This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Demand For Gold "CombiBars" Soaring
One of the biggest complaints about gold - always a parallel currency to paper, and soon to be serial, once the world shifts to a post-paper currency reality in which faith in infinitely creatable electronic paper money is finally destroyed - is that it would be an impractical medium of exchange, as the traditional denominations are so large one would be unable to trade one ounce (and certainly one bar) for every day needs. This is also one of the main reasons various retail investors prefer silver over gold. All this may be changing courtesy of Swiss refiner Valcambi which has created a CombiBar, a credit-card sized, 50 gram block of 99.9 gold, which is precut, and which can easily be broken into one gram pieces which can then be used as forms of payment in an emergency. And since one gram of gold has roughly the value of two ounces of silver, it is a far more practical lowest common denominator unit of exchange than the traditional one ounce minimums in broad circulation.
More on this novel, and practical, use of gold from Reuters:
Swiss refinery Valcambi, a unit of U.S. mining giant Newmont Mining Corp., wants to bring its “CombiBar” to market in the United States and build up its sales presence India – the world’s largest consumer of gold where the precious metal has long served as a parallel currency.
"The rich are buying standard bars or have deposits of phsyical gold. People that have less money are buying up to 100 grams," said Michael Mesaric, CEO of Valcambi "But for many people a pure investment product is no longer enough. They want to be able to do something with the precious metal."
Mesaric said the advantage of the "CombiBar" - which has been dubbed a "chocolate bar" because pieces can be easily broken off by hand into one gram squares - is that it can be easily transported and costs less than buying 50 one gram bars.
"The produce can also be used as an alternative method of payment," he said.
Valcambi is building a sales network in India and plans to launch the CombiBar on the U.S. market next year. In Japan, it wants to focus on CombiBars made of platinum and palladium.
Will the golden chocolate bar soon replace the one ounce gold coin as the most favored denomination?
The CombiBar is particularly popular among grandparents who want to give their grandchildren a strip of gold rather than a coin, said Andreas Habluetzel head of the Swiss business of Degussa, a gold trading company.
Other customers buy gold for security reasons.
Whatever the final outcome, demand is soaring:
Elsewhere, demand is particularly strong among Germans, still scarred by post-World War One hyperinflation, when money became all but worthless and it took a wheelbarrow full of notes to buy a loaf of bread.
"Above all, it's people aged between 40 and 70 that are investing in gold bars and coins," said Mesaric. "They've heard tales from their parents about wars and crises devaluing money."
“Demand is rising every week,” Mr. Habluetzel said. “Particularly in Germany, people buying gold fear that the euro will break apart or that banks will run into problems.”
Naturally, there are those who are desperate to infuse skepticism toward the new product. After all, one can't print gold, and any form of money that takes away wealth dilution power from the central banks (i.e. printing money), is implicitly disastrous for the status quo.
Stephan Mueller, who manages bank Julius Baer’s $6-billion gold fund, said one problem with using gold as a method of payment is that people have to take its value on blind trust.
“Gold is a useful store of value,” Mr. Mueller said. “However I doubt whether it will succeed as a method of payment.”
True- is is much better to have value in a EUR paper bill, collateralized by such non-blind trust items as Greek geta and Kalamata olives.
One thing is certain: after a record November, December sales of gold in the US Mint have already surpassed the total from 2011, and are set to be third most active gold purchasing month in 2012, recent violent paper smackdown of gold notwithstanding. Perhaps the US population has finally learned that all increasingly more frequent smackdowns of paper gold by central banks and other authorities do, is to make gold more affordable for more people, for longer. And increasingly more are taking advantage of precisely this, not of hopes of striking it rich overnight and then converting hard money once more into worthless paper equivalents.
»
- 55318 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Kinda like a silver piece of eight.....only for gold.
You know something is coming when officials are stamping the equivalent of the new hundred dollar bill to avoid the tungsten scams the central banks have unleashed on clients and other banks.
Gold chicklets , yum
Ah.. a new meaning to the panhandlers plea..
Hey man - got any spare change?
What will they think of next, Gold nano particles imbedded in cotten fibers?
Good bye paper death and theft ponzi scam.
Looks like an opportunity for someone to make an "ice-cube tray" style holder with lid to hold individual "chiclets" of gold and silver.
Stephan Mueller, who manages bank Julius Baer’s $6-billion gold fund, said one problem with using gold as a method of payment is that people have to take its value on blind trust.
He's kidding, right..??
