Citibank has stated that Venezuela could sell gold reserves to raise funds for the struggling country. David B. Wilson and Aakash Doshi wrote the report.

“Cash-strapped nations could trigger further downside price risk as the temptation to sell gold reserves mounts,” the analysts said in the Aug. 18 report. “Venezuela is one such country at risk.”  Crude oil prices have hurt Venezuela, which receives over 95% of its export revenues from oil.

Earlier this year the country did sell off some of its gold reserves. In March Venezuela was declared a National Security threat by President Obama. With new sanctions on certain officials, China would no longer be able to fund Venezuela. And so Reuters reported that Venezuela’s central bank was in talks of creating a gold swap to monetize $1.5 billion of the metal. That caused the gold price to fall. Venezuela leader Hugo Chavez had put most of the country’s money into gold.

A storm is brewing on the global level. In recent weeks the world has seen numerous nation-states plagued by economic turmoil. China, Greece, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and others have had a taste that the global crisis which shocked the world in 2008 was not in the past. Rather, it remained in the present, as well.  The Chinese stock market crashed, and its the second largest stock market in the world.  Pundits wondered – could the same happen in the US. 

Read More

Gold antiquities looted from China were returned by a French billionaire after a long effort by Beijing to recoup pillaged art. The antiquities were purchased by billionaire luxury tycoon François Pinault. The four gold heads of prey birds are worth €1 million (£710,000). Mr Pinault, owner of brands from Gucci to Saint Laurent, donated the 7th century BC solid gold works to Paris’s Guimet museum of Asian art  15 years ago.

It was soon discovered the antiquities were stolen in 1992 from the tomb of a noble of the Zhou dynasty in Gansu province. China says the birds of prey were pillaged amid a wave of thefts in the early-to-mid nineties by farmers in the western state of Qins. A corrupt civil servant apparently smuggled the antiques out of China and Mr Pinault bought the birds of prey unsuspectingly.

Chinese authorities filed a complaint 10 years ago, but discreetly maintained they wanted a diplomatic restitution. Art Newspaper reported in April that Mr Pinault handed the four birds of prey heads to the Chinese embassy in Paris and did not ask for compensation.

Another collector,  Christian Deydier, returned 28 other artefacts. China promotes the repatriation of pillaged works, putting pressure on auction houses to cancel sales of items and even buying them via a corporate offshoot of the people’s Liberation Army, the China Poly Group. China  has a big thirst for gold as the world’s largest consumer of gold.

Photo: Rex Features. 

The gold mining industry has seen $2 billion in projects completed through the first five months of this year, twice 2014’s pace. This points towards that the precious metals industry, despite stagnant prices, remains stalwart amid decreasing demand at the numerous retail levels.

In the first quarter 2015, Paris asset manager Carmignac Gestion purchased 11.65 million shares of Goldcorp. “The perception that mining equities show good value is starting to spread,” according to Hedley Widdup, a fund manager at Melbourne-based Lion Selection Group. “Since the start of this year, there has definitely been a change in sentiment.”

Thomson Reuter’s GFMS holds a $1,170 price target per ounce for this year, with a 2016 forecast of $1,250. “We felt that finally it looked as though you might be able to pick up projects,” said Marc Prefontaine, Chief Executive of Canadian gold miner Orla Mining.

Annual gold mine production grew for the sixth straight year in 2014, increasing 2% to a record 4,114.4 tons. Mine production grew 2%  to 729.2 tons in Q1 2015.  The price decline in precious metals had undermined the bottom line for miners. Demand for gold has fallen across sectors, from technological applications to dental gold.  Overall Jewelry consumption fell 6.7% in Q1 2015 compared to Q1 2014, while retail purchases of physical bars and coins has decreased 17% compared with one year prior.

In the US, physical gold demand declined 6% compared to the same period in 2014 – the lowest level of physical gold demand since Q1 2007. This includes a decline of 13% in retail investment demand, accounting for 31% of US demand during the period.

There are many inherent risks to gold exploration and mining, such as political conflicts, environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unexpected geological conditions, labor force disruptions, unavailability of supply and so on and so forth. Despite all of this, there remains strong demand to tap into this market in consideration of global financial and economic volatility. The GFMS prediction of $1,250 reflects this sentiment.

