses for the name of the dealer I used, if you simply must have a specific reference from me.

Put half your investment, at least, into the physical metal, take delivery and keep it somewhere safe (not a bank safety-deposit box like I do!). Call local coin dealers, hardly any of whom yet seem to know about FinCEN's new law, and pay cash for what you buy without identifying yourself to them, if possible. If you either can afford larger purchases or buy via mail order, then you will not be able to avoid having your name recorded. Records make confiscation and taxation easy.

Buy 1-oz. silver rounds or 10-oz. silver bars. Larger bars might require assaying when you sell, which will make them difficult to peddle quickly. Silver Eagles command too high a premium. The rounds have just as much silver and typically go for about 50 cents over silver's daily spot price, though you might have to pay upwards of 75 cents over spot to acquire smaller quantities (you will recoup about 25 cents of that premium when you sell). I view "junk silver" (old circulated coins) as useful only if the entire world goes the way of Mad Max.

Buy popular numismatics for which there is a ready market. The best example is $20 US gold coins designed by a fellow named St. Gaudens, for whom they are named. Buy them only in uncirculated condition, certified by PCGS or NGC at Mint State (MS) 63, 64 or 65. PCGS and NGC are professional coin grading companies. PCGS essentially sets the market price for coins graded by both of them. You can access the PCGS on-line price guide at http://www.pcgs.com/prices Multiply their given prices by 85 to 90% in order to derive actual market values.

Put the rest of your investment into funds and/or mining stocks. Diversify. Stay away from companies holding South African mines and large hedge positions. For two years, my personal favorite has been Gold Corp (GG). Some list members bought Gold Corp when I first mentioned it and since have racked up gains close to 200%. I also mentioned a couple of months ago that I liked the potential for palladium, the best common stock for which seems to me to be North American Palladium (PAL). Those who bought North American Palladium when I mentioned it report gains in only a couple of months totaling nearly 50%. I have very modest investments in each of the stocks I just mentioned (the rest of my retirement nest egg).

New America, an idea whose time has come.

Spiculum

Date Posted: Wednesday 05-Nov-2008
"But yeah... interesting... people are buying gold despite market manipulation."

And that is why they are stopping the sale of Gold.

People are catching on and getting out of paper. The entire reason why the manipulation has taken place to begin with is to further consolidate their wealth.

The Elite.

They dont want this, they dont want competition. They want is as slaves; regardless of Color, plebes, to control and manipulate, like they have been doing for years now.

EA

Date Posted: Tuesday 04-Nov-2008
I popped into a coin shop earlier this year and they were selling for 800 Rand each (1/10th coins).

Joe Shmo