Archive for the ‘Bar’ tag

13 Things I Bet You Didn’t Know About Gold!

1. Gold and copper were the first two precious metals to be discovered. They were discovered in 5000BC.

2. The production of gold is minimal. Since ancient times, more steel is produced per hour than gold.

3. Gold will not cause skin irritations. So if you are getting a rash from your gold necklace, it is most likely because it is not 100% Gold.

4. Prior to 1912 Olympic gold medals were pure gold. Currently they are not made of pure gold and haven’t been since 1912.

5. Gold melts when it reaches a temperature of 1064.43 centigrade.

6. Scientists believed that almost 80% of the world’s gold is still hidden underground.

7. The largest gold nugget ever found was found by John Deason and Richard Oates of Australia in 1869. The gold nugget weighed an astounding 2248 ounces and it was 10 by 25 inches. The nugget was found only two inches below the earth’s surface.

8. Many believe that gold is an excellent treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. Patients started using it as a treatment after a medical study in France was done in the twentieth century.

9. Gold is edible (although we don’t advise eating large quanties!) and often gold leafs are put in bottles of liquor.

10. A one-ounce gold nugget is harder to find than a five-carat diamond.

11. Within every cubic mile of seawater, it is believed that 25 tons of gold can be found. It is also believed that 10 billion tons of gold can be found in the oceans.

12. Most computers, televisions, cell phones, and other electronic items contain gold.

13. A carat was actually a unit of weight based on the carob bean. It was used by the Middle East’s ancient merchants.

Gold Bar Dispensing ATM Machine in Miami’s South Beach!

Everybody loves gold, but we didn’t know it was accepted everywhere.

An ATM that dispenses actual gold bars is coming to the United States with the German creator’s sights on Florida, CNBC reports.

Unless Orlando’s Mickey Mouse is in the market for some gold buck teeth, the logical destination would be somewhere in Miami, namely South Beach.

We’ve already got vending machines that dispense Bentleys, so why not bullion?

Gold to Go works like your every day ATM, except you don’t get cold hard cash. Customers slide in their credit card or dollar bills and get cold hard bricks of gold.

The machines have been a success in Europe, and now Thomas Geissler wants to expand to the U.S., with stops in Florida and Las Vegas. He said his company will issue about 35 machines in new locations this year.

The weight of the bars range from one gram up to one ounce, and the values are automatically updated every 10 minutes to match international markets. It also spits out gold coins from all over the world.

Geissler hasn’t announced when or where in Florida he will locate his pots of gold, but he might be a couple of decades too late for South Beach style.

Gold chains, teeth and rims are so 1990s. And purses are a bit too small to be carrying the bulky bars around on Ocean Drive.

On the bright side, it has to be harder for the door man to turn down a gold bar bribe to get into the VIP at the club.

Anxiety about economy has cost of gold spiking

NEW YORK — Customers who step into the offices of Heritage West Financial in San Diego have always favored gold as an investment on paper, a place to park their money. But in the past few years, Ralph Weston began to notice a change in his clients’ orders.

They wanted to take the 33-ounce blocks home with them.

“I don’t know what they do with it,” said Weston, a market analyst. “Do they use it as a doorstop or what?”

The price of gold keeps going up, setting records week after week.

Gold rallied to record highs in Europe on Friday, with spot prices knocking on the door of $1,300 an ounce, as expectations grew that further quantitative easing could lead to volatility in the currency markets.

On Thursday it touched yet another new high, trading at $1,296.30 an ounce. Just two years ago, it was trading at about $900.

Low interest rates, a falling dollar and anxiety over holding government debt have prompted investors and central banks alike to buy the metal — something tangible instead of a promise.

To Weston, the gold rush reflects his clients’ diminishing trust in Wall Street and the federal government. Gold has fans in the tea party movement and among viewers of conservative cable-talk host Glenn Beck, who touts it on his show.

In financial circles, analysts credit the rising price of gold to an unlikely duo: investors seeking shelter and central bankers from India, Bangladesh and other developing countries. Both are wary of a falling dollar.

It starts with low interest rates. Central banks usually hold currencies from the world’s largest economies — dollars, pounds and yen — and then invest them in short-term bonds.

At the moment, interest rates in the United States and other developed countries are near record lows. Currencies tend to follow the path of interest rates, so not only do central banks get little return from buying dollars, but they face the prospect of the dollar falling even further. What’s the alternative?

“Historically, gold has been the last thing you sell,” said Francisco Blanch, commodity strategist at Bank of America. And in times of crisis, it tends to rise.

The Federal Reserve played a role in gold’s recent surge when its interest-rate committee hinted at further efforts to lower borrowing rates, said Suki Cooper, a commodity analyst at Barclays in London.

The dollar dropped after the Fed’s announcement, reflecting worries that further moves would raise the risk of inflation. Earlier in the month, gold also got a boost from Bangladesh’s purchase of 10 metric tons from the International Monetary Fund.

It’s the same mix that has pushed gold’s price higher over recent months, analysts said. When currencies or other assets fall, gold tends to go its own way, making it especially appealing to central banks.

