Centennial Precious Metals, Inc: Serving Gold Coin & Bullion Investors Since 1973
(Home Page)	(How to Buy Gold)	(Gold Coin Images)	(Daily Market Report)	(Live Gold Price)
(First-time Buyers)	(News & Views)	(ABCs of Gold Book)	(Gold IRA)	(Buy Gold Coins Online)
(European Clientele)	Online Information Packet			(About Us)

Welcome to the Central Bank Insider Archives. We are pleased to be able to provide you with this intimate look at central banking events, policies, and staff. Commentary is updated as available (generally bi-weekly) and archived monthly. The source commentary "Newsmakers" is reprinted at USAGOLD with permission and by courtesy of Central Banking Publications Ltd.

25 August 2003

******************************************
A selection of news stories from CentralBankNet
http://www.centralbanknet.com/

By Benedict Mander
Central Banking Publications
******************************************

WHAT IS A CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR WORTH?

First published on www.CentralBankNet.com, 18 August 2003
http://www.centralbanknet.com/fullstory.asp?page=1&itemid=17097

What is the going rate for a really top-class central bank governor? Or even an average one? Five years ago this question would have been impossible to answer. Central bank salaries were guarded as closely as state secrets. Furtive inquiries could only be made over drinks on the fringes of international meetings. Hushed references to million-dollar fat cat pay packages abounded.

All this has changed. The million dollar salaries are mostly a figment of the imagination, though OECD central bank governors are not starving. Most are paid at a rate comparable to that of top politicians (like UK prime minister Tony Blair, who earns US$ 274,000 a year).

As a result of this wave of glasnost CentralBankNet has been able to conduct a straw poll of large central banks, and can now offer readers a few benchmarks. Unsurprisingly it turns out that there is indeed a "rate for the job". A cluster of OECD central banks (at least those which release the information) pay their governors a little over US$ 300,000 per year. There are however some surprising outliers.

Joseph Yam is almost certainly the best-paid central bank governor in the world, commanding over a million dollars a year to run Hong Kong's currency board, although his salary is a subject for regular debate in Hong Kong's legislative council. The Banca D'Italia's governor, Antonio Fazio has been reported to have a salary of up to $700,000, but CentralBankNet was unable to confirm this figure. At the other end of the scale Zdenek Tuma, governor of the Czech National Bank, manages on a more modest $110,000.

Several of those central banks which do release salary information are still rather coy about naming exact amounts. The European Central Bank for instance prefers to list the total salary for the whole executive board, rather than coming clean about exactly what Mr Duisenberg takes home. However a little educated guesswork, and the observation that governors usually enjoy a stipend 20% larger than other executive directors, pins his wage down to around EUR 370,000 in 2001, about US$ 417,000 at current exchange rates.

The full results of CentralBankNet's research is as follows:

Central bank governors' salaries (US$)
Joseph Yam (Hong Kong) $1,120,000 (1)
Malcolm Knight (General Manager, BIS) $450,000
Nout Wellink (Netherlands) $440,000
Jean Pierre Roth (Swiss National Bank) $429,000
Wim Duisenberg (European Central Bank) $417,000 (2)
Mervyn King (Bank of England) $411,160
Ian Macfarlane (Australia) $325,123 (3)
John Hurley (Ireland) $315,000
Bill McDonough (New York Fed) $315,000
Toshihiko Fukui (Bank of Japan) $276,076 (4)
Alan Bollard (Reserve Bank of New Zealand) $255,672 (5)
Bodil Nyboe Andersen (National Bank of Denmark)$253,000
Klaus Liebscher (Austria) $247,150
Lars Heikenstein (Sweden) $241,000
Matti Vanhala (Finland) $233,000
Alan Greenspan (Federal Reserve) $172,000
Svein Igvar Gjedrem (Norges Bank) $151,000
Zdenek Tuma (Czech National Bank) $110,000

Study of the league table reveals some surprises and anomalies. Alan Greenspan is paid less than the President of the New York Fed, and of the other Federal Reserve Districts. This is because the pay of the Board of Governors in Washington is determined by the US Federal government's executive pay guidelines, whereas presidents of the New York and other district reserve banks are employees of their institutions, which are technically private corporations and set their own guidelines (though in principle subject to approval of the Board of Governors).

