Gold coins sell like chocolate bars.
Soda, chips and...gold coins. All now sell from vending machines. We're not making this up. It's happening in Germany.
The UK Telegraph reported the story with this headline: "Gold Sold Like Chocolate From German Vending Machines." You can get a couple of sizes - basically small and large: 1 gram for 30 euros, 10 grams for 245 euros.
You have to wonder how they secure these machines. Why wouldn't some criminal just back up a truck and haul the thing away? Well, no matter, it's being test-marketed and early indications are it may be a money-maker.
Is it a sign of things-to-come? Back in the 1970's, when gold ascended from $35 per ounce to $850 per ounce by 1980, there were little stores in Manhattan where you could go in and buy or gold coins - mostly South African Kruggerands. and regular folk bought and sold them, not just "gold bugs." It was a time of high inflation and people were worried their dollars wouldn't be worth anything.
Are we getting back to those days now? Well, maybe not right this minute. But if gold coins are being dispensed like chips and candy bars, you have to wonder.
Of course, we'll have to wait and see how successful these vending machines turn out to be. Maybe criminals will pull up a truck and cart them away.
None of this has anything to do with whether you should invest some of your money in gold, either bullion, coins, gold mining shares, or some combination of these. You should. But that's a subject for another time.
Oh, and if some entrepreneur does succeed in placing gold coin vending machines in the U.S., I would probably not want to be buying and walking around town jingling the coins in my pocket. At least that's the prudent approach when you live in a city like New York. (Duh!)
The UK Telegraph reported the story with this headline: "Gold Sold Like Chocolate From German Vending Machines." You can get a couple of sizes - basically small and large: 1 gram for 30 euros, 10 grams for 245 euros.
You have to wonder how they secure these machines. Why wouldn't some criminal just back up a truck and haul the thing away? Well, no matter, it's being test-marketed and early indications are it may be a money-maker.
Is it a sign of things-to-come? Back in the 1970's, when gold ascended from $35 per ounce to $850 per ounce by 1980, there were little stores in Manhattan where you could go in and buy or gold coins - mostly South African Kruggerands. and regular folk bought and sold them, not just "gold bugs." It was a time of high inflation and people were worried their dollars wouldn't be worth anything.
Are we getting back to those days now? Well, maybe not right this minute. But if gold coins are being dispensed like chips and candy bars, you have to wonder.
Of course, we'll have to wait and see how successful these vending machines turn out to be. Maybe criminals will pull up a truck and cart them away.
None of this has anything to do with whether you should invest some of your money in gold, either bullion, coins, gold mining shares, or some combination of these. You should. But that's a subject for another time.
Oh, and if some entrepreneur does succeed in placing gold coin vending machines in the U.S., I would probably not want to be buying and walking around town jingling the coins in my pocket. At least that's the prudent approach when you live in a city like New York. (Duh!)
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