He was refering to GLD
I was thinking gold covered Kit Kats... mmmmm..... Kit Kats....
Rittersport.
As soon as the rappers start using these as teeth, I'm in.
So how does one buy this or any gold for that matter? I would like to add small amount but don't know where or how to buy gold coins.
http://comparegoldprices.com/
http://comparesilverprices.com/
But for baby Jesus' sake make sure you get a reliable...
http://www.boattrader.com/
Very helpful. Thank you. Temporalist could learn something from you.
Silver CombiBars are also available, they come in 100 x 1gr.
Junk silver bitchez
I'm burying a tin can of USD right now in my backyard to save up for my retirement in 20years!!! Cuz Ben sayz its gonna be OK
Jar it, rust never sleeps!
PVC pipe... & then scatter BB's all over the place
... and some tin cans, so they can go rusty :)
... and a few nails.
From a personal experience point of view, metal detectorists rarely dig deeper than their second or third 'hit' when excavating a potential target hole. Ringpulls, nails, bean canz etc. all work very well.
So do spent cartridge cases ;)
Merry Christmas ...
Beware, the more sophisticated metal detectors can detect silver or gold.
Eg this one: http://www.exp5000.com/
So can mine.
I have had it for three years.
All I can find are ring pulls and old 'coke' cans and rusty nails. One or two old bird gauge spent shells.
Tip ~ half fill the bottom part of your pvc tube with gold, top her up with cement. Then, dig the hole (about a meter deep is good), then auger an even deeper, thinner hole. Insert pvc gold/cement loaded tube into the augured hole. Pack in some dirt, drop in a few stones, some more dirt, an old bean/beer can, top off with some 'naturally sourced' endemic geologic material, spill a few nails, pack some more dirt, cast a concrete cap (without shuttering) over the augured hole, perform similar (but more large scale operations) on the original (about one meter deep) hole, spread some more nails, bbs, beer cans, pop off a few caps (spent brass always fucks with a metal detector), fill with remaining spoil, take access spoil OFF SITE, sprinkle some rust (I get mine from work, I scrape the Fe off of our stocked piling) and then make like Ray Mears and hide / brush your tracks.
:)
Don't use an iphone or your PC to log where your stash is via GPS or any other 'consumer' geolocate device. Use a REAL FUCKING COMPASS and draw your own map.
Take note of unmovable, natural topography just in case there really is a pole flip & ones' compass becomes useless / uncalibrated to the new paradigm ...
Fiat don't rust, but it does mildew... The last time checked the safe I keep the best of my collection of spare crappy cotton linen blend in- the desiccant had worn out, and I had to launder my money (literally).
The tin can may be worth more than the USD. Bernanke will QE us into the poor house.
Now that's creative.
Until the point when some nation decides to back its currency by PMs, then PMs crash. Why hold physical when currency is backed by a PM? Isn't a gold standard what many on ZH want?
Yea, I'm presenting some logic here. It's up to you to decide whether to look at things logically and factually or be emotionally married to ANY type of asset, including PMs.
Until the point when some nation decides to back its currency by PMs, then PMs crash. Why hold physical when currency is backed by a PM?
Umm, trust is earned. Given the amount of fabricated economic information pumped out by government agencies in order to maintain this status quo strangling the financial systems, its hard to believe anything from any source. So if some sovereign were to claim their currency is backed by gold, they would also be claiming some reserves, claims are paper and paper has been shown to be questionable at best fraudulent at worst.
Besides, as long as the standard unit of account is fiat in nature (reserve currency) I seriously doubt a rouge nations currency backed by gold could survive, how would they manage the continual flucuation in golds price in relation to the standard unit of account?
I suppose if they began offering bills of credit that matured into gold bullion they could circumnavigate that problem, but I'm also sure they wouldn't last long without some kind of need to be invaded or something sinister like that.
OK, you have a stash of USD and i have a stash of PMs.
the USD collapses and "some nation decides to back its currency by PMs". how are you going to get you hands on that new curency, by exchanging worthless USD or PMs? that is the definition of "storage of wealth"
You could "back" the currency in gold, but more importantly the government would need to allow free exchange between the two by normal people.
A fast way to desolve the old debt is to devalue the currency.
A good solution. No doubt you'll be paying a premium.
I am stilll buying used/junk gold bands and necklaces which are easily recognized by the majority of Americans who would have anything I might want to trade for in a SHTF scenario.
I tend to carry just a large sack of high quality dried oregano, basil and a few other gems on my back. Then migrate to the best tomato growing region and begin anew. That way I can simply live off the land until the great recovery.