“There has been more interest from generalists at the broker conferences for meetings,” said David Harquail, Chief Executive of gold royalty company Franco-Nevada Corp. “Often these generalists have no positions in the gold sector.”

“I don’t think commodity prices are going to dramatically go up from here, but I do think that the individual companies’ ability to cut costs will differentiate their performance,” he said. In the gold sector, he favors South Africa’s AngloGold Ashanti.

“There is recognition that there is value in the sector and the market is starting to sense that the companies are better managed now,” said Joseph Forster, portfolio manager at Van Eck.

At the end of last week, BitGold announced it raised $17 million in a deal that began as a $14.8 million offering. This deal is one of many in recent months which has put the company at the forefront of the financial press. Alongside the millions in recently raised capital, BitGold founder Joshua Crumb has stated the company strives to be public and operating in the US by the end of the year.

“Post our acquisition of GoldMoney and the institutional raise, we are taking steps for both main board listing on the TSX as well as a US listing strategy,” co-founder and chief strategy officer Joshua Crumb said. “We would like to be listed and offering services in the US later in the year.” Crumb also stressed how BitGold is different from other online gold platforms; namely, the platform allows investors to buy gold within 1% of real-time prices.

“We built our own exchange to get the best price possible and reduced settlement from a couple of days to instantly,” Crumb said.

In an exclusive interview with James Turk, which only appears in Jeff Berwick’s TDV Paid Newsletter,  Jeff Berwick discussed GoldMoney’s merger/acquisition with BitGold with founder of GoldMoney, James Turk. In the interview, Turk gives interesting insights into why he went forward with the deal, and the benefits of the deal for GoldMoney clients.

Turk has 40 years of experience in international banking, finance and investments, having begun his career at Chase Manhattan Bank.  In 2001, Turk co-founded GoldMoney and remains a director of the group today.

In the interview, Turk mentions that GoldMoney will now enjoy additional regulatory overview since it is a part of BitGold, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Venture Exchange. GoldMoney customers will enjoy the same operation as before, yet with the addition of new products offered by BitGold.

“Technology is evolving rapidly and BitGold is in the forefront of this evolution with Aurum, which represents the latest developments in software and hardware to conduct online financial services efficiently, safely and securely,” Turk tells Berwick. “The services made available by BitGold also enables GoldMoney shareholders to continue pursuing their original vision, to return gold to the center of global commerce by enabling the circulation of digital gold currency.”  Turk tells Berwick that, with GoldMoney’s long history, and BitGold’s new technology in Aurum, the two companies are complementary.

“GoldMoney brings critical mass and 15 years of experience, and BitGold brings technology and a management team with a clear vision of what GoldMoney had always set out to achieve as its long-term goal, the circulation of digital gold currency (DGC).” There are also new products planned by BitGold and GoldMoney.

“These include a plastic debit card that enables customers to spend their gold balance at any traditional point of sale, where credit/debit cards are accepted, or to withdraw local currency from any traditional ATM,” Turk says. “Also, there will soon be a mobile application for iPhone, Android and Blackberry, allowing full dealing and payments capabilities.”

“In addition to the 400-ounce, kilo and 100-gram bars available through GoldMoney, customers can take delivery of GoldMoney Cubes or BitGold Cubes in as little as 10 gram increments.” The rest of the interview is available by clicking here and subscribing to the TDV Newsletter.

With Greece inching closer to a default, and European partners putting pressure on the southern Greek nation, Greeks have pulled money out of banks to the tune of 2 billion euros this week. Alongside this trend, we see an increasing interest in the precious metals sector, as well as the crypto-currency sector, on Google Trends.

Gold, too, has seen a spike in interest.

And, finally, Bitcoin, which last saw a spike in interest in 2013, has also seen an increase in interest.

The People’s Bank of China has tripled its gold stockpile since 2009, according to the Bloomberg Intelligence report, while, in the meantime, sales of previously owned US homes increased in March to the highest mark since September 2013, according to the National Association of Realtors. The BlackRock CEO has called art and real estate a better store of value than gold. Who is right?

