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600 tons? Well, so much for their opinion that gold is going to get much higher. Frankly, sounds like they're getting out while the getting is good....although, I can't help but wonder by their announcing the sale. You'd think with this much $$$ worth of gold to unload they would be a bit more circumspect.

Why not? Gold prices are at a 10 or 15 year high.

ping

Here is what Bill Murphy of GATA and lemetropolecafe.com had to say about this story:

Besides this press report being repetitive, it is flat out wrong as it states central banks hold one-quarter of the world’s gold, or 32,000 tonnes. In fact, half of that gold has been lent or swapped out and is no longer there, which may be what the Bundesbank flap is all about.

We have a spectacle here going on behind the scenes, which is the real story the gold press ought to be discussing. One day Welteke talks about Germany selling 600 tonnes of gold. A few days later one of their Board members plants a story in Der Spiegel DECLARING 5 of the 8 Bundesbank Board members will vote against Germany selling any gold. A few days later a Bundesbank press spokesman re-circulates the same Welteke gold story. This is very unusual and suggests a massive rift in the bank. You just don’t normally see a bank president and Board go at it like this in public.

Why is Welteke taking on his Board in public like this? Of course we don’t know for sure, however, what makes the most sense is this gold is already sold and these Board members haven’t been told. Welteke needs to keep the pressure on somehow. Or they do know and are disgusted!

The work of the GATA camp shows 10,000+ more tonnes of central bank gold has been lent/swapped out than officially reported. This gold had to come from some place before it was dumped in the physical market to suppress the price. GATA consultant James Turk has long reported he believes 1700 tonnes of German gold was swapped with US gold at West Point, which is why this gold was mysteriously renamed "Custodial Gold" a few years back. None of the rest of the US official gold holdings were classified in this manner. It’s very possible the Germans realize they are not going to get their gold back without driving the gold price to the moon and are trying to figure out a way to deal with the problem from a public consumption standpoint. Therefore, the Germans have to say they are selling a percentage of their gold when, in reality, it has already been sold. This could be the reason Welteke keeps pounding the table. He wants to get this accounting detail over with before the Bundesbank is found out, or before the gold price soars and he is unable to formally "sell" Bundesbank gold.

Much of this could also have to do with their private banks, like Deutsche Bank. Let’s say DB has borrowed 600 tonnes from the Bundesbank and sold it as part of The Gold Cartel operation. It owes the gold, but it could drive the price through the roof if it tried to retrieve the gold from the cash market to repay the Bundesbank. Thus, the Germans may want to settle the loan via a cash payment instead of bullion repayment. The only way this can be done is for the Bundesbank to declare it is going to sell its gold in the future. To do so otherwise will mean they have been deceiving the German public and the financial world about the true status of Germany’s gold.