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Gold and Silver • Re: EMU plot curdles as creditors seize Cyprus gold reserves
Financial Post: As Cyprus sells gold to help bailout, other troubled eurozone countries could be next
http://www.bmgbullion.com/document/5154
Category: Gold
Date: 2013-04-11
Type: News Articles
LONDON — Heavily indebted eurozone nations such as Italy and Portugal could come under pressure to put their bullion reserves to work as a result of plans for Cyprus to sell gold to meet its financing needs.
A European Commission assessment of what Cyprus needs to do as part of its European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout showed Cyprus is expected to sell in excess gold reserves to raise around 400-million euros (US$523-million).
Other struggling euro area countries may be pushed to take note. Between them, for example, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, hold more than 3,230 tonnes of gold between them, worth nearly 125-billion euros at today’s prices.
The lion’s share of that — 2,451.8 tonnes — belongs to Italy. But Portugal and Spain also hold hundreds of tonnes and gold is currently trading around US$1,558.95 per ounce in spot terms, or 1,189 euros.
The metal makes up more than 90% of Portugal’s foreign exchange holdings, and 72.2% of Italy’s. India, by contrast, holds less than 10% of its reserves in gold.
Gold sales on their own would be far from a magic bullet to solve eurozone financing problems: Italy’s entire gold reserves, for example, are worth less than 95-billion euros, against outstanding debt of around 1.685-trillion euros.
But the Cyprus situation shows that even a relatively small gold sale may help address severe debt problems. Cyprus’ gold sale would allow it to easily come up with around 3% of what it must contribute to the bailout.
It is something that has the market somewhat concerned given that a big sale would push down the price. Central bank gold buying was one of the few areas of demand to increase last year at a time jewellery, coin and gold-bar buying was on the wane.
Indeed, spot gold posted its biggest one-day drop in nearly two months on Wednesday after news of the planned sale broke.
“Cyprus may be a one-off, (but) the market’s concern will be that it isn’t, and that other countries will be invited to sell their gold,” one senior gold trader said.
“It’s a potential game-changer for the market,” he added. “Given we know that Portugal rejected the most recent austerity plan, and they have over 90% of the country’s foreign exchange reserves in gold, does this mean that Portugal perhaps will be asked to sell some of its gold?”
Despite this, potentially hefty barriers lie in the way of central banks making sales to meet financing needs. Article 7 of the Protocol of the European System of Central Banks, for instance, guarantees central bank independence and freedom from government influence.
In other words, if a central bank doesn’t want to sell its gold, in theory it can resist.
The European Central Bank issued an opinion against an Italian government proposal to levy a 6 percent capital gains tax on the central bank’s balance sheet, apparently including its gold holdings, in 2009.
The ECB noted at the time that the monetary financing prohibition within the Treaty “is of key importance to ensuring the primary monetary policy objective of price stability, which must not be impeded”, GFMS senior analyst Rhona O’Connell said.
“We can’t rule out the possibility of other banks trying to find a way of mobilizing gold, but history is against it,” she told the Reuters Global Gold Forum on Thursday.
“The Bundesbank has had a number of run-ins with the Bundestag on this issue and the bank has always won. So I suspect there would be heavy political pressure, as well as legal difficulties, that would preclude such activity.”
CAP ON SALES
There is also the issue of how much central banks are actually allowed to sell even if they want to.
The Central Bank Gold Agreement, originally signed in 1999 and currently in its third incarnation, caps gold sales by signatories at 400 tonnes a year.
Disposals have fallen well short of that in recent years, with just 4.2 tonnes of bullion sold so far in the current year of the pact, which runs from last September. Central banks have been net buyers of gold since 2010.
With the exception of some small sales, chiefly for coin minting, no large-scale disposals have been made by eurozone central banks since France sold 17.4 tonnes of gold in the first half of 2009.
But if central banks in troubled eurozone states started to sell, that could quickly change.
Leveraging gold does not necessarily have to mean selling it, of course.
Central banks can also swap gold for cash with other central banks or other institutions through a simultaneous sell spot/buy forward transaction, with a view to redeeming it later.
The World Gold Council says methods other than selling may offer better returns for gold holders.
“It is important that Cyprus explores all the options available to it and outright sales are not the only one,” a spokesman for the WGC said. “We believe that the most effective way for countries to benefit from holding gold is to leverage its gold as collateral for sovereign issuance.”
