@lermish said:
Though it doesnt make sense to us, I wasnt sure if these foreign adversaries prefer their gold in bar form, or >perhaps gold eagles or buffalos. It doesnt seem out of the realm of possibility for refiners to start melting down >junky pre33 if theres no longer a numismatic premium, but i have little knowledge of the inner workings of the >international gold market.
Not as critical today, but Pre-1933, citizens of other countries wanted our gold coins, especially Double Eagles.
Here's a NY Times article from 1931 talking about how the usual preference for gold bars was augmented with a request for coins/Double Eagles.
This opinion is an informed guess but I don't have any data to back me up and could be totally wrong. That being >said... I don't think any country wants to deal with bags of coins even a little bit. I believe the vast majority is in ingot >form and is shuffled between different storage areas in the same vaults. I also believe on the global scale, the vast >majority of gold movement is on paper.
Bars took off after WWI when we were still on a Gold Exchange Standard. Before that, coins were a good chunk or the majority of the gold settlement trade, more when you went back further in time.
@BillJones said:
what was wrong with K-Rands? I could find only one dealer at the Winter FUN show who would buy them.
I think the fact it it only 0.9167 gold and not a domestic coin probably is why the premium that other coins have has long since faded for the K-Rand. My LCS says he sells only a fraction of the K-Rands that he sold 20 or 30 years ago...and usually Proofs to collectors.
Once upon a time, the Kruggerand was the only modern gold coin regularly produced in volume that was widely available. So many choices today.
@davewesen said:
What percentage of the 90% silver coinage got melted during the Hunt brothers spike?
Actually, not that much though there was damage to collectibles.
A NY Times story I have posted on a thread here noted that the spike to $50 was so sharp and so quick that it didn't last long enough to melt many of the coins, including MSDs and other numismatics. Lots of coins were yanked back from refiners and wholsalers. We're talking about a 80% drop in silver in a few weeks, 50% in a few days.
@BillJones said:
what was wrong with K-Rands? I could find only one dealer at the Winter FUN show who would buy them.
I think the fact it it only 0.9167 gold and not a domestic coin probably is why the premium that other coins have has long since faded for the K-Rand. My LCS says he sells only a fraction of the K-Rands that he sold 20 or 30 years ago...and usually Proofs to collectors.
Once upon a time, the Kruggerand was the only modern gold coin regularly produced in volume that was widely available. So many choices today.
My inference is that the 1984 sanctions (if I have the year correct) changed the perception.
@WCC said:
My inference is that the 1984 sanctions (if I have the year correct) changed the perception.
That didn't help, for sure.
I also think that after a hot decade in the 1970's you had 2 decades following with not much interest in gold or gold coins. Financial assets took off.
Comments
Not as critical today, but Pre-1933, citizens of other countries wanted our gold coins, especially Double Eagles.
Here's a NY Times article from 1931 talking about how the usual preference for gold bars was augmented with a request for coins/Double Eagles.
Bars took off after WWI when we were still on a Gold Exchange Standard. Before that, coins were a good chunk or the majority of the gold settlement trade, more when you went back further in time.
I think the fact it it only 0.9167 gold and not a domestic coin probably is why the premium that other coins have has long since faded for the K-Rand. My LCS says he sells only a fraction of the K-Rands that he sold 20 or 30 years ago...and usually Proofs to collectors.
Once upon a time, the Kruggerand was the only modern gold coin regularly produced in volume that was widely available. So many choices today.
Actually, not that much though there was damage to collectibles.
A NY Times story I have posted on a thread here noted that the spike to $50 was so sharp and so quick that it didn't last long enough to melt many of the coins, including MSDs and other numismatics. Lots of coins were yanked back from refiners and wholsalers. We're talking about a 80% drop in silver in a few weeks, 50% in a few days.
My inference is that the 1984 sanctions (if I have the year correct) changed the perception.
That didn't help, for sure.
I also think that after a hot decade in the 1970's you had 2 decades following with not much interest in gold or gold coins. Financial assets took off.