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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ray DeMoss who wrote (1668)	10/18/1998 9:01:00 PM
From: Robert Dirks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81112

This is great news. Hats off to the Russians, I hope it will help them. But much more important, this may be the beginning of a trend that could spread, quite possibly to the Asian monetary system. Also of importance is the Russian coins would contain the actual face value in PM's. The asses in Canada sell the one ounce Maple with a $50. Can face value stamped on it. Pure idiocy. Russia may back rouble with gold and silver coins MOSCOW, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Russia is considering minting gold and silver coins from state reserves to back the rouble and help the government honor its crushing financial obligations, a senior official told NTV commercial television on Sunday. Dmitry Ignatyev, deputy head of the state precious metals reserve Gokhran, said the final stage of consultations between Gokhran and the central bank would take place on Monday and the plan could take effect next month. Central bank chairman Viktor Gerashchenko would determine whether or not the project goes ahead, but possible designs for the coins were already being discussed, he said. If the plan gets the green light, the coins could be used as a means of payment and be traded on exchanges, he said. "We are considering backing for the national currency, or more precisely for (rouble) emission, with resources from the reserves of Gokhran," Ignatyev said. Between 100 billion and 200 billion roubles ($6.25 billion and $12.5 billion) worth of the coins could be issued, he said. "I stress that we are talking about possibilities. What will actually happen today from the point of view of regulating the financial situation of Russia we can only entrust to our chief banker Gerashchenko," he said. "In order to back 30-40 billion roubles, we need to mint something like 100 (metric) tons of gold. But now, in the first stage perhaps as an experiment, we may be talking of minting 10-30 tons of gold and silver coins." The Russian government is scrambling for funds to cover a budget deficit estimated at almost 100 billion roubles for the fourth quarter of this year. The central bank says it will not print unbacked roubles. The prospects for borrowing on domestic and international markets are virtually nil following a decision in August to effectively devalue the rouble, default on domestic debt and declare a moratorium on some foreign debt repayments. A subsequent collapse in the banking system has worsened already dismal tax collection rates, but federal tax service chief Georgy Boos told NTV that he hoped to bring in more than 35 billion roubles in the fourth quarter. NTV said the plan to issue gold and silver coins had been amended from an initial version, details of which were published earlier this month in the leading business daily Kommersant. NTV said the nominal value of the coins, in contrast to the initial plan, would correspond to the real value of their precious metal content. "If the coin has 500 roubles written on it, that is the amount of gold it contains," it said.