“A gold-backed bond could raise four or five times the value of Cyprus’ current total gold reserves — more than 2-billion euros in today’s money.”
That doesn’t mean, though, that troubled countries won’t look at their gold and see a quick fix.
Source
Statistics: Posted by DIGGER DAN — Mon Apr 15, 2013 11:11 pm
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
Other • EMU plot curdles as creditors seize Cyprus gold reserves
EMU plot curdles as creditors seize Cyprus gold reserves
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Economics Last updated: April 11th, 2013
Cyprus has agreed to sell gold reserves to raise around €400m.
First they purloin the savings and bank deposits in Laiki and the Bank of Cyprus, including the working funds of the University of Cyprus, and thousands of small firms hanging on by their fingertips.
Then they seize three quarters of the country’s gold reserves, making it ever harder for Cyprus to extricate itself from EMU at a later date.
The people of Cyprus first learned about this from a Reuters leak of the working documents for the Eurogroup meeting on Friday.
It is tucked away in clause 29. "Sale of excess gold reserves: The Cypriot authorities have committed to sell the excess amount of gold reserves owned by the Republic. This is estimated to generate one-off revenues to the state of €400m via an extraordinary payout of central bank profits."
This seemed to catch the central bank by surprise. Officials said they knew nothing about it. So who in fact made this decision?
Cypriots are learning what it means to be a member of monetary union when things go badly wrong. The crisis costs have suddenly jumped from €17bn to €23bn, and the burden of finding an extra €6bn will fall on Cyprus alone.
The government expects the economy to contract 13pc this year as full austerity bites. Megan Greene from Maverick Intelligence fears it could be a lot worse.
She says the crisis has reached the point where it would be “less painful” for Cyprus to seek an “amicable divorce” from the eurozone and break free.
Quite so, and while we’re at it, lets seek an amicable divorce for everybody, for Portugal, for Ireland, for Spain, for Italy, and above all for Germany, since they are all being damaged in different ways by the infernal Project. All are victims of their elites.
It is an interesting question why Cyprus has been treated more harshly than Greece, given that the eurozone itself set off the downward spiral by imposing de facto losses of 75pc on Greek sovereign debt held by Cypriot banks.
And, furthermore, given that these banks were pressured into buying many of those Greek bonds in the first place by the EU authorities, when it suited the Eurogroup.
You could say that this is condign punishment for the failure of Cyprus to deliver on its side of the bargain on the 2004 Annan Plan to reunite the island, divided by the Attila Line since the Turkish invasion in 1974.
Greek Cypriots gained admission to the EU on the basis of a gentleman’s agreement, then resiled from the accord. President Tassos Papadopoulis later deployed the resources of the state to secure a "No" in the referendum on the Greek side of the island. No wonder the EU is disgusted.
But there again, Greece behaved just as badly. It threatened to block Polish accession to the EU unless a still-divided Cyprus was admitted, much to the fury of Berlin.
The workhouse treatment of Cyprus is nevertheless remarkable. The creditor powers walked away from their fresh pledges for an EMU banking union by whipping up largely bogus allegations of Russian money-laundering in Nicosia. A Council of Europe by a British prosecutor has failed to validate the claims.
The EU authorities have gone to great lengths to insist that Cyprus is a “special case”, but I fail to see what is special about it. There is far more Russian money – laundered or otherwise – in the Netherlands. The banking centres of Ireland and Malta are just as large as a share of GDP. Luxembourg’s banking centre is at least four times more leveraged to the economy.
It should be clear by now that the solemn pledges of EMU leaders are expendable. They change their mind whenever its suits them, and whenever the internal politics of their own countries demands.
Cyprus may not be a “template” but it is clearly a warning to any other EMU country that needs help from now on. The creditor powers will go to extraordinary lengths to avoid sharing the costs.
We now learn that one of those lengths is to seize gold reserves. So what will happen as Portugal’s economy slides deeper into its contractionary vortex, and its deficits remain stubbornly stuck near 6pc of GDP despite the fiscal cuts, and its public debt hits 124pc of GDP this year?
Portugal holds 382 tonnes of gold, the 14th largest holding in the world, and more than either Britain or Spain. For the sake of delicacy, I will skip over the methods by which Salazar acquired that gold.
So will the Troika order Portugal to hand over these reserves if the country requires a second bail-out, as deemed likely by a great number of analysts in the City?
Will they impose savage haircuts on anybody with savings or operational funds above €100,000 in Portuguese banks? Portugal’s banks may be healthy, but that is no protection.