I understand that. You must be Italian.
Or the Jolly Green Giant
is tungsten malleable?
Not really. It would be hard to pass off tungsten in one of these little chips o' gold.
But the whole article is still a shameless puff piece.
Shame, shame Tylers.
....Now this from Mantool Erectile Dysfunction clamps.
Mantool Erectile Dysfunction clamps
Don't knock it....those things really work.
And much better looking and user friendly than those old-fashioned clip-ons, as well.
I doubt you would be able to break it if it was Tungsten. It think the same thing would be true of Pd and Pt. They are pretty hard.
I still think having US or CDN silver dimes on hand, in quantity, is a good idea too.
Yeah... I mean what we're talking about here is 'currency'...
Save your wealth in gold bars... & keep silver coins on hand for currency... (nickles ~ if you can't afford silver or the prices are small)...
Anybody who can't afford gold ought to start with nickles & work their way up...
I like the 1892 - 1916 Barber dimes since that sell at nearly scrap value, and being over 100 years old would be less likely to being called in by the government.
I'm still waiting for the 50 x 0,1 gram silver combibars.
Stagecoach silver builion
U want silver dimes? The math fits: at $31.10 for 31.1 gr./oz, that is $1.00/gr. I'd be happy with silver half dollars and dollars, and golden $100 coins that would be allowed to compete with FRNs. But that would be a one-sided match, so TPTB will not allow it. Not until they have One Coin To Rule Them All, in their NWO regime.
Maybe Tobler can package it in with a chocolate bar, kinda like Willy Wonka. And have a contest for central banker to the world.
Easy to counterfeit. Only fools would accept them.
Maybe.....but all you have to do is snap off a piece to find out.
What happens when silver surpasses the price of gold? Hmmmmm?
I don't think that will happen until there is proveable less fizz silver than gold.
But, it could happen.
Merry Christmas
That is already the case. 1/3rd as much above grouns silver as there is gold, and that is quite generous, in my estimation.
No there is more silver both above and in the ground. It's just that for investors there is less silver bullion available than gold. If the price of silver would go up, more silver would enter the market because more people would sell their silverware etc. Also recycling would kick in. There is no way that silver will become more expensive than gold, ever.
my fiances mom busted out her real silverware set just last Friday, I got all giddy. Never eaten with real silver before. Dam this fork is like $50
this is debatable:
the chinese hoarded silver, even more after it wad demonetized
On the Valcambi site a 50g gold bar is selling for $2857.84 but 50g of gold at current spot prices (1662) should add up to $2967.85. How can the price be less than spot? Is it the difference in exchange rate? Has anyone purchased from them and is as safe as other PM dealers?
No wonder demand is rising every week.
Less premium on 1/10th oz American gold eagles....good looking coin too I might say. Merry Christmas my bitchez!
Gold spot @ $1660.92 = $2,670.00 for 50g.
Be sure to convert using "Troy" ounces (1 gram = 0.0321507466 troy ounce).
~7% premium.
thanks , I realized this after posting
Yep. Like I said above. You'll not doubt pay a premium.
I can buy junk/used gold directly from people looking to sell and pay them more than what they'd get at a cash for gold joint.
They're happy. I'm happy. They get me referrals.
PM is priced in troy ounces. 1 troy ounce is 31.1034768 grams. 50 grams is about 1.61 troy ounces.
Hence a 50g bar at 1662 spot is $2671.73. So the combi bar is selling at nearly $115/oz over spot. Nice work if you can get it.
Imagine finding a few of those between your couch cushions. Jackpot!
I dont know why someone doesnt just make paper notes with 0.5g, and 1.0g foil strips in them. A paper note weighs about 1g, so its no big deal adding 0.5, or 1.0g to the note - and 1g gold is around $50, so $25 for 0.5g - very handy denominations for daily use.
or why couldn't they just embed 1 gram of gold into a plastic credit card [like an RFID chip]... The chip itself could contain the authenticity info on the gold...
Beacuse gold ain't money ...
Whatever ~ it may be a stupid idea, but it's no more stupid than that breakable card in the article... People understand credit cards... They DON'T understand that kind of shit...
~~~
Hell ~ as far as I'm concerned, we go all in on the way it was in that movie IN TIME... We're all slaves anyway...
I wonder if the fiat control-freaks would claim that these items would be quasi currency, and illicit?
There's a Zimbabwe video I saw where they have vials of gold dust (and the horrid pains of obtaining the gold dust) to pay for bread.
