Liberty Coin Service

Last week, the American Numismatic Association (ANA) World’s Fair of Money convention was held in Boston.  This is one of the largest coin shows in the country each year, with hundreds of dealers hosting booths on the bourse floor.

I had a conversation there with a physical metals trader for Morgan Stanley.  He assists company customers who want to purchase gold, silver, platinum, or palladium.  He told me that in the past about 35% of the sales he made were for delivery of physical metals, with the balance for storage, mostly in unallocated accounts.  However, that ratio has changed in the past few months, where about 50% of his recent sales have been for physical delivery.  He suggested that a greater number of his clients now have concerns about whether they could ever take delivery of precious metals stored in unallocated accounts.

Last Friday, the price of gold closed in the US above the $1,200 level for the first time since mid July. It was also the eighth consecutive day that gold had closed higher in US markets than the day before.

What was especially significant about Friday’s increase is that it was the day that the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the monthly job and unemployment report. For more than the past 50+ months, the prices of gold and silver have been knocked down almost every time when the jobs report was issued. This occurrence has become so predictable that a number of professional traders and investors have timed their transactions in relationship to the jobs report release.