No gold in itself is not a currency.  Investment gold is VAT free since 1 January 2000, as required by an EU directive.

However British gold sovereigns and Britannias are still legal tender in the UK.  An interesting consequence of this is that they are exempt from capital gain. 

Capital Gains Manual - CG78307
Currency: coins: legal tender

Coins are to be regarded as currency only if they are legal tender at the time of their acquisition or disposal. Coins which are currency but not sterling, for example Krugerrands, are chargeable assets.

Before we go any further, let me state for the record that gold is not a commodity. It is money. So when I am referring to commodity prices I am explicitly not including gold. Metal commodities are things like copper, zinc and lead.

Not quite so sure about gold not being currency/money, I will dig around as I believe gold to be money.

I agree with you that gold is money.  Actually silver and gold are the only sound money. 

However legal tender laws are very precise.  In Britain, only banknotes and coins minted by the Royal Mint are legal tender.

I agree with you that gold is money.  Actually silver and gold are the only sound money. 

However legal tender laws are very precise.  In Britain, only banknotes and coins minted by the Royal Mint are legal tender.

Still got them Muttley...

Actually a bit disappointed that we're "only" up to 62p with the good news. I believe OXS finals are due on monday, so perhaps judgement is being reserved for then. I hear their new broker has set a target price of 90p for OXS this year. Recent shenanigans just show what a bunch of gits the MMs are, trying to flush out weak holders with price falls on sod all volume etc.

Anyway, I've only been a holder for 6 months or so... I firmly believe the SP could double or triple over the medium term with Jerooy and 3 more mines coming online over the next few years!
Did I mention CNM... 

bought OXS at 17p !!! sold at 52p... hi OXS owners !!! Mr Trew is very shrew

irrelevant. To all those people out there who dont believe in Gold...."an ounce of gold fifty years ago bought you a suit and so will an ounce of gold today, i ask you what would that money from fifty years ago buy today ?"

silver is the one too look out for... china, mobile phones, electronics, 1 billion population, india, ha, where do we go from here. it is still dirt cheap and the ratio with gold is 60+

the historical average is about 15 
feel sorry for people who bought OXS when they poured.. hit 90p+ and has never been back since..... (

Be careful, because when the financial storm hits the shores; your Broker might not hold your shares...? hence the name BROKEr

to buy physical gold check out www.goldline.co.uk its one of only 3 places in the UK to stock up on bars and coins. silver kilo bars are rare and nealry 40% above spot price value. 

good luck and get ready for a global meltdown... unless your real dumb and read the papers ?

farming revolution - industrial revolution - information revolution (2000)

€350 has been a formidable resistance level for the past few years.  After shooting to over €360 gold pulled back briefly to €346 but recovered very quicly to €349.  Watch the €350 level carefully.  If, as I expect, it is exceeded soon it will send a very strong signal and european investors will pile in.

The dollar has been, for a number of months, in a false rally. A popular delusion on Wall Street has been that the dollar's strength would continue. The thinking being that any nation that could create Google, which makes it easy to search for trivial sites on the net, and EBay, an electronic flea market, was too important not to draw investment dollars. Focus on such trivial business ventures as these are exactly the reason the U.S. has a trade deficit. Google and EBay are not cures for cancer. This thinking though created a seriously over bought condition for the U.S. dollar. China's devaluation of the U.S. dollar is a bell ringing that this situation is about to be reversed.

.....

One of the ramifications of China's move to devalue the dollar over time is extremely negative for U.S. interest rates, and therefore for housing prices. When China was keeping the relationship between renminbi and the dollar fixed, the Bank of China was forced to make massive purchases of U.S. government debt. These purchases were part of the process of sterilizing the massive dollar inflows into the country. Without those purchases the renminbi might have been forced dramatically higher, something the government did not want to happen in the short run.