Here's a growth industry: a highly accurate milligram scale (balance).
Plenty of those around, and not expensive. I'd like to see a miligram scale app for i thingies.
A hundred years ago (particularly "out west") people carried a small balance with weights. It all fit into an eyeglasses sized case. But a gram ain't what it used to be, so slightly better accuracy is needed today.
The RFID chip itself could be printed in gold.
RFID chips are printed in Silver.
Yes. No reason they couldn't be made out of gold.
Great, I want to be tracked, so convenient!
I'm just saying that .01 g of gold can be made to self-identify.
At $2847.38/oz of gold .01g = $1.00.
These are for those who do not comprehend or are not financially concerned about premium and shipping costs of CombiBars. One looses weight gain.
Manipuflation, Is right. Buy the most recognizable for the beginning.
Buy now trade later.
The children are starting to wake now. They will find presents under the tree. And many of those presents will be of a silvery nature.
Question: If this is going to be the new currency...why manufacture it and sell it for Dollars and Euros, when they can hold on to it and become the new "Masters of the Universe" when gold and silver become "serial"?
Answer: Becauser there's a sucker born every minute.
Now everybody, in a Loony Toones rythem, "A Shave and a Haircut...Two Bits."
Call it an even dollar for the lilac water.
The ladies like the lilac water ...
Why not go back to Pieces of Eight?
Ho ho , me hearties! Arrgh!
About time. I was actually looking into the process of melting mine down and making little pieces.
Don't forget your portable pocket scale.
Bought one a few months ago. https://www.doijerkalff.nl/combibar-50x1-gram.html
Lol, the new & improved "Mr. Goudbaar"
The pictures tell me more, much more. The silver tablet is not for sale YET, but here it is: https://www.doijerkalff.nl/catalog/product/gallery/id/978/image/2115/
100 x 1 gram silver.
Even these Kombi Bars are too big of a denomination ! (BTW What's wrong with a tube of fractional mini-coins ?) What we need is redeemable electronic and paper money .... which can be redeemed at Gold and Silver ATMs 24/7 ? You don't have to go the one window and one window only, one day of the month, in the FRB, Washington DC ... and stand in line for an hour .... to redeem ! Monedas 1929 Eye-On-Zion World Report (Angus, don't get a knot in your noodle .... Eye-On-Zion is for my serious posts !)
Because these are more valuable (lighter) than silver coins.
Gold coins, on the other hand, would be much more expensive than these bits.
But, whatever works on the market... As long as you know the ratio, you can trade.
Comparing the prices from Valcambri website to CrApmex-
1x 50g CombiBar spread - $180/oz
16x 1/10oz Maples - $300/oz
16x 1/10oz Eagles - $340/oz
50x Individual 1gr pieces (w/o assay card) - $450/oz
Also the micro denominations are a pain in the ass if you wind up using/exchanging them in a single transaction instead of many small individual transactions (kind of like rolling pennies for a pack of cigarettes)
"We don't want your Ben confetti from Washington" all over again.
There is nothing wrong with gold backed money .... as long as it is transparent, honest and instantly redeemable at convenient locations ! This also defeats the idiots who say there isn't enough physical metal for a monetary system ! A millionth of a gram would be a nice denomination PP (Post Parabola) ? No dollars, yen nor sheckles .... generic world money is denominated in decimal fractions of a gram of Au, Ag, Pt, Pd, Cu etc. ! A new kind of "fractional" banking ?
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.... I want to buy some. No serious I do! And it's backed by Newmount that's even better.
There is not really a great need to transport physical gold for it to back the currency. Most exchange can be carried out with digital gold just like digital federal reserve notes are transferred now. Check out James Turk's company.
Thin trading today? Oh well. The "perplexus" toy is pretty cool but only my wife and I are playing with it so far. The kids seem to love these Chinee made "pillow pets". Pillow pets are a county fair prize stuffed animal plus a velcro strap. My daughter loves it and then stated that her friend has THREE of them already. GenX wavering a bit on that news here.
Hey, at least I can salvage some pride as I got my wife a set of battery jumper cables for our(her) Town and Country van. Yes, that was her Christmas present.(that and cash) I ain't hearing no bitching either.
How much for the finger condoms? I can send to Timmah for Christmas? Cleanest way to search for Uncle Bens juicy Keynesian Endgame.
Truly a "must have" item in the new wild west.
How much to have one delivered?
