Life of Adventure

In today’s world of global uncertainty, one thing remains certain: gold coins. Gold bullion coins continue to outperform traditional vehicles the same way gold coins and bars outperformed everything under the sun during the 1970′s. By holding gold coins in one’s portfolio, you dramatically reduce the overall risk of your portfolio. Just by having some gold coins as part of your strategy, you also allow the price of gold, as it increases, to bring up the value of your portfolio.

It is much easier to buy gold today than it was 30 years ago. Gold bullion coins are easily bought and sold with the click of a mouse. Not only is it easier to buy gold, but gold investments are exploding onto the investment scene like never before. In fact, gold coin sales by the U.S. mint in recent months have outpaced the gold coin sales of the prosperous-for-gold 1970′s. Despite this recent fact, the gold price is just beginning its increase.

As gold coins become more scarce, quite naturally, investors covet the yellow shiny metal at an ever increasing rate. The type of gold coins sought after by investors who follow the price of gold are American Gold Eagles, Canadian Gold Maple Leafs, South African Gold Kruggerands, Australian Gold Kangaroos, Chinese Gold Pandas, and Austrian Gold Philharmonics. These are the most popular gold coins available to investors who want profit potential and protection. The benefit to owning these gold bullion coins is four-fold.

1. You get immediate liquidity. This means you can sell your gold bullion coins at or near the gold price at any time, anywhere in the world.

2. You are in control. A strong gold investment is an investment in certainty. Knowing you have gold coins in your possession that you can rely on makes a world of difference to one’s sense of financial well-being.

3. There is tremendous profit potential with gold bullion coins, more so than just about every other vehicle out there. It matters not whether you hold American Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, South African Kruugerands, or any other type of these gold bullion coins, they will provide a well positioned investment portfolio an increased probability of profitability.

4. Last but not least, gold bullion coins provide economic safety and stability in a world increasingly plagued with uncertainty and dangers.

Those are some of the “pros” of owning gold bullion coins. There is more that a first-time purchaser of gold coins should be aware of; the “other side of the coin,” so to speak. If you own American Eagles, Canadian maple leafs, South African Kruugerands, Austrian Philharmonics, Chinese Pandas, or Australian Kangaroos, they are subject to confiscation by the federal government. In 1933 Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order which required U.S. citizens to turn in all gold bullion coins produced by the U.S. mint, as well as any gold coins and bars produced by foreign governments. Our country, in that period was in the peak of a crisis: the dollar was in trouble, smart investors were getting out of stocks and bonds, and unemployment was on the rise. This period was the great depression. The consequence of not turning in your gold bullion coins or gold bullion bars was a huge fine and jail. If you buy gold bullion coins today, like the American Eagle, the U.S. mint prints a $50 denomination on the back of the coin. Why? Because if the government were to confiscate gold bullion coins like they did in the 1930′s, you would only receive the $50 denomination value, despite the current price of gold in the market, whether that price be $500, $1000, or even $2000. The chance of such Federal government confiscation is universally deemed as unlikely.

Also gold bullion transactions are reportable to the IRS. We will also cover in detail the type of gold transactions that are not reportable, private gold, momentarily.

Also important to recognize is that as the price of gold fluctuates, so does the value of gold bullion coins.

Nevertheless, despite these contingencies, asset managers all over the country are recommending allocating at least some portion of an investment portfolio to gold. Prices are on the rise, in what analysts have termed a long-running bull market which is just in its beginning stages

PRIVATE AND NON-CONFISCATEABLE GOLD COINS

Investors naturally gravitate to gold investment vehicles where they can expect the greatest return with the smallest amount of risk. In the physical gold market certified gold coins reign supreme. Certified gold coins are the gold coins minted by the US Mint befor the year 1933. $20 Saint Gaudens, $20 Liberty, $10 Indian, $10 Liberty, $5 Indian, $5 Liberty and $2.5 Liberty gold coins are all examples of the most profitable gold coins an investor can acquire for several reasons.

1. Certified gold coins have a limited mintage. The government can not go back and mint any more of these gold coins. You want to own gold coins that continue to go up because of this fact year after year regardless of what the gold price does. Because of their limited availability these gold coins can surpass the gains seen by gold bullion 2 to 5 times.

2. Certified gold coins are also one of the last legally private assets the government allows you to acquire. World Financial and goldcoinsgain.com are not required to ask for a social security number when you buy gold coins or when you sell gold coins.

3. Non-confiscatable. Certified gold coins are exempt from confiscation. Certified gold coins are exempt from confiscation if the government decided to confiscate gold like they did in between 1933 and the early 1970s. You were in a world of hurt during those almost 40 years of you were holding the wrong kind of gold coins. So you can rest assured your certified gold will do what its supposed to do under the most strenuous conditions — protect your money.

4. Immediate liquidity. World Financial is a major market maker in certified gold coins and will assist in converting your gold coins back into cash on a moments notice.

In addition to the advantages listed above, certified gold coins are also more stable than bullion gold coins. The value of a certified coin is not solely determined by what the spot price of gold does. In fact, certified gold provides more stability than the stock market, bond market, or just leaving your money in cash. So if you are tired of having to worry about the current economic environment you may want to consider diversifying out of riskier vehicles into an asset that has stood the test of time.