As a consequence of the devaluation of the U.S. dollar, the Bank of China purchases of U.S. government debt will be smaller. Rationale for making those purchases being partially muted by the devaluation of the dollar. The same will be true of other nations. One of the little bells that rang this morning was for the beginning of the end of foreign central bank financing of the U.S. deficits. Less demand for U.S. debt means higher interest rates. Of course the Federal Reserve will fight the trend, but global markets are bigger than any central bank staffed by mere mortals. U.S. interest rates are headed far higher than any expect. Housing prices will take a far bigger dip than any believe. The U.S. Great Recession will start in 2006. 4 yuan to the dollar and a $3 Euro are more likely than many can fathom!

While contemplating the many ramifications of the devaluation of the U.S. dollar by the People's Bank of China, a review of the Gold market would be timely. As the dollar price of Gold rises when the value of the dollar falls, Gold, and Silver, should be added to your portfolios. On a strategic basis as shown in the earlier graph, the massive level of over optimism on the dollar is providing Gold prices that should not be ignored. In the last graph are portrayed strategic buying points created by vacillations in optimism over the dollar. Recent buy signals suggest that Gold is attractively priced for dollar denominated investors and those in countries, like Mexico and Canada, that are closely tied to the dollar. The conductor blew the whistle this morning for the train departing to $1,300 Gold. Get on board!

Hi, naive character has just joined this thread. A previous poster wrote:

>>It is quite easy to just pop-in to the local Hang Seng Bank during lunch and line up with all the old ladies to buy a few 1 Oz Gold Eagles (you can't do that at Barclays can you?).<<
And there you have the problem. In Britain, there does not seem to be a ready means of going and buying reliable bullion or coins just like that. I do not particularly like the idea of sending off several thousand quid into hyperspace in the hope my posty will turn up with a package of chinking coins some time later.

I am based in Edinburgh. What's the best way for me to buy gold coins/small bars? You should understand I am not by nature a player of markets, and my interest in gold is not in relation to making money, I just want to protect what I have. I just don't trust the financial system any more. Maybe I am paranoid - but I don't think so. I've never before felt such a sense of factors combining in a disastrous manner as at the moment. It should never have been allowed to happen.

In addition, I must admit to kind of liking the idea of owning some gold, but that is by the by.

Would I have to travel to London to be able to buy gold "over the counter"?

Any help and advice you can give is.. pure gold!

Many thanks.

I'm the guy in Hong Kong who 'pops into the local Hang Seng Bank'.

Buying & selling Gold in Asia is so easy, it must be the culture out here because they have made it so easy.

It looks like the only way you can buy Gold in the UK is over the counter, (London or even in Dublin apparently).  This is not ideal, it will cost you a small fortune just for the train fare to London for starters!

Having said that, if your ultimate goal is capital preservation.......just do it!

Cheers.

Gold Breaks Out Against the British Pound

Gold closed Friday at £243.95 per ounce (£7.84 per goldgram). That’s the highest weekly close since September 13, 1996. While this new 9-year high is important, it is also significant that gold is breaking out above a 25-year downtrend line, as we can see in the following chart.



The overall picture presented by the above chart is bullish. Here’s how I see it:

* Gold has been in a long-term consolidation pattern against the British pound since its big advance in the 1960’s and 70’s. Note the red lines marking a ‘pennant’ formation on the above chart.
* From approximately 1996 to 2001 gold formed a solid base, marked by the rounded accumulation pattern on the above chart.
* For the past six years gold has been in a steady uptrend, climbing relentlessly in a clearly defined rising trend channel.
* Given the break of the downtrend line and the new 9-year high, gold’s appreciation against the British pound will now accelerate.

All of the above observations are very bullish for gold. Someone should show this chart to Gordon Brown, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer who will be remembered for his appallingly bad decision to sell one-half of Britain’s gold reserve at the bottom of the market.

As gold continues to climb from here, his decision will look even worse, which no doubt will adversely Brown’s political fortunes. His ambitions to succeed Tony Blair as leader of the Labour Party are well known. But why choose a political leader whose bad decision has already cost British taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds?