Another version of small unit gold and silver: http://shiresilver.com/ Precious metal strips in credit card sized packaging.
The Vulturistic ASS who invented this idea, better not come near the Manger, tonight......
And like it happened hundreds of years ago, if gold is used for consumer trade, people will start filing off corners and edges, skimming the system.
Gold is not the answer. Accountable government is the answer. Politics comes before stability. And that's why we are in the mess we are in.
Barry calls it food stamps for votes.
And what kind of government do you think those people who file off corners of gold and slver coins and bars will elect?
I'd rather take my chances!
A interesting concept.
Gold (and silver) is money and has been globally accepted as a form of payment for thousands of years.
The same can't be said of fiat and credit cards.
Even today I would like to see someone try giving a tribesmen of say Papua New Guinea a Mastercard for payment.
He would probably spear you on the spot or shrink your head or something lol.
I never forget, when I was a kid, this one day at school (junior), our teacher was off ill and the headmaster covered for the day, gave us all a very interesting parable, I'll never forget it, it went something like this ...
[headmaster places two items on a table in front of the class, one is a crisp twenty pound note, the other, a forty foot ball of rolled twine string]
The headmaster then imparts upon us a tale about 'civilized' people descending into the uncharted jungles of the dark continent, and then upon contact with the endemic denizens of that particular locale, the 'civilized' people humorously promote the tribal chiefs ignorance, upon given the choice of the imagined 'wealth' (the score debt note) and the real physical potential wealth of knowing how to generate life giving sustenance from something as 'simple' as a ball of string ... versus the real acknowledged wealth of the guy that is capable of figuring out that the (intrinsically worthless value of string, viz a viz) might, just, be, perhaps, more 'valuable' than the string was in the first place.
Queue an oxymoron ...
Anyways, the point I make is, and I am convinced that most ZHers might agree, that there isn't really anything that is valuable to real people so much as life itself.
?
Which, further begs the question why, why should we (as a cogent communicative society) be even entertaining the notion (let alone the physical concept of) money, whatever the fuck that the word 'money' ever meant to anybody beyond a psychopath in the first place?
the answer why we need money is simple - we often need to shift fruits of our labour into the future. You produce something today which rots or rusts pretty quickly so you sell it but then you do not need to buy anything for yourself today, instead you plan to buy something 1-2-5 years from now. that is where money (as claim on human labour) comes in handy
Gold pressed Latinum anyone? The Ferengi may have been on something there.
easier to smuggle bar (tm)
Go figure.
Behind spot.
No Tax.
No Premium.
Nuggets.
"Stephan Mueller, who manages bank Julius Baer’s $6-billion gold fund, said one problem with using gold as a method of payment is that people have to take its value on blind trust."
Is this guy mixing crystal meth in his crack pipe before smoking it? Because last I heard gold has INTRINSIC value and PAPER has a value determined by blind trust. Nice little fucking propaganda placement bullshit to talk gold down while supposedly promoting it. Fucking little dipshit author...
he had in mind the fact that ordinary man on the street simply has no way of checking gold purity so one has to trust it is pure gold
One thing I learned from seeing and learning about the economic collapse in Argentina 10 years ago - gold bars are nearly useless. You can't exchange change them for a tank of gasoline or loaf of bread.
That's what silver is for! And given the rotten state of Argentina's economy for the past 3 decades I'd be surprised if many people even had gold bars or anything gold besides jewelry in any quantity to begin with...
I love the idea in the abstract, but I will say though that one criticism that is legitimate is knowing if what you're getting is really pure gold.
I know what a 1 ounce gold coin feels and looks like, but small amounts of gold are difficult to decipher. I'm a gold bug, and I don't think I'd take a a few tiny gram squares of yellow metal as payment. I'd ask them if they had any silver maples or eagles instead.
Or here's a radical idea, we could have money that is backed by precious metals that people trusted and take away the Central Banks printing press instead of system where people have to break off chunks of gold.
Well I wonder how this "produce" will stand up on ebay...?
You know.....being alternative method of payment and all.
Now I know why silver got smacked below $30 again.
Fuck Yous bankers.
niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
gold is inconvinient in day to day transactions because it is difficult to check (how do you check one gram of gold is pure gold ?).
We need gold as store of value not as exchange media in day-to-day transactions.
They better develope visa-gold or mastercard-gold debit cards accounting in AUX. Namely you go and deposit gold in the bank and you get AUX account and debit card and go shopping with it
These CombiBars look great .... as soon as my local Bullion dealer starts stocking them - I'm going to starting selling my Tungsten and start buying CombiBars.