As Professor Charles Goodhart has said, the Chairman's rate is "ridiculously low", and the Fed only manages to attract candidates of Greenspan's quality by offering "non-pecuniary attractions". The larger problem is that salaries of Board of Governors staff come in grades stepping down from that of the chairman, making it hard to pay properly those toiling below Mr. Greenspan in less glamorous positions. The penurious pay levels go back to the traditional emphasis on public service, especially in the capital, as a vocation.

So who are the laggards in the new world of central bank transparency? The once mighty Bundesbank remains coy about the salaries of top executives, regarding them as a private contact with the board. But a spokesman did say that salary levels are "not comparable" with commercial banks. Similarly the figure is not public for the governors of the central banks in Spain and France. However, other central banks are sensing the change in the zeitgeist. From next year the Central Bank of Iceland will reveal how much its top executives are paid.
(See notes at bottom)

DONALD WINN PASSES AWAY

Fed old-timer Donald Winn sadly died at the age of 66 with pancreatic cancer after faithfully serving the central bank for almost half of his life. With 30 years on the clock, Winn had proved a precious asset to no less than four chairmen, in charge of head of congressional liaison for the last two, Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker.

Greenspan tenderly described him as a "gentle man of great humour whose vast knowledge about congressional and legislative issues has proven invaluable to the board and the entire Federal Reserve System." He is said to have been instrumental in almost every facet of major banking legislation considered by Congress for the last two decades.

ALL'S WELL IN THE EURO ZONE

Contrary to incessant and repetitive media mutterings about the sickly euro zone economy, it would seem that in fact all is well. So well, in fact, that the ECB has decided that there is really no need for its forthcoming fortnightly meeting because there simply isn't anything worth talking about.

According to an ECB spokesman, "There weren't enough points on the agenda." Oh well. It was going to have been a telephone conference, and would have been devoted to more technical subjects, unlike the other fortnightly meeting of the ECB's governing council which tends to interest rates.

But the more technical issues are satisfactorily under control. Presumably the fact that, for example, a counterfeit EUR 300 bill has recently been discovered to be doing the rounds does not come under their remit. Quite sensible then to cancel, surely anyone else would have done the same. Why waste valuable time when the sun is shining and the weather so sweet?

ZIMBABWE'S CENTRAL BANKERS URGED TO GO

Things aren't getting any less desperate in Zimbabwe, which is in the thick of a crippling cash crisis, now that parliament is demanding that the central bank management just leave. "The management at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has failed the nation by not printing notes for the past 12 months and they should simply resign," said one Victor Chitongo.

He accused the central bank of being largely responsible for the crisis and admitted to finding the whole episode embarrassing. In his opinion, "It is understandable not to have the United States dollar, the British pound or the South African rand but not to have a Zimbabwean dollar and pay a premium to get it is just unforgivable."

He thinks the central bank should face up to what has done and failed to do - such as printing more money (apparently not taking into account the effects of such a course of action) - and accept the consequences, rather than laying the blame on mysterious external influences.

For its part, the central bank admits that the cash shortage is "severe... in spite of the very large quantities of cash made available." The central bank has pleaded for a "concerted effort by all stakeholders to bring down inflation."

BANK OF JAPAN AT THE CUTTING EDGE

Toshihiko Fukui, Japan's central bank governor, keeps up with the times. He openly admits to entertaining his runaway addiction to the latest in mobile phone technology and is shortly to experience the unbridled pleasure of getting the NTT DoCoMo 505i phone. It boasts such handy features as a digital camera, traffic news and even the indispensable capacity to record television shows on his video at home while sweating away at the office.

Fukui has been eagerly waiting for weeks to lay his hands on this neat little gadget, along with countless others. "Demand was that strong", Fukui told reporters. "If companies work hard to provide new services and demand-generating products, customer demand will follow." Fukui is one such keen customer, and his habit seems at the moment to be being adequately satisfied.

CRICKETING KING'S UNLIKELY HEROES

When Mervyn King was the guest of honour last week at the lunch-time chat on BBC Radio 4's cricket programme "Test Match Special", he revealed his affection for - and knowledge of - the game as well as a certain ambition for socialite status. The governor was becomingly modest about his own prowess on the pitch, but revealed that he does bowl his slow left-armers for an invitation side in which Lord Kingsdown, a former governor, keeps wicket.

Commended by the interviewer on his grasp of cricket statistics over the last forty years - King could recall the scores from a game he had been taken to as a boy in 1963 - the interviewer said he felt was reassured that the nation's finances were in such capable hands. King demurred saying: "The only figures I can remember are from sports." Indeed the governor admitted he had arranged for the score from a recent semi-final involving his beloved Worcestershire to be relayed to him at a meeting he was attending.