The original plan in Cyprus – approved by the Eurogroup, but rejected by the Cypriot parliament – was to steal the money from any bank regardless of its health, and from small depositors regardless of the €100,000 guarantee. They have shown their character. The Eurogroup don’t give a damn about moral hazard. They are thieves.
Furthermore, the northern powers skip lightly over their own responsibility for what has happened. They seem not to recognise that EMU was a joint venture. The creditor states were entirely complicit. They flooded the South with cheap debt. They failed to understand the ruinous implications of monetary union just as badly as the southern states.
Eurozone citizens still have a touching faith in the euro and the EMU Project. They blame their own leaders, their own bankers, even the head of statistics office in Greece. But most still refuse to blame monetary union itself.
This is understandable. Even Nobel laureate Robert Mundell seems to have trouble understanding his own theory of "optimal currency areas".
Yet this escalating assault on bank savings and on the state assets of victim nations is gradually taking its toll. Throw gold into the mix and you touch an atavistic nerve. The Cypriot gold confiscation of April 2013 may matter more than first meets the eye.
On a side note, Greek unemployment reached a fresh record of 27.2pc in January. Youth unemployment reached 59.3pc. Ah, but, recovery is surely round the corner.
Greece’s foreign minister is digging himself deeper into a hole on the issue of war reparations against Germany. He told his parliament that Greece “reserves the right” to seek damages at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Germany’s Wolfgang Schauble dismissed the demarche as irresponsible. Time has resolved the matter, he said. They won’t get one bent Pfennig.
Nor will Germany when Greece defaults on its rescue loans.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/am … -reserves/
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Fri Apr 12, 2013 12:09 am
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
Police State • Is The US Government going to Seize Retirement Accounts?
Is The US Government going to Seize Retirement Accounts?
RumorMail
The National Deficit, along with the lack of demand for Treasury Bonds, leaves the government with no other option! And what you don’t know can hurt you!
Goldworth Financial first uncovered the early blueprint of the US Government’s plot to seize retirement accounts in early 2009.
Since that time, they have come up with 9 Basic Questions that expose the people behind this plan.
1. Who’s behind the plot to confiscate retirement accounts?
The US government takeover of private retirement accounts is a concept first drawn up by Teresa Ghilarducci, who was funded by the White House, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. President Obama’s 2008 presidential run proposed the "Automatic IRA," which has now evolved into Ghilarducci’s "Guarantee Retirement Accounts (GRA’s)" concept.
2. Why does the Government want to seize Private Retirement accounts?
They need it! China and other buyers of US Treasury (our debt) Bonds have stopped buying. The Federal Reserve reports that it is now forced to fill China’s role, and is buying over 61% of our Treasury Bonds.
3. Have there been any public hearings? If so, who’s involved?
There have been numerous hearings between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Labor and Treasury Departments. The topic discussed is known as the "Lifetime Income Option-Annuity Income Stream." Here is the role that each is playing:
The role of the Labor Department
To draw up the guidelines for the Labor (workers) force to direct their pay into Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRA’s).
The role of the Internal Revenue Service
To write the laws that will tax/penalize you, if you don’t comply.
The role of the Treasury Department
They have Treasury Bonds/U.S. Debt they need to sell!
4. What workers’ unions are in favor of Nationalized Retirement Accounts?
Believe it or not, the SEIC, CIO & AFL are all in favor! The proposal for this is being discussed as "Re-Imagining pensions." These workers’ unions are all in favor of "Universal Secure and Adequate (USA)" retirement for all.
John Adler, the Retirement Security Campaign Director of the SEIU, said: "We really don’t favor individual accounts as the way to go." He went on to say: "Instead, we favor a pooled investment approach."
John Adler also mentioned Teresa Ghirladucci’s Guarantee Retirement Accounts (GRA). Adler said, "Ghirladucci’s recent proposal of state-sponsored plans is worthy of consideration."
5. Okay, so unions are in favor of de-privatizing retirement accounts. But government can’t just take our money, can they?
Yes! Unfortunately, they can! Here’s a recent snapshot of recent headlines in leading newspapers:
May 16th, 2011-Washington Post reported: "Treasury to Tap Pensions to Fund Government."
January 17th, 2012-Reuters reported: "The Treasury Dips Further into Pension to Avoid Debt Limit."
