Europeans and Gold

I must admit Gold does intrigue me although I have little of it
(one coin!).

Other than in jewelry, one sees it all over the place in Europe.
The Parisian money exchanges also sells coins, some of them gold.
One of the joys of walking down the major street of Zurich is
seeing gold bars for sale in bank windows. I have had the fantasy of
owning a 1kg bar for years, so I could hold it in my lap and
petting it.

Gold was once in style in the US and in some families grandfathers use
to give grandchildren 20 dollar gold pieces. Once gold sold at $20 an
ounce and the 20 dollar gold piece has one ounce of gold, like a Krugerrand
of today.

Gold was used once as the guarantor of value, the US once backed
the international monetary system with the American gold reserves, until
Nixon reneged. The French have long worshipped the stuff and it common
practice for people to have a number of ³Napoleons² stashed away somewhere.

Currently the gold reserves by nation are

USA 8135 tons
Germany 3440 tons
FMI 3217 tons
France 3025 tons
Italy 2452 tons
Switzerland 1666 tons
Holland 801 tons
BCE 767 tons

etc.

The BCE is the European bank and actually holds 8 billion euros in gold,
8.2 billion in currency reserves and 22 billion in ³titres² which means
equities. The world yearly production gold has been rising, it was 1500
tons in the mid-80s and now around 2600 tons yearly. 77% of the total
gold reserves are in jewlry and coin, and in industrial use, while 23%
is in official reserves.

Gold is currently been rising on the markets and around $400 an ounce.
It hit a high of $850 around 1980.

Earl