But it is not only the British who should take note of the above chart. The strength demonstrated by the milestones noted above is another sign to everyone that gold is in the early stages of a major bull market that will take it higher against all national currencies, and not just the British pound.

Gold strike to start on Monday

Fri, 05 Aug 2005
About 80 000 gold miners would begin striking on Monday after unions received an "overwhelming mandate" from their members.

This Fridays COT numbers confirmed the anticipated deterioration in Gold's COT structure, after the past weeks strong rally. Short term gold does not look like an attractive buy, even though we could get through the resistance in the $455 area with this move.

Looking at the most recent COT chart for gold I feel a liquidation of some more speculative gold positions next week might be prudent. If past performance is any indication of the future we will probably see a correction of $20-35 in the POG by the end of September. Gold has still rallied from $438 to $445 after Tuesdays COT data, so it's safe to assume that commercial shorts stand at even higher levels today than the graph indicates. Additionally gold is overbought short term (RSI, blue circle). In the past year similar market structures have lead to quite sharp and fast corrections (oval red areas). I'm not saying this will happen in the immediate future but stops at the power up-trend lines for more speculative holdings might not be a bad idea.

Has broken out now, tested the top of old range, and is now ready to Fly!

So next weeks figure may be important, and it is time to be cautious about gold, and not get carried away.

We're up one minute down the next - speculating is such a white knuckle ride.  I just can't see Joe Public getting into gold or oil stocks in any big way, like the tech. share boom/bust of a few years ago.

The lure of the next big thing will bring the public in right on time.

I hope you're right    I bought some Merrill Lynch Gold and General at the end of April this year.  They're up around 14% when I checked today.  They're volatile though!

I hope you're right    I bought some Merrill Lynch Gold and General at the end of April this year.  They're up around 14% when I checked today.  They're volatile though!

Riser,
Interesting chart, but it looks to me that nearly all the action was in NY trading.

= = =

Urban, is this sort of product available without an IFA?

Yes, I have this fund (ML G&G) but no IFA. In my experience IFA's have been fairly useless.

Normal price is 5% initial fee then 1.5% annually. Buy it from a fund supermarket to eliminate much of that (and any middle-men).

Search for "fund supermarket uk". I use Hargreaves Lansdown, but I don't have experience of any others so that's no recommendation.

Urban, is this sort of product available without an IFA?

MANCHESTER, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 22, 2005--The U.S. Government has the authority to prohibit the private possession of gold and silver coin and bullion by U.S. citizens during wartime, and, during wartime and declared emergencies, to freeze their ownership of shares of mining companies, the Treasury Department has told the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee.

But gold and silver owners aren't alone in such jeopardy. For the U.S. Government claims the authority in declared emergencies to seize or freeze just about everything else that might be considered a financial instrument.

The Treasury Department's assertions came in a letter to GATA dated August 12 and written by Sean M. Thornton, chief counsel for the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, who replied to questions GATA posed to the department in January. It took GATA six months and some prodding to get answers from the Treasury, but the Treasury's reply, when it came, was remarkably comprehensive and candid

The government's authority to interfere with the ownership of gold, silver, and mining shares arises, Thornton wrote, from the Trading With the Enemy Act, which became law in 1917 during World War I and applies during declared wars, and from 1977's International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which can be applied without declared wars.

While the Trading With the Enemy Act authorizes the government to interfere with the ownership of gold and silver particularly, it also applies to all forms of currency and all securities. So the Treasury official stressed in his letter to GATA that the act could be applied not just to shares of gold and silver mining companies but to the shares of all companies in which there is a foreign ownership interest......................

And ordinary citizens with no particular interest in gold and silver may want to ask their members of Congress to reconsider these statutes simply for being wildly tyrannical.

GATA's correspondence with the Treasury Department is posted on the Internet here: GATA's Correspondence