April 12 th, 2012-NY Post reported: "Feds Eye Retirement-Fund Tax to Cut $16 Trillion-plus Deficit"
And of course – August 16th, 2001-CNN reported : "Government Dipping into Social Security."
If Government "borrows" money they have NO Intention of paying back, wouldn’t you call that stealing/confiscation?
6. Is Obama involved in the plot to seize retirement accounts, and if so, how will they do it?
Proof can be found in the Obama Administration’s 256-page FY 2013 Budget Proposal, the revival of his 2008 presidential run’s "Automatic IRA." It has now evolved into two proposals: Secure Choice Pension and Government Retirement Accounts (GRA’s).
Some of the proposed "features" are:
Government will automatically deduct 5%-6% out of your earnings. Those funds will be deposited into a pooled GRA.
The current tax deduction will be eliminated, and replaced with a tax credit.
Instead of receiving a tax refund check, part or ALL will automatically be placed into a pooled GRA.
Worker’s un-used vacation pay will automatically be converted to income, which will be deposited into a pooled GRA.
The funds in your current retirement account will be converted to "longevity annuities," which typically don’t start making income payments until the investor is well into retirement, 82-85 years old.
Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRA’s) will be administered by the Social Security Administration.
Much like S.S. Accounts, the uncollected equity will become the property of the Government, once the individual dies.
7. Okay, Government will turn my Retirement Account into a GRA, which will function as "longevity annuities." But what’s in the annuity, and what kind of returns will I get?
According to Teresa Ghirladucci, the originator of GRA’s, the estimated return on your money will be 3%. It will NOT keep up with government-reported inflation, let alone TRUE/REAL Inflation.
The Government-run annuity will contain U.S. Treasury Bonds, Treasury Notes and Treasury Bills- everything China no longer buys.
The Treasury Department is so desperate to find new buyers, they recently announced that "taxpayers will now have another savings option-the ability to use their refunds to purchase U.S Savings Bonds without having to open an account with the Treasury; even if the tax payer doesn’t have a bank account."
Citigroup analyst Hans Lorenzen said: "U.S regulators are essentially forcing banks to buy up government debt-While that helps Government Issue more and more debt, the strategy could ultimately explode if the government isn’t able to make the bond payment, leaving the holders of the bonds with toxic debt."
Yes, through GRA’s, you will be holding our government’s toxic debt!
8. What States, Senate Bills and politicians are in favor of this new Socialistic program?
H.R. 4049: Automatic IRA Act of 2012
Sponsor: Rep Neal, Richard E. [MA-D]
Sen. Jeff Bingaman [NM-D] -September 2011
Rep Blumenauer, Earl [OR-D] – 2/16/2012
Rep Crowley, Joseph [NY-D] – 4/19/2012
Rep Deutch, Theodore E. [FL-D] – 3/29/2012
Rep Himes, James A. [CT-D] – 5/7/2012
Rep Honda, Michael M. [CA-D] – 2/28/2012
Rep Larson, John B. [CT-D] – 4/19/2012
Rep Lewis, John [GA-D] – 4/19/2012
Rep McGovern, James P. [MA-D] – 2/28/2012
Rep Pascrell, Bill, Jr. [NJ-D] – 4/19/2012
Rep Rangel, Charles B. [NY-D] – 3/20/2012
Rep Schwartz, Allyson Y. [PA-D] – 4/19/2012
Rep Stark, Fortney Pete [CA-D] – 2/28/2012
Rep Thompson, Mike [CA-D] – 4/19/2012
Rep Tierney, John F. [MA-D] – 8/2/2012
Rep Tsongas, Niki [MA-D] – 4/25/2012
Other related proposed legislation:
SB1234, introduced by California Congressman Kevin De Leon. It’s known as the "Golden State Retirement Trust." This bill is based on GRA’s.
On May 6, 2012, Lauren Schmitz, a research analyst at the Barnard L Schwartz Center for Economic Analyst (SCEPA), introduced HB5337. SCEPA is the very same Institution where Teresa Ghularducci originated the GRA concept. This Connecticut Bill is also based on GRA’s.
9. I don’t like the idea of GRA’s, so can I just pay the early withdrawal penalty and tax, and pull everything out of my retirement account?
No! The Government has already thought of that. On May 18, 2011, Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced "S1020-Saving Enhancement by Alleviating Leakage in 401k Savings Accounts, "AKA: Seal Savings Accounts. This bill will restrict you from accessing your money. In fact, you won’t even be able to borrow from it.
