With the current economy looking as if it is, more and more, becoming unstable it appears that precious metals, particularly gold, is becoming the new medium of exchange, or at least that of a way to invest. Is gold the new money, and how long will this trend last. With the downward spiraling economy a new resurgence in gold fever has taken shape like the gold rush of 1848. People are flocking towards the finding, and purchasing of gold.
Everywhere you look you can see advertisements for gold, in all forms of media.
Gold, and silver, has quickly become one of the highest searched terms on the Internet.
With this resurgent interest in gold, more and more people are becoming interested in prospecting and metal detecting.
Gold was long popular as a medium of exchange and store of value because it was inert, was convenient to move due to even small amounts of gold having considerable value, had a constant value due to its special physical and chemical properties, and was cherished by men.I'd like to start with a brief history of gold, and it's importance to America. Although, the history of gold predates that of America, I am primarily concerned with it's history and use in America today; the 21st century.
Since the mid 1800's Gold has been a source of exchange. Although most people believe gold was discovered in California in 1848,they would be wrong. The truth is, in 1799, gold was discovered in North Carolina spurring a gold rush there, which led to speculation that there was probably gold in Georgia.
According to legend, a Yankee was bitten by a yellow-jacket when passing through Brindletown, North Carolina, and discovered gold in the walls of the mud-daubed cabin when he hit his hand against it. It started a gold rush in 1828, near Dahlonega, Georgia, preceding the California gold rush by 20 years. Dahlonega became a boom town in the Georgia Gold Rush.
Two factors connected with the Georgia gold discovery created the conditions that led to the Georgia Gold Rush in 1829. First, the placer deposits found in Georgia meant that gold was relatively easy to collect. Second, word of Georgia's gold deposits spread rapidly, with stories that captured the imagination.
By 1830, historians estimate that there were 4,000 miners working on just the Yahoola Creek in Lumpkin County, Georgia, and over 300 ounces (8.5 kg) of gold per day was being produced in an area.
So much gold was being discovered that a mint was established at Dahlonega. The Dahlonega Mint was chartered by the United States Congress and erected in 1837. The purpose of the Mint was to tap the newly discovered source of gold for coins and to provide a place for miners to have their gold assayed and sold. Coins of various denominations were minted at the mint, but after the Civil War the mint was closed.
By the early 1840s, most of the "easy" gold had been found, and efforts began to shift to working the known deposits. When news of the California Gold Rush reached Georgia, many miners moved west in search of more gold.
From its steps in 1849, Dahlonega Mint assayer Dr. M. F. Stephenson tried to persuade miners to stay in Dahlonega instead of joining the California Gold Rush.
Experienced gold miners from Georgia played key roles in the beginning of gold mining in Colorado. Georgia gold miners Lewis and Samuel Ralston, along with some displaced Georgia Cherokees, noticed placer gold near the present site of Denver on their way to the new California gold fields in 1850.
Placerita Canyon is etched in history. California's first gold rush occurred there in 1842, six years before John Marshall's famous discovery at Coloma. It began when Francisco Lopez of Rancho San Francisco (near present day Newhall) grew tired of chasing stray horses and sat down to rest under an oak tree. While resting, Lopez dug up a cluster of wild onions. Clinging to the roots were tiny gold nuggets. The discovery caused much excitement, and attracted miners from all over California.
James Marshal sparked the greatest Gold Rush in U.S. history when he found a glittering piece of gold in the American River back in 1848. As word of the discovery raced across the country, prospecting and mining activity spread rapidly for hundreds of miles along the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but the undefined area known as the Mother Lode was mainly located in Amador County in the foothills east of Sacramento. Many mines were started and many disappeared. Eight of them, in a 10 mile strip from Plymouth to Jackson, each having produced more than 1,000,000 or more ounces of gold, earned the distinction of being world class gold mines. They are credited for over half the total yield of the entire Mother Lode.
The current condition of gold can only be described as "amazing".
The past 30 years have saw some remarkable trends in the price of gold. In 1980, gold saw a spike in the price of gold from three-hundred dollars to eight-hundred dollars, per ounce. Shortly after, though, it rescinded and remained at an up and down pricing of from four-hundred to six-hundred dollars. In 2004 we began to see another spike which , brought us to now, where gold hovers somewhere around fourteen-hundred dollars an ounce.
The current global economic conditions are helping the keep the price of gold high. As the world economies begin to devalue themselves, on their open markets, precious metal prices rise.