Consider:

* Sales of the U.S. Mint’s American Eagle Gold Bullion have soared. In 2005, the mint counted 449,000 ounces sold. The tally so far this year: 922,500 ounces.
* The stash of gold held by exchange-traded funds, which allow investors to buy groups of stocks and trade them like a single investment, is piling up. The 22 funds tracked by Barclays Capital hold a record 2,107 tons. That’s almost a year’s worth of gold mining. Annual production runs around 2,400 tons worldwide.
* China has 2 percent of its reserves in gold, or 1,000 tons, according to Barclays research. To reach 10 percent, a mark some consider ideal, China would need to buy all the gold mined in the world for two years.

To understand gold’s price surge, think of it as shifting between two roles, commodity and currency, said Barclays’ Cooper. When the majority of buyers use gold for jewelry and for filling teeth, it trades like a commodity and is relatively stable. In the 1990s, for instance, it traded between $300 and $400 an ounce. Gold is still well off its inflation-adjusted high. It hit $850 in ounce in 1980, which works out to about $2,250 in today’s dollars.

“Now you need to look at gold as wearing its currency hat,” she said. “It’s a barometer of investors’ concerns over the macroeconomic outlook.”

The move by central banks to diversify their reserves has a massive impact on prices, according to Bank of America’s commodity research team. In a recent report, the researchers called the purchases by Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other developing countries “the new gold rush.”

Bank of America expects to see gold reach $1,500 in the next year. Most scenarios seem to work in gold’s favor, Blanch said. If the economic recovery takes hold and oil prices rise, or even if people expect more inflation, gold goes up, he said. A sharp jump in interest rates could pull many investors and central banks out of gold, he said.

Via: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39334932

Gold Rises to Record on Increased Demand for Wealth Protection

Gold rose to a record in New York and London as investors sought protection against turmoil in the global economy and financial markets. Silver rose to the highest price since March 2008.

Bullion futures climbed as high as $1,279.50 an ounce. The dollar fell to a five-week low against the euro today. The metal usually moves inversely to the U.S. currency. Global holdings of gold by exchange-traded products are up 16 percent this year and this month reached a record, Bloomberg data show.

“People are worried about the European financial system and debt market, and the outlook for the U.S. and global economy,” said Mark O’Byrne, executive director of brokerage GoldCore Ltd. in Dublin. “People are worried about equities, debt, property” and currencies, he said.

Gold, up 16 percent this year, is heading for its 10th consecutive annual gain, the longest winning streak since at least 1920. Bullion has outperformed global equities, Treasuries and most industrial metals, prompting record investments in gold-backed ETPs. The metal reached all-time highs in euros, sterling and Swiss francs in June.

Gold futures for December delivery added $7.10, or 0.6 percent, to $1,275.80 an ounce at 8:51 a.m. on the Comex in New York. Prices surpassed the previous all-time high of $1,276.50 set Sept. 14. Bullion for immediate delivery in London gained as much as 0.8 percent to a record $1,278.02 an ounce and was last at $1,273.10.

Bullion has gained as the MSCI World Index of equities fell 1 percent this year. Copper added 4.1 percent and crude oil is down 5.3 percent. Silver and palladium have outperformed bullion this year. Gold priced in Swiss francs today climbed to the highest level since July 5.

Yen-Dollar

The yen advanced against the dollar today, paring losses from yesterday when Japan’s government intervened for the first time since 2004 to curb gains that threaten an export-led recovery. The greenback slipped as much as 0.8 percent against the euro today.

“The dollar has been weakening and that’s been helping gold,” said Eugen Weinberg, head of commodity research at Commerzbank AG. “Investors are looking for a safe haven.”

The Federal Reserve has kept its main interest rate at a record low to stimulate the economy. The central bank last month resumed direct purchases of Treasuries, also known as quantitative easing. The Fed first resorted to buying bonds as part of its response to the world financial crisis.

Quantitative Easing

Economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. expect the Fed to announce as early as November a new round of asset purchases to support a weak economy. Treasury purchases may total about $1 trillion in another round of quantitative easing, according to Jan Hatzius, chief U.S. economist for Goldman Sachs.

“Gold has recently been driven notably by the perceived increasing probability of a new round of quantitative easing in the U.S.,” said Anne-Laure Tremblay, a London-based analyst at BNP Paribas SA. “Quantitative easing tends to be supportive of asset prices and is fuelling concerns about the potential longer-term inflationary impact of such measures.”

Still, bullion has gained this year even as U.S. inflation slowed. The metal is traditionally bought as a hedge against rising consumer prices. Inflation expectations, based on the 10-year U.S. Treasury breakeven rate, have fallen to 1.78 percent from 2.25 percent six months ago.

Silver for December delivery in New York added as much as 1.1 percent to $20.795 an ounce, the highest price since March 2008. The metal was last at $20.725, taking its yearly gain to 23 percent.

Global holdings of silver by ETPs gained 45.8 metric tons to 13,211.9 tons yesterday, according to Bloomberg data from four providers. That’s the highest in at least seven months.

Platinum for October was 0.4 percent higher at $1,611.50 an ounce after yesterday reaching $1,613.50, the highest level since June 21. Palladium for December rose 0.7 percent to $563.50 an ounce. The metal earlier today reached $564.55, the highest price since April 27.

Via: bloomberg.com

Gold ATM Machine