Free Republic

Germany's central bank is bringing home gold reserves stored in places like New York and Paris faster than planned, it said Thursday, as confidence in the euro ebbs even in the heart of the currency bloc after a decade of a sluggish economy. Stashed away at the height of the Cold War in safe havens well out of Moscow's reach, the 3,378-tonne, 120 billion-euro gold stockpile has become a symbol of Germany's economic ascent and a guardian of its stability. But with Europe stumbling from crisis to crisis, the German public has grown uneasy about keeping the gold abroad. Some...

In December, when the authorities identified the suspect wanted in the theft of a bucket of gold flakes valued at $1.6 million, Detective Martin Pastor of the New York Police Department vowed he would find him. “I’m going to come and get you,” the detective said in an interview with WNBC. “He can run as far as he can, and we will find him.”The authorities said the suspect, Julio Nivelo, did in fact run after the theft in September, from New York to Florida — and then to Los Angeles. On Thursday, Mr. Nivelo was caught in his native Ecuador,...

THE American space agency is planning to send a spacecraft to a lump of metal in space worth quadrillions of dollars. The 200km-wide asteroid is currently orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. It is made up of various precious metals such as iron, nickel and gold. Experts believe the iron alone in the rock would be worth $10,000 quadrillion – enough to cause the world’s economy, worth $73.7 trillion, to promptly collapse altogether.

Lady Liberty will be depicted as a black women on a coin -- the first time in the nation’s history Lady Liberty has not been a white woman -- the U.S. Treasury Department announced on Thursday. The coin, worth about $100 face value, is part of a commemorative series to honor the 225th anniversary of the U.S. Mint. “The 2017 American Liberty 225th Anniversary Gold Coin is the first in a series of 24-karat gold coins that will feature designs which depict an allegorical Liberty in a variety of contemporary forms-including designs representing Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Indian-Americans among others-to reflect...

Major U.S. and international banks cheat their customers and rig markets. Revelations have been piling up since the 2008 financial crisis. Hundreds of billions have been paid in fines, penalties, and settlements. The fraud, price manipulation, lying, and theft – once considered conspiracy theories – are now incontrovertible conspiracy facts. This reality is dawning now in the precious metals industry. GATA, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, labored for years making the case for price manipulation in the markets. They, and others, made a powerful argument complete with price charts and trading patterns that simply could not be explained in free...

A new commemorative coin from the U.S. Mint and Treasury features a fresh depiction of Lady Liberty. With a crown of stars in her hair and a toga-like dress, she's as patriotic as ever. She's also, for the first time on an officially minted coin, portrayed as a black woman. The United States Mint unveiled the 24k gold coin in commemoration of their 225th anniversary. Gaze upon her beauty in full:

The U.S. Mint has unveiled a commemorative $100 gold coin that features an image of Liberty as a black woman. The 2017 American Liberty 225th Anniversary Gold Coin shows the woman’s head in profile with a crown of stars. […] The mint says it’s the first in a series of 24-karat gold that will also depict Liberty in designs representing Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Indian-Americans. …

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 — A former Iraqi intelligence officer who was said to have met with the suspected leader of the Sept. 11 attacks has told American interrogators the meeting never happened, according to United States officials familiar with classified intelligence reports on the matter. Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani, the former intelligence officer, was taken into custody by the United States in July. Under questioning he has said that he did not meet with Mohamed Atta in Prague, according to the officials, who have reviewed classified debriefing reports based on the interrogations. American officials caution that Mr. Ani may...

Prince wasn’t big on the stock market — but he did have nearly $1 million in gold bars. The Carver County District Court released an inventory of the late singer’s estate last Friday. While many items are still being appraised and valued, the documents obtained by PEOPLE make it clear that the “Purple Reign” icon had exactly zero dollars worth of “stocks, bonds and other securities.” Apparently he preferred to keep his cash the old fashioned way. Sixty-seven 10 oz. gold bars, valued currently at $836,166.70, were found in his possession when he died of a fentanyl overdose on April...

The European Commission proposed tightening controls on cash and precious metals transfers from outside the EU on Wednesday, in a bid to shut down one route for funding of militant attacks on the continent. The move follows Monday's attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, where 12 people were killed as a truck ploughed into a crowd. It is part of an EU "action plan against terrorist financing" unveiled after the bombings and shootings in Paris in November 2015. Under the new proposals, customs officials in European Union states can step up checks on cash and prepaid payment cards sent...

