Gold strength has been dollar weakness for a long time now; the chf/kg price must be around 8% under the peak?

Yep, I reckon CHF is more steady versus the falling/failing USD and hectic Euro, such a shame that SCB sold so much of their gold last decade, is there any referencing for the CHF to gold now?

And is it ever likely that the Swiss govt or banks would confiscate gold like the US did years ago?

The ME is only going to heat up as Iran seeks to be No 1 again and buys their Shea brothers’ loyalty e.g. as in Yemen so they get clear control over the Gate of Tears passageway and as they move again into Iraq, their trump card will be getting Saudi to turn Shea. Dubai seems to be a Switzerland of the ME for now, but the Hormuz is always a concern. The undersea pipeline will be a reality to get around that Iran scam. So since the USD is falling won’t gold just keep going up this time as it is not due to inflation. Also China are aggressive buyers and their Yuan may be the planet’s reserve currency in 10 years time. China is planning to increase their 17 nuclear power plants to 124, so uranium will take a hike and could become the new gold too ?

Got an e-mail from Tesco asking for my spare gold yesterday! (what spare ..)

No, the franc is no longer linked to gold - Switzerland joined the IMF in 1992 - one of the agreements the IMF enforces on it's members is that currencies are not linked to gold. The SNB sold a lot of gold; but Switzerland does still have a lot for a country of it's size. Although not as much as France or Germany (who probably remember their hyperinflations). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_re..._gold_holdings

Would have thought it highly unlikely that physical gold would be confiscated from deposit boxes in Switzerland - One would have thought that TPTB keep a lot of their gold here, and it would be disastrous for Switzerland to no longer be known as a safe place to store wealth. Any country would probably go after ETFs first (those that do actually contain any gold), so there should be a warning...

What do the forum bankers think of Peter Hickson, the global commodities strategist for UBS, Bloomberg report extracted here?
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/...tail&pid=92730

http://www.resourceinvestor.com/News...ew-Highs-.aspx Nice though I don't know what animal spirits has to do with silver

GFMS (a London based consultancy) who believe that central banks had not been net buyers of gold since 1988 say the official sector, a group that includes central banks and sovereign wealth funds, bought 73 tonnes of gold on a net basis last year.

“remarkable change of direction for a market that has been used to absorbing substantial volumes of gold sold by central banks over the last two decades,” the consultancy said.

The consultancy expects another strong year of official sector buying, potentially rising to 100 tonnes and setting a new 22-year peak.

Is there any advantage to buying gold in the UK with GBP and bringing it over to Switzlerland?
Thank you
Chester

Nope not at all, gold is priced on an international market where currency differences are already included.

There used to be people smuggling gold the other way round since Switzerland didnt have a tax (VAT) on gold but these days most contries dont have one anymore

Yes, there is no difference buying gold in UK or Switzerland as in both places investment gold is VAT free.

Conversely, is better to buy silver in Switzerland than buying silver the UK, as VAT is charged on silver in both places; UK VAT is 20% and Switzerland's MWST/TVA is 8%. Of course, this means that you shouldn't take silver out of Switzerland and into the EU without paying extra tax.

I sold my silver on Friday and my gold today. Now looking for something different to invest in...

Are you George Soros?

Theres always a bubble!

My opinion would be to possibly buy gold again if it ever falls in the short term as I believe it will certainly go up against the US Dollar and Euro.
Shares will continue to fall especially US Shares for at least a year.
If you are in Cash now; then keep it in Swiss Francs because the US Dollar and Euro will fall further against the Swiss Franc.
In fact if you look at the graph of the Swiss Franc against Gold; Gold has fallen over the last 9 months against the Swiss Franc. It has not really been a case of Gold going up in the last 9 months but of the US Dollar and Euro going down when you look at the Swiss Franc.

There still has to be a lot more repercussions for the banks and governments over the next three years.
I cannot actually see how broke countries can continue as they are.
I think that Spain will go for help in October 2011.
I cannot see how the IMF and European Central Bank can bail them out.
I would also guess that a country (say Italy) will pull out of the Euro in 2012.
I also think that the boom of Germany cannot continue as it appears its trade and profits are dependent on India and China.
Once Europe/USA cannot afford to buy anything from the East; then then the East will not be able to afford to buy products from Germany and that will effect the German economy.
I would guess that the Swiss Fran will fall in 18 months time against the Euro when:
(1) Switzerland becomes totally uncompetative to export because the Franc is so high and wages are too high.
(2) Swiss Banks will have more problems (Bad Debts etc.)
(3) Swiss Comoanies will not make such large profits because companies such as Nestle have most factories abroad and though the profits may be maintained; when they are converted to Swiss Francs will be smaller.
I actually guess (that is all it is) that the UK currency may well go up against the Euro; Dollar and Swiss Franc in possibly 3 years time if Cameron is hard and seen to be hard on the UK economy.

__________________
I do not have friends..........I have contingent liabilities

JPM have become goldbugs: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/shocke...-2500-year-end

But gold still nowhere near its peak in CHF; circa 10% under today.

Not sure what your point is but if you look at gold just over 1 year ago (chart with thanks to UBS) it was touching 46,000

it's not far off peak:

Buy Mothercare shares.

Just curious, what does this note on the bottom of the UBS gold quote mean?

"Tax value as per 31.12.2010: xxxx CHF"

Does this mean that gold purchased and kept has to be added to the list of assets when filling in a tax return, just like your savings statement?

What if it was purchased as a wedding gift?