Bloomberg Intelligence estimates the nation’s gold stockpile to be 3,510 metric tonnes, second to the US’s 8,133.5 tonnes. Read More

As is made clear in the above announcement, GoldSilver, owned by well-known sound money proponent Mike Maloney, has begun accepting Bitcoin for gold and silver. While not the first bitcoin-to-bullion vendor, GoldSilver’s Maloney has made it clear he supports Bitcoin. He was brought to the coin very much the same way many other precious metals investors were – via Trace Mayer.

It’s not only Mike Maloney accepting Bitcoin now, but also Peter Schiff, who also recently began accepting Bitcoin for gold and silver.

Mike Maloney is perhaps best known for his popular YouTube series, The Hidden Secrets Of Money. For that series, click here.

Many countries are asking for their gold back from the United States. Is this a symptom of a declining empire or merely a matter of convenience for those nations asking for their gold back?

The United States has held onto much of Europe’s gold since the post-World War II period due to perceived stability on the North American continent. Read More

The mainstream is alit with stories covering gold and silver now that each has fallen through any semblance of resistance.  CNBC is leading the charge, having published six stories in the 24 hours preceding 4:30pm PST on Tuesday. The six stories are as follows:

What caused the ‘Vomiting Camel’ pattern in gold?

Gold edges up from 4-year low as dollar rally pauses

Here’s the tragic irony of the gold bubble: Pro

Read More

Alibaba Group had a huge debut with its shares beginning to trade at $92.70, up over 36% from its IPO price of $68.  That increase on the New York Stock Exchange raised the company’s total market value from $168 billion to over $220 billion. Alibaba had raised $21.8 billion in its hotly anticipated IPO, the largest in US history, dwarfing Facebook Inc’s IPO.

The price of bitcoin has fallen from its $513 price of one month ago to as low as $381.17 on Friday. This week alone the crypto-asset fell from $513 to $381. Read More

Ron Paul certainly made an impact on US history.

And so we decided at GoldSilverBitcoin to create a list of some poignant Ron Paul quotes on some important targets. So, without further ado, here they are: Read More

Bitcoin has proven itself as an established payments system, with some of the world’s most influential people commenting on its utility and innovation. Stephen Colbert called it “gold for nerds,” and Joe Rogan has been fascinated by the technology, having Andreas Antonopoulos on as a guest to the Joe Rogan Experience twice now. Some political figures have expressed concerns over the currency’s potential non-crime of “money laundering”, but overall the sentiment has focused on the technology and its goundbreaking nature. And so its really no surprise that many companies have adopted bitcoin. Bitcoin has now surpassed Western Union in total transaction volume and looks set to pass Paypal this year.

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[heading]Ecuador Transfers Gold To Goldman Sachs For Cash[/heading]

Ecuador’s transfer of over half its known gold reserves to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for three years, in order open up cash for the South American nation, will see the central bank sending 466,000 ounces of gold to Goldman Sachs, worth approximately $580 million at current price levels. The nation expects to get the same amount back three years from now in exchange for the cash. Ecuador, in return, will receive “instruments of high security and liquidity” and anticipates to earn a profit of $16 million to  $20 million over the three years for lending her gold.

The central bank did not detail additional terms of the transactions, including feeds or financing costs paid to Goldman Sachs. Five years ago Ecuador defaulted on $3.2 billion in bonds. The recent move with Goldman Sachs comes as the South American nation must meet a budget deficit of approximately $4.94 billion. In April, President Rafael Correa said he planned to sell approximately $700 million of foreign debt this year in the country’s first international bond sale since Ecuador’s 2008 and 2009 default. Read More

[heading]Why Did The US Mint Lift Its Rationing Of American Silver Eagles?[/heading]

On Friday the US Mint announced it would stop rationing its popular American Silver Eagle bullion coins due to falling investment demand.

The Mint began rationing the American Silver Eagles last year due to sustained demand but recently told its authorized dealers they could buy as many Silver Eagles as they wish starting Monday.

The US Mint has been rationing coin sales to its authorized dealers since late January, 2013 following a suspension due to unprecedented demand, which depleted silver coin blanks. Read More

[heading]Young People Would Rather Bank With Google Or Amazon Than Big Banks[/heading]

Originally appeared at Ounce.Me – the home of the Pizza/BTC ratio

While people would traditionally go in and meet face-to-face with a bank teller, as we’ve all done, there’s a new gig in town: self-checkout.

