My name is Shawn Ozbun, and our goal is to keep you up to date with what’s going on in the world of Gold and Silver by providing you with current news and precious metals pricing.
The Silvertowne Vault Cast is brought to you by www.Silvertowne.com
Hello and thanks for tuning in to the vault cast today. I have a good amount of information for you today. I’ve got some interesting history for you about the California gold rush that you might not know about. I’ve got some bullion news and some more repatriation news as well and this time I’m not talking about Germany. Finally I’ve got some alarming collapse news to share as well. So should be an interesting show, Ill try to keep it under 15 minutes but it might run closer to 20 minutes like Thursdays show.
Before I get into all of this crazy information I want to remind you that you can subscribe to this show on iTunes and on YouTube. Your comments and feedback is much needed and appreciated. You can also ask me questions if you like and I’ll try and answer those on the show or on the comments page.
Now lets get into today's precious metals pricing!
Gold - $1656.14 Down $2.37
Silver - $31.00 Down $.16
Platinum - $1682.00 Down $7.00
Palladium - $739.00 Up $2.49
Financial News:
8 Things You May Not Know About the California Gold Rush
On January 24, 1848, a carpenter working at a mill in northern California made a discovery that would change the course of American history—two gold nuggets. Within a year, tens of thousands of people (popularly known as ‘49ers) were travelling to the land around John Sutter’s mill in hopes of striking it rich. Some failed, some were successful, but nearly all of the prospectors faced severe hardships during their fortune-hunting days. Today, 165 years after that first discovery check out eight facts you may not know about the California Gold Rush.
1. California did not have the first gold rush in American history.
That honor actually belongs to North Carolina. Fifty years before gold was discovered at Sutter’s mill, the first gold rush in American history got underway after a 17-pound gold nugget was found in Cabarrus County, North Carolina.
2. The Gold Rush was the largest mass migration in U.S. history.
In March 1848, there were roughly 157,000 people in the California territory; 150,000 Native Americans, 6,500 of Spanish or Mexican descent known as Californios and fewer than 800 non-native Americans. Just 20 months later, following the massive influx of settlers, the non-native population had soared to more than 100,000. And the people just kept coming.
3. The Gold Rush attracted immigrants from around the world.
In fact, by 1850 more than 25 percent of California’s population had been born outside the United States. As news of the discovery was slow to reach the east coast, many of the first immigrants to arrive were from South America and Asia.
4. The Gold Rush was a male-dominated event.
Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to California to make their fortunes in the Gold Rush, but almost none of them were women. In 1852, 92 percent of the people prospecting for gold were men. The few women who did travel to the west eked out a living in the growing boomtowns, working in the restaurants, saloons and hotels that seemingly popped up every day.
5. Early sections of San Francisco were built out of ships abandoned by prospectors.
The Gold Rush conjures up images of thousands of “’49ers” heading west in wagons to strike it rich in California, but many of the first prospectors actually arrived by ship—and few of them had a return ticket.
6. Prospecting for gold was a very costly enterprise.
Most of the men who flocked to northern California arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs. Once there, they needed to buy food, goods and supplies, which San Francisco’s merchants were all too willing to provide—for a cost.
7. More fortunes were made by merchants than by miners.
As the boom continued, more and more men got out of the gold-hunting business and began to open businesses catering to newly arrived prospectors.
8. Thousands of Gold Rush prospectors got rich—but John Sutter wasn’t one of them.
John Sutter, the man whose land would become synonymous with the California Gold Rush, was a Swiss immigrant who fled Europe in the 1830s, leaving behind piles of unpaid debts. After several years of travelling throughout North America, he finally settled in the tiny outpost of Yuerba Buena (modern-day San Francisco) in 1839.
Read More...
Gold and silver bullion are on the move
The price movement of gold and silver often attract much attention. When prices make a noticeable increase, it regularly leads to perma-bulls calling for the next great explosion in precious metals. On the other hand, any dips or corrections lead to critics calling for an end to the 12-year bull market. Both sides are debatable, but there is no denying that physical bullion made impressive moves this past week.
