GOLD - A NEW RECORD!!!

[BHP]

Sell now.

When the "Merde Frappe le Ventilateur" all the gold in the world won't buy you a canteen of water or a can of beans, let alone a decent weapon or some ammo. At least at my house it won't.

I think that is a very short sighted and foolish position to take. Gold has been a universally accepted medium of exchange for all of recorded human history and I don't expect that to change. None of us will ever be able to stock all the gear or consumables we will ever need and to cover all contingencies (unless possibly we are willing to live a very primitive existance) so there will always exist a need for some sort of stable currency. Gold has filled that role longer than anything I can think of.

Look at it this way, lets assume you have a well stocked bunker but one day you break your leg and need medical care. How would you pay for this medical care? I'm sure the doctor would want something more than thanks for fixing your broken leg, how would you pay him? There will always exist some form of currency and precious metals are the safest alternative as they are a compact form of wealth, they are all but universally accepted and they can't be made up out of nothing (like paper currency) so they are stable.

[TRX]

Historicalyl, gold has been used as money because there was a finite supply of it, it was impossible to counterfeit, it was compact and portable, and other than decoration, had no practical value.

Nowadays we sometimes use it as an anti-corrosive coating for electrical contacts and some odd things like coating the visors of spacesuits, but the rest is still basically true.

Here in the USA we think of gold as the basis for money; in most of European history gold was for decoration and silver was for money. The larger supply of silver made it easier to make change in transactions, etc., while the overall supply was still limited.

Paper money originally started as "letters of credit", but gradually people got the idea that the paper itself was the money, and eventually the "credit" part went away.

[sjohnson]

Historicalyl, gold has been used as money because there was a finite supply of it, it was impossible to counterfeit, it was compact and portable, and other than decoration, had no practical value.
...

Considering the ever-increasing production of gold, I don't agree with the finite supply statement. See GOLDSHEET - HISTORICAL WORLD GOLD PRODUCTION to see how worldwide gold production is increasing due to heap-leaching. At this time, we have an ever-increasing supply as well as an increasing dollar price.

I helped design some of the first heap-leach sites. We took over "spent" traditional mine "waste" and extracted the gold traditional methods couldn't reach. Almost pure profit and environmentally beneficial.

[4thIDvet]

Considering the ever-increasing production of gold, I don't agree with the finite supply statement. See GOLDSHEET - HISTORICAL WORLD GOLD PRODUCTION to see how worldwide gold production is increasing due to heap-leaching. At this time, we have an ever-increasing supply as well as an increasing dollar price.

I helped design some of the first heap-leach sites. We took over "spent" traditional mine "waste" and extracted the gold traditional methods couldn't reach. Almost pure profit and environmentally beneficial.

Cool job SJ.. Did they check your pockets when you left work?
Mine would have been full.

[Eugene Onegin]

I worked part time in a jewelry store about thirty years ago and bought a 1.2 oz ,24 kt piece of gold from a supply house ,I paid $400.00 for it and I still have it .

[sjohnson]

Cool job SJ.. Did they check your pockets when you left work?
Mine would have been full.

Gold smuggling was surprisingly common in the mines. I have some samples of ore that show gold, but nothing major. We were subject to random searches on leaving the mines, getting caught meant being fired AND arrested for theft.

I do know of one union steward (Homestake Mine, Teamsters), well-liked by fellow employees, who was given a one ounce gold ring on retirement. The ring was completely made from gold smuggled by fellow employees.

The heap-leach gold is microscopic in size. While it was relatively easy (though risky) to smuggle gold from the Homestake Mine, the only way to do so at a heap-leach site would be to smuggle it out after refining. This would have been a very difficult thing to do because the refining process was done in a highly controlled environment.

Somewhat OT, an interesting fact about "new" gold from mining: you aren't taxed on the gold until you sell it. You could mine a million dollars worth, and sit on it without the gummint ever getting involved.

[TRX]

Considering the ever-increasing production of gold, I don't agree with the finite supply statement

Agreed. What I should have said was something along the line of "the rate of increase in gold accumulation is determined by its profitability", but I was trying to keep things simple.

[o.d. ak]

I think that is a very short sighted and foolish position to take. Gold has been a universally accepted medium of exchange for all of recorded human history and I don't expect that to change. None of us will ever be able to stock all the gear or consumables we will ever need and to cover all contingencies (unless possibly we are willing to live a very primitive existance) so there will always exist a need for some sort of stable currency. Gold has filled that role longer than anything I can think of.

Look at it this way, lets assume you have a well stocked bunker but one day you break your leg and need medical care. How would you pay for this medical care? I'm sure the doctor would want something more than thanks for fixing your broken leg, how would you pay him? There will always exist some form of currency and precious metals are the safest alternative as they are a compact form of wealth, they are all but universally accepted and they can't be made up out of nothing (like paper currency) so they are stable.

And what do you do when you "spend" all of your gold ? You can't possibly hoard enough precious metals to last the rest of your life.

Last time i checked the barter system predated any forms of currency and is still in use today.

[BHP]

Same thing you do when you spend all your money, go broke or earn more. Kind of a dumb question when you think about it.

Barter is great as long as both parties can agree on a medium of exchange. Problem comes in when one party doesn't want what the other has to offer. That's where currency comes into play.

[sjohnson]

Until the other party doesn't want "currency."

Think hyperinflation and the Weimar Republic.