[courtesy Google Images]
24hgold.com reports in “UK’s Royal Mint will sell pension investors gold they can never see” that,
“The Royal Mint in England is to open up its gold vaults to UK pension investors. The Royal Mint will make some of its gold bars available to investors wanting to hold it in tax-efficient pension pots.
“For UK citizens, this is the first time that Royal Mint gold bullion has been authorised by HM [Her Majesty’s] Revenue & Customs . . . for holding in specific pensions.
“Investors are to be offered a choice of bullion, from Royal Mint Refinery 100-gram and 1-kilogram bars, to Signature Gold—a service that allows customers to purchase and own a share of a 400-ounce gold bar.”
Sounds pretty good. However, here comes the punch line:
“Pension investors purchasing gold bars through the Royal Mint will not be able to take delivery of their purchases as they will be placed in storage in ‘The Vault,’ the Royal Mint’s secure storage facility in Wales.”
And, according to the title of the article, pension investors won’t be able to even see the gold they’ve allegedly purchased.
So, the good news is that English pensioners can invest in physical gold to protect their pensions.
Yay!
The bad news is that they’ll not only never be able take delivery of the gold they’ve purchased—they’ll never even be able to see their gold.
Boo!
It’s kinda like buying an alleged Canadian gold mine where you can never look into the mine or remove any of the alleged gold. How can you really know if there’s really any gold in that mine?
It’s also a little like the U.S. government and Federal Reserve claiming to hold about 8,200 tons of physical gold that belongs to the People of The United States of America that We the People have nevertheless been unable to audit or even see since A.D. 1953. Government’s refusal to let us see and audit our gold inspires conspiracy theories that maybe our gold is gone.
In fact, given the close relationship between the governments of the U.S. and England, it wouldn’t be surprising if one of those governments had secretly sold off most of its gold, the other would’ve secretly done the same.
In any case, when English pensioners invest in gold allegedly held in the Royal Mint that can’t be seen and won’t be delivered, how do those pensioners know that there’s really any gold in the Royal Mint? Are they really buying some physical gold? Or are they just giving their currency to the government under false and fraudulent pretenses and in return for non-existent gold?
• This whole story sounds so bizarre, that I can’t help suspecting that it signals that the English government is colossally stupid or colossally desperate.
Can the English government really believe that the English people will buy into to a scheme where government will sell gold that can’t ever be seen or delivered?
If so, I wish that the English pensioners would give me a call because I, too, have several tons of gold to sell that can’t be seen or delivered. (I keep it in a shoe box on the shelf in my closet.) Plus, when it comes to selling unseeable, undeliverable gold, I’m confident that I can give pensioners a much better price than the Royal Mint.
• This Royal Mint story makes me wonder if the English government is so broke and so desperate that it will scrounge up cash any way it can—even by selling non-existent gold.
I can’t believe that the English government is trying to sell gold that can’t be seen and won’t be delivered out of ignorance. I must therefore conclude that the English government is so broke that, out of desperation, it will grab any cash it can find or finagle.
This Royal Mint story suggests that England’s government may be on its last fiscal legs.
Who knows? Maybe Brexit was so fiercely opposed by former Prime Minister David Cameron and many government officials because they knew the English government was nearly bankrupt and feared that the potential financial consequences of Brexit could push that government into collapse.
We shall see.
In the meantime, if you happen to know any Englishmen interested in purchasing some gold that can’t be seen or delivered, have them gimme a call.