The people that continually scream about gold being a barbarous relic or a pet rock or, simply, not money, they sure have a lot of regulations, standards and certification programs to insure as much gold as possible is accounted! This seems rather odd if you think about it, why so concern surrounding an item that is supposedly hated? Well, you know the answer, whatever they tell you that applies to you doesn’t apply to them or whatever they accuse of you doing is, in fact, what they are doing.
The people over seeing gold – LBMA, World Gold Council, COMEX, CME Group and a small handful of others – will tell you just about anything about gold and silver to keep you away from the metals – surely don’t add any to your portfolio, but if you happen to consider adding gold to your portfolio make sure it is a digital illusion of gold like GLD or some other nonexistent “gold” ETF or some other such nonsense. Whatever you do, don’t even consider owning physical gold or physical silver.
This is exactly the reason we have added as much physical gold and physical silver as possible to our holdings. We will never, ever stop adding these metals to our holdings.
We recently reported there are several new physical gold trading platforms either under development or that have come online in the past 2-3 years. This is a massive shift from what was happening just a decade ago with very offerings to trade or acquire quantities of precious metals. We pointed out that China, Russia, BRICS and Now UAE: Everybody Wants A Gold Trading Platform!
China started something when they opened the Shanghai Gold Exchange where physical gold is traded to a global market. Russia began trading gold futures on the Moscow Exchangewhich was followed by China and Russia announcing they would open the BRICS Gold Exchange to assist the other members of the BRICS alliance to acquire more gold. This was followed by India stating they would be pursuing a gold spot exchange market and next up is the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announcing they, too, are going to open a physical gold trading platform. WOW! That’s a lot of physical gold changing hands on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.
Now we learn that Turkey is getting in on this flood of change, however, Turkey wants it all, or at least they want to invite as much gold as possible to visit Turkey!
Turkey is putting the finishing touches on a plan to loosen rules that govern the import of gold to one of the world’s biggest consumers of the precious metal.
The Treasury is drawing up changes that would allow the certification and standardization of scrap or unregistered gold people may carry when entering Turkey, according to people with knowledge of the matter. It’s working with Borsa Istanbul on the plan that also includes the registration of gold brought without certification from the London Bullion Market Association, said the people, who asked not to be named because the plan is still confidential.
The LBMA is an international trade association setting the standard for the global over-the-counter precious metal market in terms that range from purity and provenance to the way in which bars are traded. Borsa Istanbul, Turkey’s only stock exchange that’s also been overseeing the market for precious metals and diamonds since 2013, is an affiliate member of the LBMA.
Turkey’s Treasury and Borsa Istanbul declined to comment.
For a country that mines a fraction of the gold it needs to meet domestic demand, attracting more of the precious metal from abroad is the only way to sate the needs of jewelers as well as households that have long relied on bullion as a hedge in turbulent times.
Turks traditionally give gold as gifts at events from weddings to circumcision ceremonies, and it’s usually used to pay rent by merchants plying their trade inside Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, one of the world’s oldest covered markets.
With prices on a tear this year as buyers flocked to gold at a time of trade tensions and worry about the global economy, Turkey’s jewelry industry was one of the few to show an increase in demand for bullion last quarter, according to the World Gold Council. The country refines scrap gold into jewelry sold all over the Middle East.
Overall, Turkey’s gold demand rose 3.7% in the first nine months of 2019 from the same period a year ago. Source
If this goes through and Turkey begins attracting more and more physical gold, especially scrap gold, that could make a significant change in the global gold market. Part of me wants to see this happen and another part of me is a little concerned. Regulations serve a purpose, over-regulation chokes markets and zero-regulations invite criminal elements to the markets. We just need a balanced approached to the flow of gold so when we go to our local coin dealer we know the gold we acquire is, in fact, as good as gold.