Portability is also something you should keep in mind when selecting which type of gold coins are right for you. To put things in perspective, you could carry one million dollars worth of certified gold coins in an attaché case. This should give you a sense of comfort knowing that you have acquired an asset that is completely portable and discreetly portable.

IRA AND 401′s BACKED BY GOLD COINS

Gold Coins backing your IRA or 401k rollover makes the perfect diversification asset in today’s uncertain economic environment. Gold coins can be added to your retirement strategy in just a few easy steps.

Step 1. Determine what portion of your retirement account you would like to convert over into gold coins.

Step 2. Print out the one page Gold Coin IRA Setup Form and fill out to the best of your ability. Fax the form into our retirement account department at (818) 506-6597.

Step 3. A Gold Coin Customer Service representative will contact you in a very short amount of time to confirm and guarantee the availability of your gold coins. We then work with your existing custodian to get the appropriate funds transferred over into your new self-directed IRA, backed by physical gold coins.

American eagle bullion gold coins are one of the most popular gold coins allowed by the IRS for your precious metal IRA. American eagle bullion gold coins come in 1 ounce, 1/2 ounce, 1/4 ounce, and 1/10 ounce denominations. These gold bullion coins are guaranteed by the US Mint for purity, weight and size. The Gold American Eagle bears the “W” mint mark reflecting the gold coin was struck at the US Mint at West Point. The obverse of the American eagle bullion gold coin features Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ full-length figure of Liberty with flowing hair, holding a torch in her hand and an olive branch in her other hand. On the other side of the gold coin a male eagle carries an olive branch as he flies above a nest containing a female eagle and her eaglets. Each gold coin is encapsulated in plastic and comes with a custom designated Certificate of Authenticity.

American Eagle Proof gold coins are also available. The proof gold coins are more desired because each year they are produced by the US Mint in a limited quantity. Each proof gold coin is struck several times with a special die to create a more lustrous finish. Because of the limited quantity, investors will typically prefer these gold coins for their retirement accounts. Weather we are talking about gold coins or widgets whenever there is a limited amount naturally prices increase faster and become more valuable. The American Eagle Proof gold coins are also exempt from confiscation. A lot of investors like knowing they have the type of gold coins backing their retirement account that are not subject to confiscation by the Federal government.

gold panning equipment

“ …It is, in short, the only unquestioned and generally acceptable means of payment among nations, as dollars are the only unquestioned and generally acceptable means of payment among Americans, francs among Frenchmen, sterling among the British, and so on.”

Peter Bernstein, ‘A Primer on Money, Banking and Gold.’

Peter Bernstein is no gold bug. Rather, he is one of the world’s foremost authorities on capital markets and economics. A Primer on Money, Banking and Gold was first written in 1965, when gold was still the international currency. It is our contention that in the years ahead, gold will once again resume that role.

Prior to 1971, gold was effectively the commodity with which international payments were made. The flow of gold into and out of countries said more about a nations’ economic health than anything else. Indeed, the outflow of gold from the US in the late 1960s ultimately triggered President Nixon’s decision to suspend gold convertibility. In a fateful decision, the global financial system’s link to sound money was broken.

Ever since, the world has been on a US dollar standard, a monetary system where only one country has the benefit of borrowing and repaying debt in its own currency. In order for this system to prosper, the true international currency, gold, needs to be discredited. We believe gold has been held down for many years in order to allow the US dollar based international financial system to survive. But the official grip on the gold price is beginning to weaken, perhaps this time for good.

The smart money knows this and is beginning to move into gold. There is a silent gold rush taking place all around the world. Investors who understand gold’s role as an international currency are selling their surplus paper dollars and buying the yellow metal. This has led to unprecedented demand for bullion and coin dealers everywhere are struggling to meet this demand.

The Australian newspaper reported over the weekend that the Perth Mint is not taking any more orders for gold until January. Our guess is that the Mint does not want to expose itself to higher future prices given that it does not have the inventory to meet the demand for bullion. In a recent report, The World Gold Council said investment demand for the September quarter was $10.7 billion, double last year’s quarterly total.

Yet the price of gold in US dollars has been under pressure and gold producers have little incentive to increase output at these price levels. Even in Australian dollars, the price of gold is not high enough to encourage increased production. According to Bloomberg, Australian gold production was down 8% in the third quarter.

Strong demand and weak supply should be creating much higher prices. One explanation as to why this is not happening relates to the short term impact of hedge funds selling gold to meet investor redemptions. However, we do not see this as a major cause. Hedge funds are more likely to deal in gold futures rather than physical gold. We will discuss the futures market in a moment.  

More ominously, we believe central banks and bullion banks (basically large international banks) are attempting to keep the price of gold down to reflect the ‘strength’ of the US dollar monetary system the world has operated under since 1971. This theory has been convincingly argued for many years by the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) in the US.

In summary, the argument is that central banks loan or lease gold to the bullion banks, who then sell the gold on the spot market and invest the proceeds in higher yielding treasury securities, earning a positive spread and easy money. In this way, central bank gold holdings are monetised and the proceeds are reinvested back into US government debt. More importantly, the additional supply of gold coming onto the market from the vaults of the central banks helps keep the price down.