What about coin clipping? Or would cheap electronic milligram scales be accurate enough to prevent/discourage this?
would you be carrying the scales with you all the time and checking every gold-gram you get? how convinient is that?
now ask yourself why do you trust paper dollar bills ? do you check everyone of them ? how fast can you check them ?
Easier to test for Tungsten?
Bitcoin is superior for small trades, because it's easily verifiable without having to test for density.
Bitcoin is as safe as a Nun's knickers during a violent mob riot in Eygpt at this moment;
Two things to think about:
1) All of the major attacks have been on the processing / banking side of Bitcoin, for obvious reasons (or social gaming, but that's boring, and hardly unique); all of them have shown a total ineptitude and naviety in the face of real criminals that is a total laughing stock. They're being raided by my 14 year old cousin, and only because she's bored.
2) If I leased one of the ten new super-computers in this world [legally available] based on using large amounts of GPUs, how long would it take me to generate the next 1,000 years of BitCoins, given their coding and generational limitations? Answer: Not long, not long at all. i.e. your creation method is hugely out-dated and based on a normative computer model that anyone with resources can ignore.
~ If you don't think it's of major interest to people, think again - what do you think is more likely: the Russian mob wanting to use it to launder money, or the US mob wanting to stop you from using it to protect the credit card industry?
Again: the Geeks who champion this are far too nice, safe and white priveledge to imagine the angles. Major battle-ground in those deepnet abyssal trenches. When you hear the rumours, suddenly Mr Jimmy Saville and co seem so provincial; both sides seem to use the same play-book of fear, control and abuse.
Comment:
The "real" BitCoin will come (and indeed, probably is already ready to go), but it sure-as-shit ain't being run by Geek cowboys in their Libertarian Unix Nirvana.
Their future? Thus.
I'm no BitCoin aficionado, but I think you're being overly dismissive.
Leasing one isn't cheap, I'd wager. It takes real resources to mine BitCoins.
Also, there isn't another 1,000 years worth available: "...it is established that there will be a limited and scheduled release of no more than 21 million coins, which will be fully issued by the year 2140.[7]"
Sigh: another person who doesn't understand that Time / Space are the same plane. Ugh.
The point being: it'll take anyone who has studied the market, and weighed the costs of a super-computer [Tier 0] to move that 2140 to 2030. Based on our CURRENT technology. And what do we know about the last 50 years and Moore's Law?
DERP.
The "1,000" years was a joke about how Empires usually catagorise themselves [see further: Fourth Reich]: further more, the people behind BitCoin are so fucking retarded it's not funny. See above for the instant reasons why. Oh, look! There's my Dragon 32k computer from the late 1980's! That'll take a 100 years to mine my bitcoins!
[And no; even using recursive algo's to artificially raise the time delay between n and n+1 won't work, if you want to get technical, due to doubling]
Fact of the matter. Putting a shitty time "guess" on your currency, without even realising [and trust me: go search through the "BitCoin Genius realms" for my simple hack] that it'll crash earlier...
Is rather like forming a Federal Reserve in 1913 on Christmas with no-one to vote for it.
Same life-time; if they're lucky, which TPTB will make sure they're not. Oh, and the people running BitCoin? Muppets.
You don't understand how bitcoins work. If someone uses a supercomputer the difficulty to solve a block will go up. Your investment will be worthless within days of mining. Other than the 250 bitcoins you mined.
I covered that by my "n and n+1" comment.
And yes, I rather do understand how they work.
I prefer Canadian golden Maple Leafs, because of their purity (over Eagles), and their face value in a non-US currency. Not only is their premium close to the Spot price, but does not come under US jurisdiction. The US cannot outlaw or tax foreign currency. Plus, purity risk is averted with the unique 0.99999 purity version from the RCM. Take that, Bernanke! :-)
Gold bullion is sold by gold content and is irrelevant of purity (eg: krugerrands are 22k, but a 1oz coin still has 1oz of pure (24k) gold). 0.999, 0.9999, 0.9999999999999..., etc. is all the same - 24k - and anything beyond 0.999 is pure marketing - even if it is/were true, it would only make it more expensive to refine for no real benefit.
Looking under the cushions of the sofa for things you've dropped just got real.
GOLD
You can get them from here: http://www.coininvestdirect.com/en/gold_bullion/50g-gold-bullion-50gr-go...
The Oppo GT-N7005 5 has fairly impressive specifications, even by today's standards.