Vice President-elect Michael Pence is currently the most powerful single political influence on President-elect Trump. Among other things, he is in charge of the transition team. He will also be in charge, after the inauguration, with dealing with Congress. For leftists, hostile to gold, that is a problem. However, for those of us who believe that the only way to solve our long-term economic problems is by a return to honest money, it is a godsend. The editor of the New York Sun realized this quite a while ago. He wrote, back in July, about the wise choice of then-Governor...

Tommy G. Thompson was once one of the greatest treasure hunters of his time: A dark-bearded diver who hauled a trove of gold from the Atlantic Ocean in 1988 - dubbed the richest find in U.S. history. Years later, accused of cheating his investors out of the fortune, Thompson led federal agents on a great manhunt - pursued from a Florida mansion to a mid-rent hotel room booked under a fake name. Now Thompson's beard has grayed, and he lives in an Ohio jail cell, held there until he gives up the location of the gold. But for nearly two...

As it goes in silver, so it goes in gold. In London at least. In a bid to have UBS reinstated as a defendant in a London Gold Fix antitrust lawsuit, plaintiffs documents submitted to a New York Court last week include explosive chat room transcripts of UBS and traders from different banks encouraging each other to “push,” “smack,” and “whack” gold prices. The transcripts are equally as startling as those described of banks of the London Silver Fix and UBS given to the court the previous day and described last week in this article. On December 6th attorneys for...

Police search for man who took a container of gold flakes from a truck while security guards were distracted Opportunist thief steals pot of gold in New York – video New York police are searching for a man who swiped a large bucket of gold flakes from the back of an armored truck, disappearing with an estimated $1.6m in treasure.

The heir to a property in Normandy moved in only to find his forebear had hidden 100kg of gold coins, bars and ingots around the house, which he has just sold for €3.5m. The unnamed individual made the incredible discovery after inheriting the plush home in Evreux, a town south of Rouen. He started looking around the house to work out what his relation had left behind, and was stunned at what he found, according to the auction house of Evreux, which sold the entire collection. “There were 5,000 gold pieces, two 12-kilo gold bars and 37 ingots each weighing...

Tyler DurdenNovember 19, 2016 India's 'de-monetization' scheme has caused chaos across the nation, and while SocGen says the government's plan may have some short-term success in curbing so-called 'black-money', investors should "brace for economic disruption" as Bloomberg reports the Indian government is considering a cap on cash holdings for individuals. As SocGen concludes, "people will now be more inclined to park their black income in gold rather than in currency." The daily images of utter chaos in India that has brought the conutry's economy to a standstill since they unleashed their war on cash... Are perhaps about to get worse,...

Chaos in the Wake of the Ban Here is a link to Part 1, about what happened in the first two days after India’s government made Rs 500 (~$7.50) and Rs 1,000 (~$15) banknotes illegal. They can now only be converted to Rs 100 (~$1.50) or lower denomination notes, at bank branches or post offices. Banks were closed the first day after the decision. What follows is the crux of what has happened over the subsequent four days.

Jeff Berwick November 17, 2016 We are living in a world where paper fiat money is becoming a novelty. In Australia, Citibank has just become the first to declare that it no longer will accept notes or coins. Only digital transactions. This follows on the heels of India banning large cash denominations. The cash-oriented changes of these two countries are especially troubling in light of the eventual plans to phase out large denomination euro notes and the US 100 dollar bill by 2018. Just as the Economist predicted nearly 30 years ago, the world is going cashless. A few days...

George Soros’s hedge fund Soros Fund Management sold its stake in a widely used gold exchange-traded fund in the third quarter, according to a regulatory filing out Monday. The fund reported no stake in the SPDR Gold Trust GLD, +0.58%  in the period ended Sept. 30. That’s after disclosing a position worth $30.4 million in a second-quarter filing. The storied billionaire investor had attracted attention during the second quarter for being generally bearish on world markets — and scooping up safety-play gold.

A leading precious metals dealer, has shipped ten 1/10th oz 2016 American Gold Eagle Coins to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to ease her exit from the United States now that Donald J Trump has been elected President. The NY Times reported in July that Justice Ginsburg stated when asked about a Trump Presidency, “Now it’s time for us to move to New Zealand.”