Chinese Bank introduces gold and silver coin ATMs

One of the objections we often hear to the Constitutional Tender Act is that it would force the States and their citizens to "buy silver and gold coins" and carry them around in their pockets all of the time. The only way to believe this, is if you believe that you have to "buy Federal Reserve Notes" and carry around hundreds or thousands of dollars in order to buy groceries, pay car payments, pay mortgages, etc.

Of course, you don't. You can use your debit card to pay almost anything nowadays. Bank computer programs automatically compute debits and credits; they can even automatically convert the cost of items from foreign currency to domestic currency, based on whatever the current market exchange rate is.

That's exactly what can be done by the banks under the Constitutional Tender Act's conversion formulas, as this story about getting gold and silver coins from ATMs in China proves. The unfortunate part of this story is that it falls into the modern trap of thinking that exchanging one form of currency -- fiat printed money -- for another form of currency -- gold and silver coins -- is the same as "buying gold or silver coins". If you go into a bank and exchange four $5 Federal Reserve Notes for a $20 Federal Reserve Note, did you just "buy an FRN"?

Of course not. If you exchange $25USD (U.S. Dollar) for $1SAE (Silver American Eagle), you aren't buying a once-ounce silver coin, you're exchanging American legal tender currency. And all you're doing at these Chinese ATMs is exchanging ¥268CNY (Chinese Yuan) for ¥10SP (Chinese Silver Panda) or other denominations -- you're not buying one-ounce silver coins, etc.

Regardless, this story once more shows how the ConTen Act could easily be implemented.

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People in Beijing can now buy gold or silver coins at ATMs after the Beijing-based Hua Xia Bank introduced five of the machines earlier this month, according to Hong Kong's We Wei Po.

The bank installed the five machines at its branches across the city in Xidan, Fangzhuang, Zhongguancun, Dongdan and on Qingnian Road.

The ATMs look like ordinary teller machines but have an additional compartment to dispense the gold and silver coins. The machines currently offer panda souvenir gold or silver coins and Year of the Snake silver coin and plate sets.

A single 1-oz panda silver coin priced at 268 yuan (US$40) is the cheapest item available, while the panda gold coin set is the most expensive at 23,800 yuan (US$3,800).

Buyers can purchase the coins using their bank cards. After they place their orders using the machine's touchscreen, their payments are verified through bank card organization China UnionPay and they can pick up their purchased items through the opening on the lower part of the machine.

If they want to purchase more than 20,000 yuan (US$3,200) worth of items, they will first need to place their ID cards on the machine's sensor to verify their identity before the order can be placed, Wen Wei Po said.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...

Gold ATMs Hit Great Britain

If you look back, I've written several times (for example, here and here) about the coming of ATMs that exchange paper fiat money for actual gold. This is just a precursor -- a taste -- of what I'm always talking about: modern banking based on sound money. Well, those gold ATMs, which started in Abu Dhabi and then came to Boca Raton, Florida, have arrived on the shores of Great Britain as well.

(I encourage you to read my full comments on this issue here, where I expound in more depth.)

Why is this significant? Because, as I've talked about repeatedly, this is just a "taste" of the modern specie-based banking we can look forward to, if we implement ideas like the Constitutional Tender Act. But that's why this idea is key: the more we get used to the notion of gold and silver being money, the sooner we'll finally return to sound money that holds its value -- and the sooner we can save our trashed economy.

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Don't try snacking on these bars: The vending machine that sells gold not chocolate
Shoppers can pick up a 1g coin for roughly £40 or a 250g bar for £10,250
By Daily Mail Reporter

If you think chocolate bars are a little overpriced these days, then this isn't the vending machine for you.

For the only bars you can get here are made of pure gold and will set you back somewhat more than 70p.

Britain's first gold vending machine 'Gold to Go' will open today in the Westfield shopping centre in west London...

...There are no security guards protecting the machine, but would-be thieves would still have to contend with reinforced steel and a state-of-the-art alarm system.

'It would cost you a great deal more to get the gold out than the value of the gold inside,' Joe Dreixler, of Oriente Lux, said.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...

Another step towards Gold as Money: Boca Raton mall unveils ATM that dispenses gold

One of the most important aspects of restoring sound money to our country is the need for people to "wrap their heads around" the idea that gold and silver are money, and not just commodities. The Constitutional Tender Act does that by returning the State back to obedience to the Constitution's Article I, Section 10 negative mandate ("No State shall... make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts").

By doing this, as I explained in a recent article, precious metal coinage could return, because the State would be required to only use gold and silver coins (or their equivalents, such as checks or electronic transfers) for payments of any debt owed by or to the State. All contracts, tax bills, etc. would be required to be denominated in legal tender gold and silver U.S. coins. All State-chartered banks, as well as any other bank that is a depository for State funds, would be required to offer accounts denominated in those types of gold and silver coins, and to keep such accounts segregated from other types of accounts such as Federal Reserve Notes.

