Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: philv who wrote (3711)	12/1/1997 5:50:00 PM
From: Greg Ford	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116815

The Swiss oh the Swiss. Swiss govt recommends selling 7 bln Sfr worth of gold for fund By Bridge News Zurich--Dec 1--The 7-member Swiss government today recommended to sell Swiss National Bank gold worth 7 billion francs, which would be about 460 tonnes of its total reserves of 2,590 tonnes, to fund the planned Solidarity Foundation. It also recommended to keep other gold no longer needed by the SNB to cover its cash in circulation at the central bank until details for its usage are decided upon at a later date. An expert commission had suggested in October the SNB sell 1,400 tonnes of its gold reserves. * * * The government today also recommended to abolish the coupling of the Swiss franc to gold in its constitution. The motions will now go before parliament before they get final approval or rejection in a referendum. In the aftermath of the Swiss announcement, the gold price tumbled to 12-year lows below the $300-per-ounce mark. After the expert commission's report in October to sell more than half of the country's gold reserves, Finance Minister Kaspar Villiger already said that the first 7 billion francs would be used as expected for the planned Solidarity Foundation and the second 7 billion francs would be used to raise revenue for the federal and regional governments' coffers by investing proceeds in high-yielding instruments. The working group had argued that the SNB was holding much more gold than it legally needed to cover notes in circulation and was not earning any revenue on the gold locked away in vaults. The elimination of the franc-gold-linkage in the constitution would allow the SNB to revalue its gold reserves at close-to-market prices, which would put the value at about 43 billion francs from the current 11.9 billion francs. The government today also proposed to change the constitution's definition of the SNB's task from a very broad to a narrower one which says that the SNB's main aim is price stability in its pursuit of a monetary policy for the good of the country. End Bridge News, Tel: +41-1-286-5073 Send comments to Internet address: news@bridge.com

To: philv who wrote (3711)	12/1/1997 8:19:00 PM
From: Jaakko	Respond to of 116815

Rich and Phil When I talk about PHYSICAL gold I mainly mean bullion coins. They are normally accepted by the buyer without authentication (assaying) and are generally honored in many parts of the world. The premiums over gold bars are in the order of 3 to 5% but you recoup part of it when you sell them (these are not short term trading vehicles buy any means but something that you put away for bad times). The Canadian Maple Leaf is probably the purest gold bullion coin around and because of its high gold content has certain tax advantages at least in Canada. If you buy them in Alberta you are not charged Provincial Sales Tax. Shipping by courrier is fairly safe as very few packages ever gets lost in deed by them. Of course, if you buy a very large amount you would probably find Brinks truck more meaningful for their charges or you would go in person if you think you could carry the coins without streching your arm permanently (my case :-)