Gold in 2003 (so far)

January 2nd: $342.20
December 19th: $408.75

Gain 19.4%


January 2nd: £212.88
December 19th: £231.46

Gain 8.7%

January 2nd: ¤326.53
December 19th: ¤329.40

Gain 0.9%

Question: How much did gold increase in value in 2003?

My 11/18/03 Predictions...
Dec. 14 418.00
Dec. 21 434.00
Dec. 28 435.50
Looks like I was off a bit... LOL...

Sam F.
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/uncle_sam/


"Jorg Lueke" wrote...


January 2nd: $342.20
December 19th: $408.75

Gain 19.4%


January 2nd: £212.88
December 19th: £231.46

Gain 8.7%

January 2nd: ¤326.53
December 19th: ¤329.40

Gain 0.9%

Question: How much did gold increase in value in 2003?

Subject: Gold in 2003 (so far)
From: Jorg Lueke
Date: 12/20/2003 7:42 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:



January 2nd: $342.20
December 19th: $408.75

Gain 19.4%


January 2nd: £212.88
December 19th: £231.46

Gain 8.7%

January 2nd: ¤326.53
December 19th: ¤329.40

Gain 0.9%

Question: How much did gold increase in value in 2003?





The value of gold never changes. It is pretty, always in demand, and makes
darned good jewelry, electrical contacts and teeth. It is an excellent store of
value.
..
The values of the currencies used to buy gold, on the other hand, rise and fall
like corks on the ocean, thereby making the price of gold as expressed in these
currencies fall and rise correspondingly. At the present time, the price of the
dollar is low, as expressed in gold. As long as we have a government of fools
who insist on spending more money than they have the nerve to raise in taxes,
this will continue.
..
Of course, the price of a (post-1861) dollar bill will never fall to zero, as
has happened with the older currency issues of most non-U.S. governments. About
a year ago somebody came into our coin shop with some obsolete Swiss 1,000
Franc notes, which an ancestor had put away for a rainy day. They were
worthless as currency, and had little collector value.
..
I am pleased that the EU is no longer issuing currency notes that can expire
like a carton of cottage cheese whenever a government whims it. Perhaps if it
can resist the temptation to do so every now and then for another 140 years,
the citizens of the rest of the world will put as much faith in the Euro as
they now do in the dollar.
..
Tom DeLorey

On 21 Dec 2003 05:58:46 GMT, TomDeLorey wrote:

Subject: Gold in 2003 (so far)
From: Jorg Lueke
Date: 12/20/2003 7:42 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:



January 2nd: $342.20
December 19th: $408.75

Gain 19.4%


January 2nd: £212.88
December 19th: £231.46

Gain 8.7%

January 2nd: ¤326.53
December 19th: ¤329.40

Gain 0.9%

Question: How much did gold increase in value in 2003?





The value of gold never changes. It is pretty, always in demand, and
makes
darned good jewelry, electrical contacts and teeth. It is an excellent
store of
value.
.
The values of the currencies used to buy gold, on the other hand, rise
and fall
like corks on the ocean, thereby making the price of gold as expressed
in these
currencies fall and rise correspondingly. At the present time, the price
of the
dollar is low, as expressed in gold. As long as we have a government of
fools
who insist on spending more money than they have the nerve to raise in
taxes,
this will continue.
.
Of course, the price of a (post-1861) dollar bill will never fall to
zero, as
has happened with the older currency issues of most non-U.S.
governments. About
a year ago somebody came into our coin shop with some obsolete Swiss
1,000
Franc notes, which an ancestor had put away for a rainy day. They were
worthless as currency, and had little collector value.
.
I am pleased that the EU is no longer issuing currency notes that can
expire
like a carton of cottage cheese whenever a government whims it. Perhaps
if it
can resist the temptation to do so every now and then for another 140
years,
the citizens of the rest of the world will put as much faith in the Euro
as
they now do in the dollar.
.
Tom DeLorey

Thanks Tom,

I find it very interesting that the Numismatic press, and certain
commercials, keep talking about how the value of gold has risen. When
really it seems to make more sense to say the value of the dollar has
fallen. It's also kind of weird that if I could have bought a nice new
car in the US of France at the beginning of the year for 60 ounces of gold
(converted to local currency), the car would now cost 50 ounces of gold in
the U.S. while it probably still sits at 60 ounces in France.

what was the currency symbol on the third set? it didn't translate in
Outlook Express

"Jorg Lueke" wrote in message
news


January 2nd: $342.20
December 19th: $408.75

Gain 19.4%


January 2nd: £212.88
December 19th: £231.46

Gain 8.7%

January 2nd: ¤326.53
December 19th: ¤329.40

Gain 0.9%

Question: How much did gold increase in value in 2003?

