How Much Gold & Silver?

Spooly

We always talk about Gold and Silver being used as real money. Most think its not possible. Forget about Fiat currencies and government gold reserves. Lets just talk about Gold and Silver Bullion produced by the Global Mints.

I was looking at the US Mint production numbers 1986 to 2012. US Mint Bullion Totals

That is some very big numbers in ASE and AGE's!

Now add in the Canadian Mint, the British Mint the Austrian Mint the South African Mint the Turkish Mint the Chinese Mint....private mints JM and Engelhard ect... (just to many to list) You have a lot of precious metals that could act like real money and circulate as a hard currency.

I just wonder how much bullion is really floating around the globe? (Not counting standard Reserve Gold Bars)

derryb

There's a lot of it and it's not floating around - it's strategically hidden away.

secondrepublic

Yes -- and add to that all of the 90% "junk" silver out there and other countries' old gold & silver coinage, much of which is still around in one form or another, and which is (or was) actual money.

tneig

I get ya. I think its physically possible w adaptations to the amount of coinage, and using mostly silver. I could see a bunch of small coinage like a tiny half sized dime being worth $2, while eliminating much of the small value useless change we have today. But the +/- volatility of value would confuse the everyday buyer and seller, just as it would if we used it right now. So.., they would set a value, and we really don't want them setting a value.

For most, its still much easier to hold a dollar bill, relating it to an item that cost $59 dollars. Thinking deeper if thats possible, it would still be simplier holding that dollar, knowning that its value is only going in one direction.
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We know they are going to do something to drag all this out another 50 years. The dollar will be more devalued and have more competion. They'll take some drastic measures to shore up the system, debt exhange with other nations, and indeed be taking more of what we have in ways you won't be liking! There will be more emoney, and electronic exchanges will come to be the common exchange experience. We'll likely have a money chip on our keyring and wave it pass the sensor at purchase time. 'Dollar' will have no more meaning then 'credit'. How this e-evolution will change things, I really don't know. But its really not that far away from being a money/monitoring chip that keeps track of, and taxes every exchange/barter of goods/services.

So, I think we should keep those PMs in the precious state and separate, esp gold.



<< <i>We always talk about Gold and Silver being used as real money. ....I just wonder how much bullion is really floating around the globe? (Not counting standard Reserve Gold Bars) >>

Spooly

The US Mint has issued 18,946,000 million ounces of Gold Eagles (Not counting Commemorative Gold coins). I will total up Silver and Platinum numbers later.

jmski52

If you really want some perspective, take a look at the amounts of silver dimes, quarters and halves that were issued in 1961 through 1964 (917+ million oz on a 100% basis) and compare it to the amounts that were issued for any other 4 year period prior to that.

Then, compare that number of ounces to the total number of ounces issued for any 4 year period of Silver Eagle production (112+ million oz for 2008-2011). I'm always amazed at how much silver was coined in those years, especially considering that the US population has more than doubled since then.

derryb

By law (thanks to Congressman Paul and others) since 1986, ASEs and AGEs are minted to meet public demand, barring any shortage of available metal. The new law required the nations official supplier of circulating coinage to also become the nation's premier supplier of quality gold and silver bullion.

cladking

<< <i>If you really want some perspective, take a look at the amounts of silver dimes, quarters and halves that were issued in 1961 through 1964 (917+ million oz on a 100% basis) and compare it to the amounts that were issued for any other 4 year period prior to that.

Then, compare that number of ounces to the total number of ounces issued for any 4 year period of Silver Eagle production (112+ million oz for 2008-2011). I'm always amazed at how much silver was coined in those years, especially considering that the US population has more than doubled since then. >>



Those were the days that the government told people what was going on rather
than what they wanted them to know. Now you can't even buy epicac in the drug
store since the government wants to know why you need it (not to mention hospitals
make a lot of money pumping stomachs). One of the things they told us when it became
apparent that silver supplies were running low is that the supplies were running low. It
wasn't like nickel at the LME where they could simply default because they had to make coins
out of something and there were laws that even the government had to obey. When they began
announcing in the early '60's that silver was running low people did what people do and started hoard-
ing silver causing mintages to spike and a coin shortage to grow. There were fundamenbtal and structural
causes for increased coin usage as well but it was largely the insatiable appertite for something there wasn't
enough of; silver.

As proof look at the mintages of cents and nickels after 1964; they plummeted.

I remember stories about a silver shortage at least back in '62 (I think '61).

If we returned to using precious metals in coins coins would be tiny and high denomination. To operate our
economy on metal would require vastly higher prices because the economy is multiples of the size it was in
1964. Population has merely doubled but economic activity is up several fold.

The government couldn't tolerate the ability to move large amounts of money in gold nor the risk to the econ-
omy of counterfeiting. The ship has sailed and unless we return to the dark ages we are going to be stuck
with a fiat system of one sort or another. It would make more sense to simply devise a fiat system that im-
parted real value to currency and try to get politicians who wouldn't gut it or abuse it.

ricko

<< <i>.......and try to get politicians who wouldn't gut it or abuse it. >>

- Aye... there's the rub....not sure how this could be done. Cheers, RickO