Today, lines are forming for self-checkout banking. Only this process is much easier than the self-checkout of the grocery store because it’s online. And it’s not just bitcoin that is attempting to get the job done.

Young people are gravitating towards a world in which the bank-tellers chair behind the glass is vacant, meaning no need for actual bank branches. As Buzzfeed’s Matt Zeitlin states, “more Minority Report than It’s A Wonderful Life.” Read More

[heading]What Were On Those 500,000 Acres In New Mexico Obama Just Made A National Monument Anyway?[/heading]

Barack Obama just made the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks region the largest national monument created during his presidency.

On Wednesday the President signed a proclamation to turn half-a-million New Mexico acres into a national monument protected from development.

And so now the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument now represents the largest national monument created under the Obama Administration, twice the size of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, which is also in New Mexico. Read More

[heading]Americans Prefer Gold Over Bitcoin[/heading]

It should come as no surprise that Americans choose gold over bitcoin, as there is a long history of gold in human civilization. And bitcoin has only been around five years…

Nearly half of US citizens know what bitcoin is. Still, only 13% would choose to invest in bitcoin over gold as an investment vehicle, according to a new survey.

The poll of 2,039 adults 18 and over was conducted by Harris Interactive along with a financial management company named Yodlee. Read More

[heading]Despite Ukrainian Chaos, Kiev Still Wants Gold[/heading]

Allegedly one month ago, under the cover of darkness, Ukraine put its gold reserves onto a plane and shipped them to the US for safekeeping. (they should have asked Germany first about this)

Though this story is not confirmed, amid the chaos in Ukraine, the gold market keeps coming up. And for good reason…

Sure, Ukraine owes Russia massive gas debts and sizeable bond maturities pending. Nevertheless, the first thing Ukraine will spend its International Monetary Fund loan on is gold…one billion dollars worth of gold, in fact. This is a continuation of a trend in Ukraine. Read More

The US government doesn’t want people in so-called “high-risk” industries to have access to the banking system.

This includes everyone from gun shop owners, to bitcoiners to marijuana dispensaries and even porn stars!

But what the Department of Justice is overlooking is the simple fact that people will turn to gold, silver and bitcoin instead of the banking system. Bitcoin does not discriminate. Read More

[heading]Gold Price Lower After Easter Holiday[/heading]

After a price rise and signs of bullishness, gold has fallen to a two-and-a-half-week low due to thin trading after the Easter Holiday.

Gold’s price was hurt in part by technical selling after it could not hold the $1,300 an ounce level with many people foreseeing a bottom at $1,280.

“One aspect is that the market is pretty thin today and liquidity is going to be constrained,” said Victor Thianpiriya, an analyst at ANZ. Read More

[heading]Secession Movements & Precious Metals[/heading]

The winds of independence are blowing throughout the world, and nothing could be better for our future. This host of succession movements is sweeping over the world, from Crimea to Venice to the US and has major implications for the future of life on earth.

WHY?

One common thread between governments is wanton printing by central banks. Part of the reason why the US has done so well since the 2008 banking nadir has everything to do with the fact other central banks are printing just as much or more of their own currencies. What does this mean? It means that these countries’ currencies are growing weaker in relation to assets like real estate, precious metals, minerals and other commodities and resources. But, since the price of these resources and commodities are tied to paper “ETF” products, their prices are fundamentally distorted anyway. Read More

[heading]Bitcoin Responds To Its Environment, Gold Has Not…Yet[/heading]

I like Bitcoin and I like gold.

But as late, gold has not behaved as one would expect gold to. Of course, that gold has been so tied to the paper markets via GLD, has probably helped this.

Bitcoin has yet to weighed down so.

Read More

[heading]Banked & Poor: The Lose-Lose of Checkings & Savings[/heading]

As John Cheese at Cracked.com put it: “Being poor is like a game of poker where if you lose, the other players get to fuck you. And if you win, the dealer fucks you.” Read More

[heading]Gold & A Storm of Data Heading The Market’s Way[/heading]

With a storm of data heading the markets’ way, things should be volatile in the coming days. Gold has reflected just this in early trading.