Gold prices rose 400% in the past decade and made a record breaking run in 2010, rising 26% and hitting an intraday high of $1,476.20 an ounce. "People see the whipsaw in the currencies market and they want to buy gold and call it a day," said Adam Klopfenstein, a senior market strategist at Lind-Waldock in Chicago.
Now universal experience proves that gold and silver have an attractiveness for the race superior to that felt for any other kind of merchandise or property. In the earliest periods of which history or tradition gives any account, and which are far anterior to any possible concert or agreement between the different races and nations inhabiting the earth, the precious metals occupied precisely the same relation to the wants and nature of man that they do to-day. They served as money in trade, and were regarded as the most desirable of all kinds of property to hold. In every period of human history their possessor has always been able to purchase whatever a people had among whom he might happen to be cast, whether they were civilized or savage. No other articles of property have a similar power; for, with the exception of the precious metals, what is highly prized by one people, is often little valued by another. But in the desire to possess gold and silver, all races, barbarous and civilized -- Asiatic, African, European and American -- meet on the same plane. To all they have an attractiveness equal in durability and intensity, and among all they render those who fortunately possess them masters of the property and services of those who do not.
There are many factors that move the gold price. In 2010, one of the most popular reasons was investors buying gold as a hedge against financial disaster in Europe as European Union nations like Greece and Ireland teetered on the brink of default. The response by most governments, one of the biggest offenders being the U.S., was to print money. As paper currencies declined in value, the price of gold rose.
But 2011 has been dicey for gold, with prices getting smacked with double-digit sell offs and rallies. The common culprit has been labeled "rebalancing," where traders who bought gold at the end of the year to show they owned it dumped it in 2011 to book a profit.
Gold is the quintessential precious metal and throughout the years marking the turn of the century, the cry of "gold" ensured sudden rushes to even the most remote locations. Whether to the far recesses of Alaska or the mountainous regions of California, gold sent men panning and digging, while families and businesses followed.
In simplest terms, gold '" the raw material '" is a bona fide means of keeping inflation at bay and having a recession proof currency on hand. This of course is now being proven one more time; investors who got badly burned by the dipping stock market are putting their equity into gold, hoping that there they are fairly inoculated against any further market ups and downs.
At the heart of it, is fear. Gold is possibly the best fear gauge there is. When investors are scared over inflation, civil war, earthquakes, nuclear reactor meltdowns and debt defaults, they run to gold.With the current economy looking as if it is, more and more, becoming unstable it appears that precious metals, particularly gold, is becoming the new medium of exchange, or at least that of a way to invest. Is gold the new money, and how long will this trend last. With the downward spiraling economy a new resurgence in gold fever has taken shape like the gold rush of 1848. People are flocking towards the finding, and purchasing of gold.
Everywhere you look you can see advertisements for gold, in all forms of media.
Gold, and silver, has quickly become one of the highest searched terms on the Internet.
With this resurgent interest in gold, more and more people are becoming interested in prospecting and metal detecting.
Gold was long popular as a medium of exchange and store of value because it was inert, was convenient to move due to even small amounts of gold having considerable value, had a constant value due to its special physical and chemical properties, and was cherished by men.
I'd like to start with a brief history of gold, and it's importance to America. Although, the history of gold predates that of America, I am primarily concerned with it's history and use in America today; the 21st century.
Since the mid 1800's Gold has been a source of exchange. Although most people believe gold was discovered in California in 1848,they would be wrong. The truth is, in 1799, gold was discovered in North Carolina spurring a gold rush there, which led to speculation that there was probably gold in Georgia.
According to legend, a Yankee was bitten by a yellow-jacket when passing through Brindletown, North Carolina, and discovered gold in the walls of the mud-daubed cabin when he hit his hand against it. It started a gold rush in 1828, near Dahlonega, Georgia, preceding the California gold rush by 20 years. Dahlonega became a boom town in the Georgia Gold Rush.
Two factors connected with the Georgia gold discovery created the conditions that led to the Georgia Gold Rush in 1829. First, the placer deposits found in Georgia meant that gold was relatively easy to collect. Second, word of Georgia's gold deposits spread rapidly, with stories that captured the imagination.
By 1830, historians estimate that there were 4,000 miners working on just the Yahoola Creek in Lumpkin County, Georgia, and over 300 ounces (8.5 kg) of gold per day was being produced in an area.
So much gold was being discovered that a mint was established at Dahlonega. The Dahlonega Mint was chartered by the United States Congress and erected in 1837. The purpose of the Mint was to tap the newly discovered source of gold for coins and to provide a place for miners to have their gold assayed and sold. Coins of various denominations were minted at the mint, but after the Civil War the mint was closed.
