Has there ever been a run on physical gold?

Discussion in 'Gold' started by SpacePete, Nov 25, 2015.

  1. SpacePete

    SpacePete Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Has it ever happened? Has there ever been a run on physical gold where everyone with paper claims on gold, or with gold stored as allocated or unallocated, panicked and tried to take possession in a short period of time? If so, what happened?
     
  2. sammysilver

    sammysilver Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    You have just painted a SHTF scenario.
     
  3. sterling-nz

    sterling-nz Well-Known Member

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    As (un)helpful as this is , i can not recall any instances in my time or any that i have read about historically.
     
  4. Roswell Crash Survivor

    Roswell Crash Survivor Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Yes, it has happened before. These were predominantly back in the days of the Classical Gold Standard when circulating banknotes were convertible to specie (gold coins) at a fixed ratio.

    This is an example I found about the aftermath from the 'Battle' of Fishguard in 1797, an abortive military raid by the French on a remote corner of Wales misinterpreted as prelude to a full-scale invasion of a the British Isles.

    When the invasion failed to materialize, the specie (gold coins) gradually trickled back into the bank vaults.

    I vaguely recall another vivid passage from this book, about a more relatively recent banking crisis (Barrings? Argentina? 1899?) that ended with a bank-run-esque withdrawl of specie.

    By the way, this 'The Power of Gold' book is great and everyone should buy a copy, a great one-stop-shop for explaining the origins behind the Gold Standard tracing all the way back to pre-Roman times.
     
  5. Miloman

    Miloman Active Member Silver Stacker

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    Yes 1933 and many other times and places.

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  6. Miloman

    Miloman Active Member Silver Stacker

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  7. bubbleboy

    bubbleboy Member

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    There was a run on physical gold in 1968, emergency planes were loaded with gold every day until there wasn't enough planes available to move the gold quickly enough to keep up with the run. The result was a two week closure of the global gold markets and this event set in motion a chain of events that brought us the fiat system in 1971 that we still use today.

    "On Friday March 8th, London sold 100 ton of gold at market, up from around 5 ton on a normal day. The following Sunday evening, the pool released the statement "the London Gold Pool re-affirm their determination to support the pool at a fixed price of $35 per oz". Fed chairman William McChesney-Martin announced the US would defend the $35 per oz gold price "down to the last ingot". That week the London Gold Pool continued to fight the free market process and defend $35.20 gold. By midweek it had emergency airlifted several planeloads of gold from the US to London to meet demand. On Wednesday the London market sold 175 ton, 30 times its normal daily turnover, and by Thursday demand exceeded 225 tons."
    http://www.gold-eagle.com/article/lessons-london-gold-pool

    "As a reaction to the temporary closure of the London gold market in March 1968 and the resulting instability of the gold markets and the financial systems in general"
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Gold_Pool
     
  8. Miloman

    Miloman Active Member Silver Stacker

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    And we all know how that worked out... it was and is an utter failure. The fundamental fraud at the heart of the fiat "monetary" system can never be solved, it's whole existence is defies morality and logic, it's entirely flawed and corrupt.

    Fractional debt based, hypothecated, unbacked, intrinsically worthless fiat monetary system who's controlled by private men behind closed door dictating policy to government, who then give the illusion of democracy.

    If only average Jane and Joe had a bit of common sense...

    Good Post.
     
  9. mistered

    mistered Member

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    President de Gaulle was ahead of the pack on the US gold default.

    He made a rather well known speech in 1965 denouncing the American scam, and reputedly despatched the French navy to recover the French gold deposits from the Feds New York vault.

    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9r1NLMFixo[/youtube]
     

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