Gold Shortage

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As the following links show, there now exists a shortage of physical gold in the real world market place. This shortage is in contradistinction to the falling price of price of paper gold in the Comex world of digital traders. Once some of these paper gold traders start demanding the delivery of their contracts, the fact of the physical gold shortage will become apparent and there will be a rush to acquire gold as a hard asset that can be held in investor's hands. Paper gold may turn out to be fool's gold.

Gold Market Dis-Information Specialists Ply Their Trade

"Well, here's a dose of reality folks: In a conversation I [Rob Kirby] had with one of Canada 's largest physical, retail bullion dealers last Friday – here's a summary of what he told me: As a long time and valued customer of the Royal Canadian Mint, he has been told that the Mint is not accepting ANY orders for gold or silver coin for at least 3 months – and no guarantees then either."

Gold: There are zero one ounce gold bars in North America at wholesale – period.
Same thing for 10 oz gold bars.
Some kilo gold bars are available at wholesale but in highly limited at prices starting at 5 % over spot [COMEX price].
He is currently receiving a couple of hundred calls per day for small gold [one ounce denominations] and has no product to sell.

Market Oracle
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Gold sales shine in dark economic times

BURLINGAME, Calif.--In the 50 years since Burt Blumert founded Camino Coin Company, a precious metals dealer in this quiet San Francisco suburb, he's never witnessed such a frenzy of interest in gold and silver coins.

"There are no gold coins available," said Blumert, who is now mostly retired after giving the business to a longtime employee last year. "This is just as true of silver, even more so."

CNet
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"I also have a friend there [Singapore] telling me that suddenly Chinatown jewelery ships are swamped with customers and the local gold shops have been out of physical since last week."

Rense.com
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Dubai runs out of gold on Diwali rush

Dubai: A massive rush at jewellery shops has led to a shortage of gold at some outlets, prompting some shopkeepers to overcharge customers, Gulf News has learnt.

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Gulf News

"When Inflation Erupts, Gold Will Take Off"

Asian economic activity has a big influence on the purchase of gold. At the London Gold Bullion Traders Conference in Kyoto, I was amazed to find the magnitude of the shortage of gold and silver coins. In Germany, they aren’t having the crisis we’re having here, but Germans were lining up to buy gold.

Gold Seek
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Germany Runs for the Gold

As the crisis in financial markets deepens and the value of stocks rapidly drops, many people in Germany are turning to gold as a traditional form of safe investment.
In Berlin, supplies of gold bars have been cleared and the city's goldsmiths report delivery times as high as six weeks.
Demand remains high in spite of the recent spike in the precious metal price, which now floats around 888 dollars per ounce.

Ebrun News
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Asim Jang said due to the international volatility in the gold market, there was shortage of physical gold bars but NCEL has already made arrangements from the refinery in Switzerland. “The refinery has been supplying commodity to NCEL in collaboration with its gold bars sector.”

Gold trading at NCEL Increasing

The gold and silver shortage has not abated, and if you can find gold or silver at the retail level, consider yourself fortunate.

1. We must report that there are no Gold or Silver Coins in dealer vaults or at the mints. Demand has simply overwhelmed the physical supply-every dealer has sold everything!

2. To complicate the shortage, the U.S. Mint halted minting 2008 American Eagles for the year.

istockanalyst.com
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One of the reasons I continue to believe that gold is on the verge of a substantial jump in price has to do with the divergence between paper and physical gold. The other day I had a client call the Denver mint in search of gold and silver coins and was advised that gold eagles cost US $1,195.00/ounce, while silver eagles are at US $25.95/ounce; take it or leave it. Also, coin shops in Florida simply do not have any gold and silver coins to sell. I know that the paper markets are subject to manipulation, but the reality can be found in the physical market. Gold may have turned around on Friday with its almost upside reversal, or it may fall down to 642.80 before we finally see a bottom, but gold is the only protection an investor can find in the deflationary world. Therefore everybody should be accumulating it on a regular basis according to their respective pocket books.

Gold Eagle.com
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The current dichotomy between paper [Comex] and physical precious metals markets is being caused by an intentional bottleneck at the wholesale level. Wholesale gold and silver is being hoarded to fund precious metal suppression schemes, such as sales and leasing, and to maintain dominance of the commercials in the paper markets by preventing a failure to deliver. In essence, this bottleneck between the wholesale and retail levels of the market in precious metals amounts to a de facto confiscation of gold and silver from the masses.

Robert Chapman - October 29 2008

International Forecaster Weekly
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Gold coins in short supply, command 50% premium

CALIFORNIA: Popular gold and silver coins such as the one-ounce gold and silver American Eagles produced by United states Mint is not available for sale in the market and those who sell do it at a premium of 50 percent or more on spot price, according to Michael Maroney, Vice President, Monex Deposit Company.

"One-ounce and smaller gold and silver coins . . . ten-ounce and hundred-ounce silver bars . . . ten-ounce ingots and 32.15 ounce "kilobars" of gold have virtually disappeared from the marketplace," explains Maroney. "They're in private hands now, and people are holding onto them, unwilling to sell them back into the market."

Commodity Online
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