The State would use gold and silver coins as money; the public and businesses would start using gold and silver as money, in addition to Federal Reserve Notes; and the use of sound money would return to America, one State at a time.

But with all of that said, one of the most interesting things to come out in the subcommittee hearing that the ConTen Act received here in Georgia, was the idea in those legislators' heads that gold and silver simply could not be USED as money, PERIOD. We heard comments like these:

• "Where would the State keep all of its gold and silver coins?" (Answer: Where does the State keep all of its Federal Reserve Notes? In a BANK, of course - just like they would under this Act.)
• "How would people be able to carry around all of those heavy gold and silver coins?" (Answer: How do they carry tens of thousands of dollars in Federal Reserve Notes around? They DON'T - they carry checkbooks and debit cards - just like they would under this Act.)
• "How would people buy things at the grocery store?" (Answer: How do people buy things at the grocery store now? With physical cash, or with a check, or with a debit card, or with a credit card - just like they would under this Act.)

What do all of these kinds of questions have in common? They're based on a narrow view of what money is. Too many people have simply gotten used to the idea that pieces of green paper with dead presidents' pictures on them, and that aren't backed by anything of value, are "money," and gold and silver are "commodities." But that's a rather new idea, historically speaking; fiat money (pieces of paper backed by nothing, and declared "legal tender" by the government) was very much frowned upon by our Founders - which is why they explicitly denied to the States the power to use it. Until the past century or so, you could always pay for things with actual gold and silver coins. But, the general population has been trained by our "modern" government to throw that notion away, and to keep using those pieces of paper that lose more and more of their value every day... while gold and silver keeps its value.

Which brings me to the reason for this post: If you look back, I've written several times (for example, here and here) about the coming of ATMs that exchange paper fiat money for actual gold. This is just a precursor -- a taste -- of what I'm talking about here: modern banking based on sound money. Well, those gold ATMs have arrived on our shores:

Boca Raton mall unveils ATM that dispenses gold
By Frank Cerabino
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010

At 10 a.m. today, the Town Center Mall in Boca Raton will unveil a vending machine that dispenses gold bullion. That's right: You put in your money or your credit card, and you get wafer-thin gold bars or coins from the machine...

The gold ATM is made by a German company called Gold on the Go, which had its first machine operational in Abu Dhabi this year, and has had its gold vending machines operating in Germany, Italy and Spain. The one in Boca Raton will be the company's first in America.

Like I said, this is just a "taste" of the modern specie-based banking we can look forward to, if we implement ideas like the Constitutional Tender Act. But that's why this idea is key: the more we get used to the notion of gold and silver being money, the sooner we'll finally return to sound money that holds its value -- and the sooner we can save our trashed economy.

ATMs That Sell Gold Bars Are Coming Soon to America

By: Reuters
Original Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/39381947

A German firm that installs and manages gold vending machines aims to introduce them into the United States this year as it expands rapidly to take advantage of demand for bullion in times of economic uncertainty.

Thomas Geissler, creator of the Gold to Go brand and chief executive of Ex Oriente Lux, told Reuters on the sidelines of the London Bullion Market Association conference that the company aims to issue a "couple of hundred" machines next year.

Gold to Go launched its first ATM in Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace hotel in May. They are now operating in luxury hotels in Abu Dhabi, Bergamo and Madrid as well as around Germany.

"This year we will issue around 35 machines, and for next year we are looking for bigger numbers," Geissler said on Monday, standing in front of one of the ATMS, which was coloured and shaped like a giant gold ingot close to 2 metres tall.

The machines, which update the gold price every 10 minutes to match international markets, take cash or credit cards and dispense small bars—including 1 gram, 5 gram, 10 gram and 1 ounce units—as well as coins such as South African Krugerrands, Australian Kangaroos and the Canadian Maple Leaf.

The company's plans include expansion into the United States this year, first in Florida and then in Las Vegas, Geissler said.

As for major gold consumers India and China, that will have to wait for next year, he said. "We have large interest in these countries," he said. "This is the task for next year."

Gold's rally this year has come largely as a product of investor unease over the economy.

This nervousness has been reflected in high sales of coins and bars from national mints, particularly last year as the world emerged from recession and this year as concerns have persisted about the risks to recovery.

With the gold price near record highs, there is a danger that demand from people on the street for gold products could tail off, however.

"Whether gold drops to $500 or goes to $2,000, we are living from small spreads, and we give people the best price they can get on a minute basis in the machine, so we're pretty fine with any price," Geissler said.

Gold to Go, which obtains the gold bars from refiners in Germany and Switzerland, first tested the machines in 2009.

Spot gold was quoted at $1,297.95 an ounce at 1235 GMT on Monday, up by over 18 percent this year and by over 80 percent since the unfolding of the credit crisis in late 2008.