Has there ever been a run on physical gold?

[SpacePete]

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?

 

[sammysilver]

You have just painted a SHTF scenario.

 

[sterling-nz]

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

 

[Roswell Crash Survivor]

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.

"On Saturday, the 18th of February, even before the incident at Fishguard, fears of a French invasion had proviked a run on the banks in Newcastle (some 350 miles from Fishguard, forcing the local banks to shut their windows on the 20th. The panic soon spread to London and other major centers. The withdrawals were draining the Bank of England's gold stocks at the rate of 100,000 a day, out of a gold reserve that had already shrunk under wartime conditions from 7 million at the end of 1794 to 5 million at the end of 1795 and then to only about 2 million at the end of 1796."

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.

 

[Miloman]

Yes 1933 and many other times and places.

 

[Miloman]

Does the Government Warn You Before Confiscation?

When the government confiscated gold the last time it did not give any warning and there is no plausible reason why it would today. This has to do with how the government views the situation. Does the government warn you before gold confiscation? They very likely will not.

Various agencies of the Federal Government are charged with warning citizens about issues of health and safety. Historically presidential orders such as Nixon taking the US off of the gold standard or Roosevelt's confiscation are not announced in advance.

If citizens had been given warning they could have traveled to Canada, Mexico, Cuba, or any other foreign country and put their gold in a safe deposit box in a bank. The surprise announcement of a law banning the "hoarding" of gold prevented citizens from doing what would have been legal with their own property up until the moment the executive order was given.

Although the government will not warn you there will be warning signs. Maybe there already are.

Today is the closest the nation has been to Depression Era conditions since that time. The government is adding huge amounts of debt with the government's own Office of Management and Budget predicting another $10 trillion in debt in the next decade.

As bad as times are, the government could confiscate precious metals at any time. However, there are always political considerations to any action. A likely scenario would be a short term crisis on top of the already bad economic situation. That would give the current government an "immediate" reason to act. When it comes don't be surprised if it is quick.

Does the government warn you before confiscation? No.

http://www.gold-investment.info/does-the-gov-warn-you-before-confiscation

 

[bubbleboy]

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

 

[Miloman]

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

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...

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning. - Henry Ford (Ford was a supporter and for his own gain - maybe without choice)

If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking systems, there would be a revolution before morning - Andrew Jackson

Good Post.

 

[mistered]

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]