By the early 1840s, most of the "easy" gold had been found, and efforts began to shift to working the known deposits. When news of the California Gold Rush reached Georgia, many miners moved west in search of more gold.
From its steps in 1849, Dahlonega Mint assayer Dr. M. F. Stephenson tried to persuade miners to stay in Dahlonega instead of joining the California Gold Rush.
Experienced gold miners from Georgia played key roles in the beginning of gold mining in Colorado. Georgia gold miners Lewis and Samuel Ralston, along with some displaced Georgia Cherokees, noticed placer gold near the present site of Denver on their way to the new California gold fields in 1850.
Placerita Canyon is etched in history. California's first gold rush occurred there in 1842, six years before John Marshall's famous discovery at Coloma. It began when Francisco Lopez of Rancho San Francisco (near present day Newhall) grew tired of chasing stray horses and sat down to rest under an oak tree. While resting, Lopez dug up a cluster of wild onions. Clinging to the roots were tiny gold nuggets. The discovery caused much excitement, and attracted miners from all over California.
James Marshal sparked the greatest Gold Rush in U.S. history when he found a glittering piece of gold in the American River back in 1848. As word of the discovery raced across the country, prospecting and mining activity spread rapidly for hundreds of miles along the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but the undefined area known as the Mother Lode was mainly located in Amador County in the foothills east of Sacramento. Many mines were started and many disappeared. Eight of them, in a 10 mile strip from Plymouth to Jackson, each having produced more than 1,000,000 or more ounces of gold, earned the distinction of being world class gold mines. They are credited for over half the total yield of the entire Mother Lode.
The current condition of gold can only be described as "amazing".
The past 30 years have saw some remarkable trends in the price of gold. In 1980, gold saw a spike in the price of gold from three-hundred dollars to eight-hundred dollars, per ounce. Shortly after, though, it rescinded and remained at an up and down pricing of from four-hundred to six-hundred dollars. In 2004 we began to see another spike which , brought us to now, where gold hovers somewhere around fourteen-hundred dollars an ounce.
The current global economic conditions are helping the keep the price of gold high. As the world economies begin to devalue themselves, on their open markets, precious metal prices rise.
Gold prices rose 400% in the past decade and made a record breaking run in 2010, rising 26% and hitting an intraday high of $1,476.20 an ounce. "People see the whipsaw in the currencies market and they want to buy gold and call it a day," said Adam Klopfenstein, a senior market strategist at Lind-Waldock in Chicago.
Now universal experience proves that gold and silver have an attractiveness for the race superior to that felt for any other kind of merchandise or property. In the earliest periods of which history or tradition gives any account, and which are far anterior to any possible concert or agreement between the different races and nations inhabiting the earth, the precious metals occupied precisely the same relation to the wants and nature of man that they do to-day. They served as money in trade, and were regarded as the most desirable of all kinds of property to hold. In every period of human history their possessor has always been able to purchase whatever a people had among whom he might happen to be cast, whether they were civilized or savage. No other articles of property have a similar power; for, with the exception of the precious metals, what is highly prized by one people, is often little valued by another. But in the desire to possess gold and silver, all races, barbarous and civilized -- Asiatic, African, European and American -- meet on the same plane. To all they have an attractiveness equal in durability and intensity, and among all they render those who fortunately possess them masters of the property and services of those who do not.
There are many factors that move the gold price. In 2010, one of the most popular reasons was investors buying gold as a hedge against financial disaster in Europe as European Union nations like Greece and Ireland teetered on the brink of default. The response by most governments, one of the biggest offenders being the U.S., was to print money. As paper currencies declined in value, the price of gold rose.
But 2011 has been dicey for gold, with prices getting smacked with double-digit sell offs and rallies. The common culprit has been labeled "rebalancing," where traders who bought gold at the end of the year to show they owned it dumped it in 2011 to book a profit.
Gold is the quintessential precious metal and throughout the years marking the turn of the century, the cry of "gold" ensured sudden rushes to even the most remote locations. Whether to the far recesses of Alaska or the mountainous regions of California, gold sent men panning and digging, while families and businesses followed.
In simplest terms, gold '" the raw material '" is a bona fide means of keeping inflation at bay and having a recession proof currency on hand. This of course is now being proven one more time; investors who got badly burned by the dipping stock market are putting their equity into gold, hoping that there they are fairly inoculated against any further market ups and downs.
At the heart of it, is fear. Gold is possibly the best fear gauge there is. When investors are scared over inflation, civil war, earthquakes, nuclear reactor meltdowns and debt defaults, they run to gold.
No comments:
Post a Comment