Gold persisted on with its blazing Friday performance on Monday, increasing in overnight (Sun-Mon) trading from $1235-$1256 by 12:45pm (EST), in part based upon a factory employment drop last month to the lowest in nearly four years. This despite an increase in manufacturing. Read More

[heading]A Confiscatory Redenomination of Gold[/heading]

The world has entered into a neo-soviet situation, where prices are fixed just as they were in the Soviet Union. The quicker you come to understand this, the quicker you’ll come to understanding why gold is where it is today.

If you want to better understand the evolution of the gold price in the 21st century, looking towards the Soviet example could help. Read More

[heading]Gold’s Biggest Quarterly Drop Since 1968: A Farce Or Sign of Times?/heading]

Gold and silver prices have hit their lowest points since August 2010.  But, are investors and pundits looking at all the wrong indicators? It wouldn’t be surprising if they were, thus leading to liquidation spurred by manipulation and more liquidation. It is the Ivy league types who have buried precious metals under a mirage of arbitrary data points. Read More

Get Your Gold Out of Dodge With Bitcoin

From my time working at a walk in precious metals dealer one of the questions that I remember coming up with relative frequency is what do I do with the metals? How do I store it? Should I keep it at home or in a safety deposit box? These questions were, for the most part, easy to answer as you could present the customer with three quick options for their storage and let them decide which would be the best. On the other hand, the question that never came with a quick simple answer was always, “how do I get my gold out of the country?”

The presumably intentional vague regulation put out by U.S Customs reads like this;

“There is no duty on gold coins, medals or bullion but these items must be declared to a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer. Please note a FinCEN 105 form must be completed at the time of entry for monetary instruments over $10,000. This includes currency, ie. gold coins, valued over $10,000. The FINCEN definition of currency: The coin and paper money of the United States or any other country that is (1) designated as legal tender and that (2) circulates and (3) is customarily accepted as a medium of exchange in the country of issuance.”

As mentioned before, the regulation is conveniently vague because it does not say whether the $10,000 value will be assessed by the face value of the coin, in the case of the American Gold Eagle this would mean that every ounce of gold has the value of $50 USD, or the market value of the gold, being around $1565.00 currently. Either way it is not a value that you want to be assessed by the U.S’s elite and respected TSA force.

People even come up with rather ingenious ways to circumvent the system. I can remember one of my customers devising a plan to take a cruise ship down to a location that he was expatriating to because he said that customs inspections on cruise ships were not as thorough as they were by flight. Still other customers would talk about taking the gold out of the country in increments or to make the gold into jewelry so as to avoid the customs declaration.

All of these ideas are viable options but they remind me of various scenes from the movie Deer Hunter as all these options, if done enough, will lead to the same disastrous wealth confiscation by the proper authorities.

Ah but what about Bitcoin? The great thing about Bitcoin is, as of now, there are no foolish laws that tell you that you must declare them. More importantly there is no way of knowing that you had moved your mathematically encrypted digital files to another country or, were in the process of doing so.

There are large Bitcoin exchangers that you can sell your Bitcoin to and they will deposit money into your checking account or you may even receive a wire from a money sending company. The problem with services like these is there is a record of the payment. Money transactions should always only be between two parties. It is only in our mixed up, central banking, fiat money dominated world, that this reality has been skewed to the public.

But if I take my Bitcoin to another country how will I use it? Well Bitcoin is quickly becoming a form of payment all and in and of itself. More and more vendors are taking Bitcoin as a payment directly but for those that need to still have local currency for day to day living a simple search on localbitcoins.com will reveal where you my meet a local dealer in the country that you reside and sell your Bitcoin directly.

Of course Gold Silver Bitcoin recommends always having physical precious metals along with having Bitcoin. This allows for the maximum security in the preservation of your wealth.

The problem in answering the question a few years ago of “how do I get my gold out to the country?” is that there was not a good answer. That was when Bitcoin was still in its infancy and its potential was not clearly understood. Today however, it is the best option that one has for moving wealth out of whatever collapsing economy one may find they need to escape from without any form of declaration.

[heading]Bitcoin: Silver = 1:1: Trace Mayer & Silver Vigilante Discuss[/heading]

RTG: Hello and welcome to the Run to Gold Podcast. I’ve got with us special guest Silver Vigilante of Gold Silver Bitcoin. One Thing I admire about you is you’ve got an open mind. We’ve got some people in the gold and silver niches who don’t have open minds, whether it is Chris Duane who has been bad-mouthing Bitcoin for two years and continues to badmouth it or people who think they can just ignore it like James Turk at GoldMoney. What do you think is driving BTC?