On Wednesday, the Bundesbank confirmed reports and announced it will repatriate a portion of its foreign gold reserves. By 2020, the central bank intends to store half of Germany’s gold reserves in its own vaults within the country, compared to only 31% now. The other half will remain in New York and London. The plan will remove 300 tonnes of gold from New York, reducing Germany’s percentage of reserves held at the New York Federal Reserve from 45% to 37%. Another 374 tonnes will be relocated from Paris to Frankfurt, which removes all of Germany’s gold held in France’s capital.
Central banks have shown a great deal of interest in gold over the past few years. For the first-time in decades, central banks across the globe became net buyers of the precious metal in 2009. Last year, central bank purchases increased 17% to 536 metric tons, according to Thomas Reuters GFMS. This represents the biggest addition to gold reserves in 48 years. The organization also expects central banks to add another 280 tons in the first half of 2013.
Silver making moves too…
Gold is not the only precious metal making moves this week. The iShares Silver Trust, which is the biggest exchange-traded fund for silver, added 572 tons of the metal. It is the biggest increase in assets for the BlackRock managed fund since December 2007. The ETF has received inflows of more than $600 million this week, leading all ETFs in the marketplace. According to Bloomberg and Barclays, global investment through all silver-backed exchange-traded products is at a record 19,114 tons. Read More...
Swiss Gold Bullion repatriation campaign nears signatures
A CAMPAIGN to see Switzerland repatriate all its Gold Bullion held abroad is close to hitting its target of collecting 100,000 signatures as part of an attempt to trigger a referendum on the issue, according to Swiss press reports.
The Gold Initiative is calling for an end to sales of Gold Bullion by the Swiss National Bank, the storage of Swiss gold in Switzerland, and for gold to make up at least 20% of the central bank's assets.
Switzerland currently holds 1040.1 tonnes of gold, 11% of its total reserves, according to the latest figures published by the World Gold Council.
One suggestion being made is that the SNB could use its large reserves of Euros to Buy Gold. In September 2011 the SNB pegged the Swiss Franc top the Euro, arguing that its own currency was too strong, and promised to create "unlimited" amounts of Francs in order to buy Euros and maintain the peg.
The Gold Initiative has until March to collect the 100,000 signatures. The campaign is similar to one in Germany that recently saw the Bundesbank announce repatriation of some of its gold reserves. Read More...
The 2013 Financial collapse will be one for the ages
“2013 could be the year that the Western world, based as it is on debt and fiat paper money that is printed in order to support debt, comes to an economic end ... Hopefully, the derivative exposure – essentially uncovered bets on interest rates, mortgages, currency exchange rates, and prices of oil and other commodities and equities – nets out in some way so that the net exposure to risk is far less than $227 trillion. Nevertheless, if enough of these bets go wrong, banks can go bust.
So far the “euro crisis” promoted by the US and Western media has protected the US dollar by sending euro holders fleeing into dollars, and the Federal Reserve’s purchase of the banks’ bad bets has kept economic Armageddon at bay. However, the Federal Reserve cannot forever create new dollars with which to purchase the banks’ bad bets and with which to finance the huge annual operating deficits of the US government without undermining confidence in the dollar.
Sooner or later the world is going to abandon the US dollar as the currency in which international accounts are settled. With this drop in the demand for the dollar, its price or exchange rate will fall, and import prices will rise. As the US is now an import-dependent country, from that day on, Americans who walk into Walmart will think they have walked into Neiman Marcus.”
The clock is ticking. We’ve seen this played before. It was the Crash of 1929, the Great Depression, currency wars, trade wars, World War....
“You are seeing the same thing again. The Panic of 2008, there’s a Great Depression going on in a lot of countries around the world, trade wars are heating up, currency wars are going on, World War is next. So now what you have is that people feel in their bones that something is not right. Read More...
For the best source for acquiring gold and silver please contact Silvertowne at 1-877-477- coin, that’s 1-877-477-2646 or you can visit us at www.silvertowne.com. Silvertowne has been a trusted precious metals and numismatics dealer since 1949.
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[Disclaimer] Shawn Ozbun is not a licensed financial adviser, there is risk associated with all investment including gold and silver. You should seek advise from a licensed financial expert before making a purchase.