Food for thought – When a country is neck-deep in debt, and has nobody to borrow from, recent history has shown us that indebted Governments steal their citizens’ wealth! Countries such as Belgium, Poland, Hungary, France, Argentina, Bolivia and Ireland have already seized private retirement accounts.
If you have read Goldworth Financial’s previous reporting on the De-Privatization & Seizure of Retirement Accounts, WHY are you waiting for the OFFICIAL government announcement: "To Protect You and for the Good of Our Country, we are Nationalizing Private retirement accounts"? By then, it will be too late to do anything about it!
It’s the old "Frog in a Boiling Pot of Water" they turn up the heat, in stages.
IF the Supreme Court’s ruling on Obamacare didn’t wake you, it should! The ruling will simply be used as case law, when government "herds" everyone into Nationalized Retirement Accounts.
You have worked Long and Hard for your money. Taxes will take a portion, inflation will take a portion… Don’t Allow Government to Take the Rest! Government money is Only a Note, a government promise; tangible Gold & Silver are Constitutional Money.
Much like Eminent Domain, most assets can be "Taken-Over" by the government.
LISTEN NOW: Teresa Ghilarducci:
‘The Most Dangerous Woman in America’
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Teresa Ghilarducci is the director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research and the author of the book When I’m Sixty-Four: The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them. She also wants to see 401(k) and Individual Retirement Accounts replaced by "government retirement accounts."
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/m … iezure.php
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Sun Dec 23, 2012 12:49 am
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How Much Power Will the Obama Administration Seize in the Name of “Cybersecurity”?
By Jim Harper
If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.
That aphorism about Washington, D.C. power games certainly applies to the “cybersecurity council” that a draft Obama Administration executive order would create.
The failure of cybersecurity legislation in Congress was regarded as “a blow to the White House“—heaven knows why—so the plan appears to be to go ahead and regulate without congressional approval. Under the draft EO, a Department of Homeland Security-led cybersecurity council will develop a report to determine which agencies should regulate which parts of the nation’s “critical infrastructure.”
Keep an eye on that phrase, “critical infrastructure,” because it’s a notorious weasel-word. I argued in 2009 congressional testimony that something might be critical if “compromise of the resource would immediately and proximately endanger life and health.” But the CSIS report—the prominence of which is matched only by its lack of rigor—said, “[C]ritical means that, if the function or service is disrupted, there is immediate and serious damage to key national functions such as U.S. military capabilities or economic performance.”
When hungry bureaucrats are doing the interpreting, economic performance means “anything.” The subjectivity of “immediate” and “serious” don’t change that.
So the “cybersecurity council” will sit down at a table and carve up the economy to determine which agency regulates what industry in the name of “cybersecurity.” They’ll wheel and deal amongst themselves over everything that might fail with imagined “critical” consequences—nevermind that they have no idea what to do about it.
Then it’s fake it ’til you make it. Though they haven’t got authority from Congress, these agencies will act as though they do. Businesses that don’t participate in government standard-setting will risk having the standards used against them in liability actions. Companies that don’t participate in “voluntary” information-sharing will see their ability to win government contracts erode.
Again, I don’t see why the Obama administration thinks it matters so much to seize power under the “cyber” banner. Perhaps they’re taken in by the gross threat-exaggeration that pervades in this area. But Steven Bucci of the Heritage Foundation has it right:
The President should resist the temptation to ladle on a new regulatory bureaucracy (or bureaucracies) simply to satisfy the need to “do something.” If it is not done right, it will do damage. Let the debate continue until it is done right, Mr. President. It’s called the democratic process, and it invariably provides the best answers, even if it takes awhile.
How Much Power Will the Obama Administration Seize in the Name of “Cybersecurity”? is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
View full post on Cato @ Liberty
International News • Police Seize Record Haul Of Counterfeit Coins
Police Seize Record Haul Of Counterfeit Coins
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/police-seize-r … 42964.html
..
More than £4m worth of fake one pound coins have been seized by detectives.
The haul is thought to be the biggest ever in the UK and follows raids on properties around London.
The Metropolitan Police received information from a member of the public that led to raids at addresses in Enfield, Essex and Hertfordshire.
The vast majority of the coins were found in a 40ft freight container in Waltham Abbey, Essex.
Detective Inspector Bruce South said: "This seizure is a significant blow to the network behind it – individuals clearly intent on undermining the UK monetary system by producing counterfeit currency on an industrial scale.
