On May 19, the UK site of Yahoo! Finance ran a quite amazing story. It was linked to by a few of the Gold sites on the web but that's about all. There were no follow ups that we have found, nor has there been any commentary by the major financial media in the US.
Here's a link to that story. Please read the entire article before returning here:
German firm plans gold ATMs to meet growing demand
Yep, you read that right.
"A gold-dispensing automatic teller machine (ATM) was on display at Frankfurt's main railway station for a one-day marketing test on Tuesday" (May 19)
"The ATMs will dispense 1-gram, 5-gram and 10-gram pieces of gold as well as Krugerrand gold coins. Each ATM can hold up to 1500 pieces"
"This is more than a marketing gimmick ...the company is planning to set up the 500 gold ATMs at a cost of 20,000 Euros apiece."
On May 19, the day of the "trial run", a person could insert 31 Euros in cash into the ATM and be dispensed a 1-gram Gold piece stamped with the imprint of the Belgian metals firm Umicore. The Gold is contained in a tin box and comes complete with a certificate of authenticiy. 1-gram of Gold is the equivalent of 0.0353 Troy ounces. The plan, as it presently stands, is to charge a 30 percent markup over the spot Gold price for the gold dispensed by the ATMs. There was no mention in the story about how much the Krugerrands would be marked up.
On the surface, this is quite a high mark up, but it is not out of line with the "EBay prices" which bullion Gold coins have been commanding for quite some time now. But the mark up is not the point. First of all this is a first foray towards putting Gold back into general circulation. Granted, these gold pieces are not officially "money", but it would not take a HUGE change for them to become money. Combine this "ATM experiment" with the fact that Germany recently demanded that all their Gold held in "custodial accounts" in the US be returned to them. Could it be that the European Union has decided to take the first tentative step towards getting Gold back into people's pockets as a circulating currency and as a medium of exchange?
Consider also the fact that this ATM dispensed Gold will come in 1, 5 and 10 gram weights - NOT the troy ounce and fraction of a troy ounce weight measure common to all presently available bullion coins. Using modern technology, it would be easy to turn out Gold coins - or more accurately precise weights of Gold encased in a transparent medium - in almost any size deemed useful. Even with Gold at, say, $US 1000 per troy ounce, 1/100 of a gram of Gold would be the equivalent of $US 0.35. That's THIRTY-FIVE CENTS. Circulating media containing this weight of Gold would be easy to produce. Indeed, lesser weights are perfectly feasible. Don't forget, Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all metals. Gold leaf of fantastic thinness and lightness has been produced for thousands of years.
For a long time now, The Privateer has been stressing the absolute necessity for Gold to return as a circulating media of exchange. Any kind of an enduring return to sound money is impossible without such an eventual end outcome. As already stated, this "experiment" by the company providing the "Gold ATMs" was a one-day affair in Frankfurt. We have no follow up coverage of this story. We do not know if the experiment was a success or if ANY of the planned rollout of 500 of these ATMs will actually come to pass.
But we DO know that the strains on the global fiat money system in general and the US system in particular are unsustainable. The crash dive of the US Dollar so far in May and its acceleration over the week just ended show that these strains are accelerating. So does the huge jump in yields on longer-term US Treasury debt paper. So do the reports about the imminent bankruptcy of GM and the fact that Treasury Secretary Geithner has refused (so far) to bail out the State of California which is facing HUGE cuts in government spending after the rejection of a number of "propositions" put to the voters this week.
Imagine being able to feed a sum of paper money into an ATM and receive GOLD in return. If the "experiment" which happened in Frankfurt on May 19 is deemed successful, we won't have to imagine it much longer. Even if it is NOT deemed successful or did not even take place (as we said, we have found no follow up to this story on Yahoo) a HUGE precedent has been set. Somebody, somewhere is going to re-introduce Gold as a circulating medium of exchange. We have just seen a report on the first tentative step towards this process. Only time will tell if this proves to be first step back from the precipice of global fiat paper money towards a SOUND monetary system.
But even if this one doesn't "work", there will be more. It is inevitable and just a matter of time.
(Chart appears here in original analysis.)
A new low was hit on the chart when spot future Gold closed in New York at $US 705 on November 13 last year. This pushed the chart two "Xs" below the $US 715 support level established in late October and equalled early in November. Then came the first big turnaround - and upturn on the chart - of November 14. The region between $US 700-720 firmed as SOLID support for Gold. That support "zone" was emphatically confirmed as Gold rose by just over $US 110 between November 13 and November 28 last year.
On February 20, as you know, Gold made it all the way back to its previous all time highs. But it did NOT break through the $US 1000 barrier. Since then, Gold retreated to just below the $US 900 level in three moves down. What is being traced out on this chart is a gigantic "reverse" head and shoulders formation. The trading range between $US 900 and $US 1000 was broken early in April. Over the month of April, a tighter range between $US 870-910 was established. Now, Gold has broken back above that range. The "right shoulder" on the "reverse" head and shoulders formation is getting wider. On this chart, there are two major resistance points. The first is at $US 955 - the red trendline - where the chart is now. The second is, of course, at $US 1000 the level reached in March 2008 and again in February 2009.
We began the table below in 2007 and have extended it into 2009, even though Gold in all four currencies in the table remain well above their 2006 highs. The all time highs for Gold which occurred in 2008 have remained intact in US Dollars and in Yen.
But in terms of the Euro and especially the Aussie Dollar, the situation is very different. Gold hit new all time highs in both currencies on January 30 with situation being duplicated by Gold in terms of MANY other currencies. On February 20, those highs were taken out when Gold hit $US 1000. Gold now only $40 below that level in US Dollar terms but this week, the US Dollar fell faster than Gold rose. Right now Gold is much closer to its all time highs in $US terms than it is in terms of any other major currency.
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