‘Bell’ rings to signal time to buy gold

If you believe history is instructive, it is time to buy gold and silver. A bullion bell went off this morning in the form of a statement from the U.S….

If you believe history is instructive, it is time to buy gold and silver.

A bullion bell went off this morning in the form of a statement from the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin.

It was reported on the CNBC website.

This has happened before.

Last time, it was early in the George W. Bush administration when gold had just bottomed out around $250. Paul O’Neil was Treasury secretary.

From there, it was a race to $1,900 over roughly a decade.

In terms of currency, the value of the U.S. dollar measured against the euro halved during that time. The euro was 82 cents at its low in 2002 and $1.60 at its 2008 high.

This morning, the euro is just under $1.24.

Benchmark this in your mind.

The Mnuchin statement signals the return of the ideal climate for bullion investors.

Bullion has naturally jumped on the news.

According to the Kitco website, the price of gold is up $11 to $1,352 an ounce.

Silver is up 33 cents to $17.36.

Bloomberg has a wonderful history that will clue in potential new bullion buyers.

It doesn’t get much clearer than this.

Mark Twain said history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes.

Bullion coin buyers who spent 2017 reducing their purchases will now have to reassess their approach to these investments.

Benchmark the current Mint sales totals for the one-ounce gold and silver American Eagles.

Today gold stands at 35,000 pieces.

Silver stands at 3,020,000.

Both are significantly lower than the number from January 2017.

At the end of January 2017, the sales numbers were 86,500 and 5,127,500, respectively.

See how much ground is made up by the end of the month.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog for the third time in 2017 . He is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

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