"It is yet another example of the work this team is carrying out on a daily basis to tackle organised criminal networks."
Three men have been arrested and are being questioned on suspicion of making counterfeit money, money laundering and fraud.
The suspects – aged 52, 43 and 27 – are being held at a north London police station.
..
[Related Article: How to spot a fake £1 coin]
How to spot a fake £1 coin
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/how-to … -coin.html
Counterfeit £1 coins circulating in Britain right now are worth a whopping £43 million. Here’s how to spot a fake.
The 2012 Trial of the Pyx is now underway. This is a tradition dating back to 1282 where an independent jury ensures the coins made by the Royal Mint are of the proper weight, diameter and composition as defined by law.
This year’s trial occurs as the number of fake £1 coins in circulation continues to rise.
A fake £1 coin in your wallet is not only absolutely worthless but it’s also illegal to pass it onto anyone else. Nevertheless, you might do so quite innocently as figures estimate that as many as one in 36 coins in circulation are counterfeit. Stagecoach is just one high-profile company that has noticed a recent increase in the number of fake coins.
[Related Feature: The Trial of the Pyx - keeping the Government honest since 1282]
How bad is the problem?
This has been a long-standing problem. In 2003/04, when figures were first collated, 85,000 dud £1 coins were returned to the Royal Mint. Five years later the figure had jumped up to a massive one million fakes. And the trend continues to climb ever upwards, reaching a record high of almost two million coins which had to be disposed of by the Royal Mint in the last financial year.
In fact, there are now so many fake coins in circulation that the Royal Mint could be forced into the costly measure of scrapping and reissuing the whole lot with new designs, especially if the number of counterfeit coins continues to increase at a similar rate. The most recent Royal Mint survey indicates that 2.94% of all £1 coins are forged – that’s around 43 million.
Clearly, re-minting all £1 coins would be a nightmare for consumers, retailers and banks up and down the country. But taking no action may undermine confidence in the currency if the problem worsens. A lack of decisive action could lead retailers and businesses to start rejecting the coins, even those which are perfectly genuine.
Spot the difference
Counterfeit coins are becoming a closer match to the real thing, making it incredibly difficult for consumers to spot the difference. In fact, we often only notice we have a fake when it’s rejected by a vending machine, ticket machine or a parking meter. Of course, it’s a huge concern that the counterfeiters are becoming more sophisticated when it comes to passing off fake coins as legitimate ones.
How can you tell if a £1 coin is a fake?
Fakes coins are most definitely not easy to spot, but here are ten tell tale signs you should always look out for:
.The coin has been circulating for some time according to its date of issue, yet it looks surprisingly new.
The design on the back of the coin doesn’t match the official design for the year it was issued. You can check which designs were used in each year at the Royal Mint website. £1 coins were first introduced in 1983 and the design has changed nearly every year since. Check out Britain’s £1 Coin Designs which shows the designs that should appear on the reverse of the coin for every year from 1983 to 2010. Remember, if the date and the design don’t match up, you’ve got a fake.
The lettering or inscription on the edge of the coin doesn’t match the corresponding year. Take a look at the Counterfeit Coin Guide which will show you the correct specifications and inscriptions on £1 coins according to their year of issue.
The designs on both sides of the coin aren’t well defined compared with a real coin.
The alignment of the design is at an angle. Hold the coin so that the Queen’s head is upright and facing you. The design on the back should be upright too.
The ribbed edge of the coin is poorly defined.
The lettering on the edge of the coin is uneven, badly spaced or indistinct.
The colour of the coin doesn’t match the genuine article. Fake coins are often more yellow or golden than the real thing.
Fake coins are often thinner and lighter.
Remember, most counterfeit coins won’t be accepted by vending machines unless the forgery is particularly good. This is a clear indication that you have a fake.
.
So now you know exactly what to look out for. If you do find a counterfeit coin, make sure you hand it in to your local police station so that it can be taken out of circulation.
Statistics: Posted by DIGGER DAN — Sun May 27, 2012 2:28 am
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
Firearms • Re: RCMP to seize more ‘scary-looking’ guns
Lieberal bureaucrats and their useful idiots of the stooge enforcement agancies are enemies of freedom and justice, neither these stooges or the lieberal fools they work for, have any credibility, they are just enemies of all that is good and true, a waste of human skin and air.
Statistics: Posted by edward kennedy — Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:58 pm
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com