Saturday, November 14, 2009

Attempting to explain what gold bullion is

A little notice at the very bottom of the left hand column of this blog informs you that sometimes I write in a mercenary manner. You will have noticed this notice (and the mercenary manner) on a number of occasions, no doubt.

Sometimes however, when requested to include a link in a post, it's a bit of a task to get the brain going. I have to revert to consulting Wikipedia, that great oracle of information (and the great grandchild of the Encyclopedia Britannica), as when I was asked to jot a few notes on the subject of gold bullion (about which I am only partially informed, as opposed to bouillon, which we all know is a town in Belgium - as well as a form of soup). When gold is referred to as bullion no one is thinking of making some shining soup out of it; rather it is the bulk form of gold, before it is turned into things like gold coins, or wedding rings, or gold hammered out into a form that is so minutely thin that it would go half way round the world and back again. (I jest.)

Apparently a gold coin can be worth less in its face value than it is worth as bullion. How this can be is a bit of a puzzle, although Wikipedia does its best to explain all this under the topic of precious metal. Seems to me to be somewhat the equivalent of telling me that I'm worth more dead than alive, which in terms of life insurance is, I suppose, true. In terms of personal worth to those around about me it is blatantly false. (I hope.)

I attach a picture of a gold visa credit card taken by Cheon Fong Liew. These are not usually made out of gold bullion.

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