Nooker wrote:

what was the currency symbol on the third set?

Euro.

it didn't translate in Outlook Express

Maybe that (OE) is the problem here g. Jorg used the ISO 8859-15
charset for his message, and the ¤ shows up just fine.

Christian

On Sun, 21 Dec 2003 22:14:27 +0100, Christian Feldhaus
wrote:

Nooker wrote:

what was the currency symbol on the third set?

Euro.

it didn't translate in Outlook Express

Maybe that (OE) is the problem here g. Jorg used the ISO 8859-15
charset for his message, and the ¤ shows up just fine.

Christian

Yes!

I did note that his Outlook translated the Euro symbol back to the old
universal currency symbol which it replaced. There's probably an update
of OE that will let one see Euros though.

yes, I'm sure there is an update for my OE, but I'm using an old computer
running Win 98SE and I don't want to bother updating right now.

the new computer arrives any day, & it will be Win XP with all the bells &
whistles (DVD burner, etc)! yea, can't wait !
"Dude, you're getting a Dell !"

Mark

"Jorg Lueke" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 21 Dec 2003 22:14:27 +0100, Christian Feldhaus
wrote:

Nooker wrote:

what was the currency symbol on the third set?

Euro.

it didn't translate in Outlook Express

Maybe that (OE) is the problem here g. Jorg used the ISO 8859-15
charset for his message, and the ¤ shows up just fine.

Christian

Yes!

I did note that his Outlook translated the Euro symbol back to the old
universal currency symbol which it replaced. There's probably an update
of OE that will let one see Euros though.

Nooker wrote:

yes, I'm sure there is an update for my OE, but I'm using an old computer
running Win 98SE and I don't want to bother updating right now.

No problemo ... If this is "only" a font related issue, here is some
more info from Microsoft, along with fonts that you could use:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/faq/faq12.htm

Might as well be a problem with the "charset" header used, though. The
euro symbol is part of ISO-8859-15 (Latin-9) and of Unicode (UTF-8). The
latter is sometimes frowned upon in newsgroups; and if you use US-ASCII
or ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1), that symbol is not supported.

Then again ... if you don't need the euro symbol that often anyway,
don't worry :-)

Christian

nowspam (TomDeLorey) wrote:
snip
The value of gold never changes. It is pretty, always in demand, and makes
darned good jewelry, electrical contacts and teeth. It is an excellent store of
value.
.
The values of the currencies used to buy gold, on the other hand, rise and fall
like corks on the ocean, thereby making the price of gold as expressed in these
currencies fall and rise correspondingly. At the present time, the price of the
dollar is low, as expressed in gold. As long as we have a government of fools
who insist on spending more money than they have the nerve to raise in taxes,
this will continue.
snip

Gold is indeed a fascinating commodity. Unlike most goods, it falls
into three major economic categories: it acts as an implied currency
credit reserve ("store of value"); it's a luxury good (e.g., fine
jewelry); and it is an industrial feedstock.

As world wealth expands over time, gold demand will likely increase.
Price changes attributable to luxury demand represent true
appreciation/depreciation, whereas currency-related fluctuations
represent hedge value ("stored" value).

Eastern cultures in particular combine reserve value with luxury
value. Many women in India, China, and the Middle East own and wear
heavy, comparatively crude jewelry as assets. (I've heard, but can't
confirm, that in some countries, gold is the only financial asset
women may personally own). With a billion or so women in the areas I
mentioned, their purchasing habits will materially influence the price
of gold.

Many developed countries' central banks have enormous surplus stores,
since they no longer use gold to back their currencies. They would
like to divest, but selling too much at once would depress the market
price. They will likely sell gradually over decades to avoid "selling
low". Some analysts believe this circumstance caps market prices,
because whenever prices go high enough, central banks take a selling
opportunity. As surplus reserves are depleted, gold will likely still
act independently as a "store of value" for decades, centuries, or
more, as implied price caps erode. Conversely, though, long-term
improvement in the world economy will tend to suppress gold's reserve
value, as people have greater faith in their governments.

Gold also has excellent electrical properties. Development of products
that use gold would grow demand. This occured, for example, when car
airbags were initially fielded; PCs also contain gold. On the other
hand, because it's so expensive, engineers and scientists look for
ways to find substitutes, such as superconductivity, not to mention
the constant search for new sources.

The changing nature of gold, and even the prospect of such change,
makes gold a particularly difficult commodity to predict.

--Chris