SV: Well, I think first and foremost it’s the internet. Everyone believes in the Internet. Bitcoin is a microchasm of the Internet that can actually lead it in new directions. Google is going to try to shutdown websites that provide links for users to copyrighted material. They are going to do this the same way they did with WikiLeaks, through a “financial blockade.”  WikiLeaks got around that with BTC, and The Pirate Bays will do the same. Read More

Where Does Bitcoin Fit in the Historic Ratio of Gold and Silver?

Long time investors in gold, silver, platinum and palladium as a means to protect themselves against the debilitating effects of inflation, brought on by the central bankers and their failed monetary policy, are all to aware of the fundamentals of the precious metals market and how ratios are crucial to wealth building during our current dissent into economic collapse. After all the ratios are the simplest ways to analyze the blatant manipulation (suppression) of the fair market value of metals in general.

Take the easiest and most suppressed monetary metals as a primary example. Silver and gold comes from the ground historically at a ratio of around 15:1. This means that for every 15 ounces of silver you have acquired through your labor you should be able to exchange it for an ounce of gold. Insiders in the silver market will even say that the ratio of silver to gold is closer to 10:1 do to industrial demand for silver but that is for another date and time.

A helpful website to look at for the current market rigged ratio of gold to silver is metalratios.com. Through this website one can find what the current ratio is which is around 53:1 meaning it takes 53 ounces of silver to be able to obtain an ounce of gold. Can I get an SEC witness? Probably not, but for those with the slightest bit of intelligence and who are willing to let their minds work on logic rather than rely on all thoughts and beliefs to be fed to them by the Main Stream Media (MSM), they already know the markets are rigged and as of right now are doubling down on their purchases of silver or, for the extra savoy sound monetarist , trading their gold for silver.

One can do quite well by taking advantage of the paper suppression of these assets. For instance, during the run up of precious metals from January 2011-May 2011 the silver/gold ratio went from 53:1, roughly what it is now, to 31:1 by May before the central planners had to intervene in the markets and artificially collapse the value of the metals. For those that traded gold to silver in January of 2011 and were able to trade back before the take down they were able to stack a considerable about of gold.

During that time Bitcoin was having its own remarkable climb moving from 5 dollars a coin to 10. A 100% return is never a bad thing and Bitcoin had its own disastrous downturn about a month later but remember that we are looking at the ratios.

Back in May of 2011 it would’ve taken you 4 bitcoin to be able to get one ounce of silver. Even recently the best that you could hope for was 2 bitcoins in order to get on ounce of silver. That was however before bitcoins recent rise of nearly 40% for the beginning of 2013. Click here for more on that rise.

The point is that, for the first time in bitcoin history, holders of the digital silver (bitcoin), will be able to exchange their digital tangible assets for physical tangible assets! This one to one ratio coincides perfectly with a bullion company that takes bitcoin for precious metals. Through www.goldsilverbitcoin.com you can move your bitcoin to silver without having to cash out of the bitcoin and find a dealer that will sell the metals to you in USD.

No one knows what the rate of climb will be for bitcoin. Could it overtake silver? Of course but taking a portion of your bitcoin now and buying some hard metal is never a bad idea. Especially for the first time that you can do it on a 1 bitcoin to 1 ounce of silver basis.

Gold Silver Bitcoin welcomes you to our inaugural blog post. We are now open, serving the public with the precious metals and bitcoin products listed at our website. We come from five years of experience in the bullion industry, with connections to the largest distributors, and an inclination in favor of the digital technology bitcoin. That is why we believe “it’s your choice,” and have begun Gold Silver Bitcoin to make that choice all the easier.

We remember when we were working in the California industry in 2011 as the fiscal cliff approached. Silver had finished its monumental run-up to $50, and we were exhausted from long days under the office lights and 50 pound monster boxes. The whole world was on edge as the US approached the cliff, and gold had begun its run towards $2,000. People were now moving into that market en masse. For the first time more ounces of gold seemed to be flying out the doors than silver. Read More