Central bank officials certainly deny that they lease gold in order to keep the price low. Their explanation is that they simply lease gold to earn a small return on an asset that does not pay interest.

This is an ingenuous argument. Gold is an insurance policy – a wealth protector not a wealth generator. The benefit of earning a tiny return is more than offset by the risk of losing control over a country’s gold reserves. This fact will soon become painfully obvious to a number of countries.

The gold leasing and carry trade has in effect created a huge short position in the gold market. That is, the loaned gold must be paid back at some point. So central banks have considerable counter-party risks as they are relying on banks to repay the gold loaned to them.

How much gold is loaned out? That is an impossible question to answer, as there are no requirements for central banks to disclose this information. According to IMF (International Monetary Fund) accounting standards, central banks can include swapped or leased gold as a part of their official reserves, a practice that would lead to double counting of gold. So there is a decent likelihood that some of the world’s official gold reserves are not safely stored away, but have instead been leased and sold on the spot market.

This is certainly the contention of GATA and others. Recent efforts to obtain an updated audit of the US’ official gold reserves, stored mainly in Fort Knox, Kentucky, have been met with silence by the authorities. Despite the gold being the property of the US public, the facility is completely off limits and no official tours are conducted. Conversely, tourists and US citizens alike can see foreign central bank gold held in custody at the New York Federal Reserve in Manhattan.

If the market for physical gold is confusing and opaque, then so is the market for gold futures. The futures market is a way for investors, or more correctly, speculators, to gain exposure to the gold price without owning the physical metal. And futures provide leverage.

For example, the active futures contract at the moment is the December contract. One contract represents 100 ounces of gold. So the buyer of one December contract at US$820/oz will pay the seller US$82,000 in exchange for 100 ounces of gold. In practice though, most contracts are settled with cash rather than delivery of the physical metal.

There are increasing rumours that the COMEX, the exchange that runs the gold futures market, does not have the required physical metal should buyers of the contracts demand bullion as payment instead of cash. This is not surprising, as many of the players on the futures market are hedge funds. Such speculators look to capture leveraged price moves rather than buy contracts to receive physical delivery. 

The ‘open interest’ in the gold futures market reflects the amount of activity in gold futures and since peaking in early 2008, the amount of contracts ‘open’ have declined considerably.

Part of the decline obviously reflects lower participation from the hedge fund players. More importantly though, we believe the decline in open interest represents investor distrust in the exchange to deliver on its promises of gold delivery. If you really want to own bullion, why buy a futures contract? In the past, the gold futures price led the spot gold price. If participation in the futures exchange continues to decline, we wonder how long this will continue. 

Given the anecdotal evidence of physical accumulation around the world, we sense that investors large and small are beginning to wake up to the fact that the days of the US dollar as the world’s sole reserve currency are numbered. The fiat money experiment that began in August 1971 is drawing to a close.

Not that anyone in an official capacity wants to recognise this. In a recent meeting of the House Financial Services Committee in the US, Republican Senator Ron Paul asked Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke whether central bankers ever discussed gold in the context of a new international monetary system. Bernanke’s response was to the effect that they only discuss gold in terms of how much they plan to sell.

If this is true, the trade by central banks has so far been a poor one. Central bank sales (separate from the leasing of gold discussed earlier) have been co-ordinated since the Washington Gold Agreement was signed in 1999.

The agreement was precipitated by Gordon Brown, the country’s then chancellor, selling half of England’s gold reserves in 1999. The fact that Brown inexplicably advertised the government’s move prior to the sales saw the gold price plummet and threaten the gold mining industry, so a formalised gold selling agreement was put into place.

The first agreement, from 1999-2004, stipulated that the 11 member nations of the new euro, plus a few other European nations, limit their gold sales to 400 tonnes per year, or not more than 2000 tonnes over five years. The countries signed a second agreement in September 2005, limiting sales to 500 tonnes per year, or not more than 2500 tonnes in total.

There are a few points to note about these agreements. Firstly, the sales represent supply over and above annual production and the gold price has increased considerably since the agreements began. There is now less than one year left in the second agreement and sales in the first four years have all been under the 500 tonne limit. Evidence to date suggests that sales in the final year will be well down on the proposed limit, as banks decide to hold onto their remaining gold.

The fact that central bank sales have added supply to the market while the gold price has continued to rise over the past 9 years suggests the unfolding bull market is a powerful one. While unelected officials sell their citizens’ gold wealth, individuals are taking matters into their own hands and buying the gold back. We believe this will prove a great trade for the individual, and a poor one for the central banks, with major ramifications.

IMPORTANT: This message, together with the Fat Prophets website and all its contents have been prepared for general information only, and as such, the specific needs, investment objectives or financial situation of any particular user have not been taken into consideration. Individuals should therefore talk with their financial planner or advisor before acting on any information present on this message or the Fat Prophets website. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance, and investors should be aware that returns can be negative. For a full explanation of the performance calculation methodology, please visit the Fat Prophets website.               

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