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Investment Rarities'' Jim Cook interviews Ted Butler: ''Load the boat with silver''
By Zach Howard
Reuters
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
NEW YORK -- New Orleans coin and bullion dealer Blanchard & Co.
expects the price of gold to surpass $800 an ounce this year and
$1,000 in the next two years, driven by strong investment demand,
less producer hedging, and fewer central bank gold sales.
The top executive at Blanchard, the largest U.S. retailer of gold
and rare coins, said on Tuesday gold could experience seasonal
weakness in the next few months, but it will come out of the summer
above $700 an ounce.
"I think it will take out $800 before the end of the year and go
above $1,000, certainly in the next couple of years," Donald Doyle,
chairman and chief executive at privately held Blanchard, said in an
interview.
A recent trend of producers unwinding their forward sales contracts
has raised the ceiling for global gold prices and also encouraged
more investment demand, Doyle said.
A fall in the amount of hedging, from about 120 million ounces five
years ago to 50 million ounces now, and less gold being sold by
central banks, have boosted demand from Asian countries and also
U.S., British, and Australian investment funds, he added.
In addition, European central bank gold reserve sales have decreased
markedly from past years, while some economists are increasingly
calling for banks to boost their gold reserves to be more
diversified, Doyle said.
"I think investment demand is going to continue to rise. U.S.
investors have a tremendous amount of money to invest, they are
looking for some diversification out of the stock market, and the
logical investment for them is into gold and other precious metals
and commodities.
"As we see more of that, we're going to see significantly higher
prices," Doyle said.
Spot gold was up 2 percent at $670 an ounce by midday on Tuesday,
way above a four-week low at $636.20 hit on Monday.
The price spiked to a 26-year peak of $730 this month, before
investor profit-taking dragged the market lower.
Gold's all-time peak was $850, set in January 1980.
Doyle said gold's current bull run was creating a market that would
be more sustainable in the long run, versus the spikes of a quarter
century ago.
He said the 1980 record high adjusted into 2006 dollars would equate
to more than $2,000 an ounce.
Doyle said sales of precious metals at Blanchard during the sharp
correction lower over the past week surged to their highest in five
or six years.
Nonetheless, one measure of retail demand -- the amount of gold
American Eagle coins sold by the U.S. Mint -- was significantly less
than it was in 1997, 1998 and 1999, he
said.
"Even though the institutional investor is back into the gold market
in an important way, we still see some hanging back by the
individual investor," he said.
Separately, Doyle said Blanchard & Co. had no plans to abandon New
Orleans, despite the threat of another rough hurricane season in
2006.
Blanchard returned to the city last November, after the company had
temporarily shifted operations to Dallas just before Hurricane
Katrina devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast at the end of August and put
New Orleans under water for weeks.
The firm has made contingency plans ahead of more possible big
storms this season, and it has secured a second vault in Dallas for
its physical holdings.
"We'll keep our headquarters in New Orleans," Doyle said.
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RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
http://www.cbs.marketwatch.com
http://www.usagold.com/amk/usagoldmarketupdate.html
http://www.capitalupdates.com/
http://www.silver-investor.com
http://www.thebulliondesk.com/
http://www.goldismoney.info/index.html
http://www.minersmanual.com/minernews.html
http://www.a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com/euro-vs-dollar.html
http://www.investmentrarities.com
http://www.kereport.com
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/home.htm
(In Spanish)
http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/plata/english.htm
(In English)
http://www.resourceinvestor.com
http://www.goldpennystocks.com/
Subscription sites:
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/
http://www.interventionalanalysis.com
http://www.investmentindicators.com/
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
http://os2eagle.net/checksum.htm
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
http://www.investmentrarities.com/
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
http://www.blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
Box 460009
Denver, Colorado 80246-0009
1-800-869-5115
http://www.USAGOLD.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
http://www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
http://www.eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Gold & Silver Investments Ltd.
Mespil House
37 Adelaide Rd
Dublin 2
Ireland
+353 1 2315260/6
Fax: +353 1 2315202
http://www.goldinvestments.org
info@gold.ie
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
http://www.gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
http://www.kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
http://www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Lone Star Silver Exchange
1702 S. Highway 121
Suite 607-111
Lewisville, Texas 75067
214-632-8869
http://www.discountsilverclub.com
MRCS Canada
12303-118 Ave. NW
Edmonton, Alberta T5L 2K2
Canada
http://www.mrcscanada.com
Michael Riedel, Proprietor
1-877-TRY-MRCS
1-877-879-6727
mrcscanada@shaw.ca
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
http://www.milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
http://www.mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
http://www.buysilvernow.com
Richard Nachbar Rare Coins
5820 Main St., Suite 601
Williamsville, N.Y. 14221-8232
877-622-4227
http://www.CoinExpert.com
nachbar@coinexpert.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
http://www.swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
The Moneychanger
Box 178
Westpoint, Tennessee 38486
http://www.the-moneychanger.com
Franklin Sanders
1-888-218-9226, 931-766-6066
----------------------------------------------------
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