'Coin Bars' and Bundesbank Gold Repatriation

[MrLeprechaun]

An interesting read on the existence of 'Coin Bars' in central bank vaults and another perspective on the Bundesbank's Gold Repatriation (from Ronan Manly at BullionStar):

https://www.bullionstar.com/blog/ronan-manly/keys-gold-vaults-new-york-fed-part-3-coin-bars/

The post is relatively lengthy so here is my rough synopsis:

'Coin Bars' are bars made by melting gold coins without refining the gold or removing other metals present in the coins first. A number of 'Coin Bars' were cast in the early 20th century, in particular in the US and Europe during the 1930's, when gold coins were being taken out of circulation or collected from direct confiscation e.g. FDR 1933-34. These 'Coin Bars' were initially stored outside of central bank vaults e.g. 'Coin Bars' cast from the FDR confiscation would end up in facilities such as Fort Knox. Fast forward to March 1968 and the collapse of the London Gold Pool. Ronan contends that in a scramble to provide enough gold 'good for delivery' in the London market the US Treasury and the Fed were forced to consider their 'Coin Bar' stocks as bars of appropriate fineness were in short supply (with the implication that this shortage and rejected offer of 'Coin Bars' precipitated the London Gold Pool collapse). Ronan then claims that since this time 'Coin Bars' have migrated to the vaults of central banks (the Bank of England in particular) for refinement into London good delivery form. Fast forward to 2014-2015 and the Bundesbank gold repatriation program. Ronan picks up on comments from Carl-Ludwig Thiele an Executive Board member of BuBa that most of the gold repatriated from NY and Paris 'did not meet the London Good Delivery general market standard' and that BuBa chose to have them 'melted down and recast'. Ronan suggests that this was done because BuBa received 'Coin Bars' from the FRBNY (and concludes with an open question asking where the other BuBa gold bars stored at the FRBNY disappeared to).

Ronan has included a number of links to sources that he references throughout the post (which I have not followed up on yet) and at face value seems to have researched this 'coin bar' idea very thoroughly (with some interesting cross-references).

I'm not sure if anyone else has seen coverage of this elsewhere or indeed more info on 'Coin Bars' - this article was the first I've heard of them. Anyone?

Cheers,
ML

 

[Big A.D.]

It came up here: http://forums.silverstackers.com/message-430927.html

It's apparently been known for quite a long time that the very old bars from the U.S. treasury aren't always up to spec.

 

[Pirocco]

http://www.bundesbank.de/Redaktion/...5/2015_01_19_continues_transfers_of_gold.html

The Bundesbank took advantage of the transfer from New York to have roughly 50 tonnes of gold melted down and recast according to the London Good Delivery standard, today's internationally recognised standard. "We also called on the expertise of the Bank for International Settlements for the spot checks that had to be carried out. As expected, there were no irregularities," said Mr Thiele.

This is specifically about gold brought back in 2014 from NY.

The table below:

Schedule / From Paris / From New York / Total tonnes / Share as a percentage

To be transferred by 2020 374t 300t 674t 100%
Transferred in 2013 32t 5t 37t 5,5%
Transferred in 2014 35t 85t 120t 17,8%
Transferred to date 67t 90t 157t 23,3%
Still to be transferred 307t 210t 517t 76,7%

2013 from NY was 5t
2014 from NY was 85t of which 50t was melted down/recast
So that 'aren't always to spec' appears as 'mostly not to spec'.

About "coinbars", they are explained there as a variety of gold coins that were melted and cast with the same metals content they were. No refining to whatever specific purity / standard.
Alike it had to happen quickly. It's suggested that the coinbars could origin from US confiscated gold. But that doesn't appear to me as a situation where hurry-melting>bars had a reason.
Maybe the coinbars origin from WW2 related banks/whoever vault gold relocations that do give a reason for hurry. Maybe even by the Germans on the retreat or so. Just a hypothesis that seems more likely than the so called gold confiscation in the 1930 US, of which I've read quite some contradicting things, the order exists no doubt, but how much gold actually was confiscated, remains like an open question.