The conversation broadened and, as is the tradition on the programme, King was asked to name his three choices for dinner party guests of all time. John Maynard Keynes? Adam Smith? Ricardo? Bagehot? Karl Marx? Not a bit of it.

Che Guevara, Marxist revolutionary and student-poster-icon was his first answer. King, however, diplomatically stressed Guevara's anti-inflationary credentials as governor of the central bank of Cuba rather than his penchant for Molotov cocktails. His second choice was Chou En-lai - Chinese Communist leader, long-marcher and master diplomat. King asked: What would he make of China now?

King's final choice was French actress Catherine Deneuve. To get an idea perhaps of what King sees in her visit this most enchanting of film actresses' website at http://catherine.pinknet.cz/en-index.html

PHILIPPINE CENTRAL BANKERS TO DEFEND INTEGRITY

Four senior officials at the central bank in the Philippines, including the governor Rafael Buenaventura and his deputy Alberto Reyes, are getting heat from lawmen, accused of being "administratively liable of gross neglect of duty". They face the possibility of being suspended from office for a year without pay after the central bank ordered the closure of Urban Bank in April 2000 supposedly arbitrarily and without due process.

But the central bank has assured that "the officials concerned will pursue all legal remedies available to them under the law, including the filing of a motion for reconsideration." The president herself, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has backed such a course of action, although she has no intention of intervening in the court's decision, firmly believing that the powers of the executive and the judiciary should remain separate: "We have to uphold the rule of law."

This supposed lack of enthusiasm to dash to the central bank's rescue has led conspiracy theorists to wonder whether it is actually the government that is behind the court's attempts to oust Buenaventura, who was in fact appointed by the previous Estrada government which had an ignominious end.

NOTES/SOURCES TO "WHAT IS A CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR WORTH?
1. Midpoint of declared 2002 salary range of HK$8.5m-HK$9m.
2. ECB 2001 annual report. The 6 executive directors of the ECB were together paid EUR 1.9m. We have assumed that the President is paid 20% more than the other executive directors, making his salary approximately EUR 370,000.
3. This is the dollar value of the midpoint of Mr Macfarlane's disclosed salary range of A$490,000 - A$495,000
4. Bank of Japan website
5. This is the dollar value of the midpoint of Mr Bollard's disclosed salary range of NZ$430,000 - A$439,000
Other sources: Netherlands: source Annual Report 2002 page 169; Switzerland: source Annual Report 2002 page 92; UK: source Annual Report 2003 page 43; NY Fed Annual Report 2002 page 281; Sweden: Source press office; Norway: Source Annual Report 2002 page 75.

11 August 2003

******************************************
By Benedict Mander
Central Banking Publications
******************************************

Greenspan Holds His Own

In his recent testimony to Congress, Alan Greenspan has "reached a new low" according to a certain Congressman Sanders. By apparently suggesting that manufacturing doesn't matter, Greenspan had "insulted tens of millions of American workers".

This Sanders has taken it into his head that Greenspan is "way out of touch with the needs of the middle class and working families of our country", and that instead the Fed serves the needs of evil and bloated corporations. Touchingly, Sanders is still confident that Greenspan is an "honest" person; but, as he challenged the chairman,"you just don't know what's going on in the real world".

To remedy this deplorable state of affairs, Sanders suggested that Greenspan meet some "real" people, generously offering to introduce him to some himself, since, "the millionaires and billionaires are the exception to the rule".

But when Sanders asked the Fed chairman whether he gave "one whit of concern" for America's middle and working classes, Greenspan, provoked, held his own, despite rude interjections (such as "wrong mister") and outraged splutters from Sanders.

Greenspan coolly observed that America had the highest standard of living in the world for a country of its size: "The incomes, the purchasing power of our employees, our workers, our people are, by far, more important than what it is we produce... The major focus of monetary policy is to create an environment in this country which enables capital investment and innovation to advance. We are at the cutting edge of technologies in the world... People flock to the United States... And why? Because they think this is a wonderful country to come to."

"That is an incredible answer," was the best Sanders could muster in response.

Central Bankers Abroad

It is that time of year when many central bankers jet off on holiday. But where do they go, and what do they get up to? Newsmakers has done a bit of asking around - and got some varied responses.

Of the more offbeat pursuits, Don Brash, former governor of New Zealand's central bank, says that during his 14 years as governor, he - rather appropriately - spent at least two weeks of his annual leave each year pruning male vines on his kiwifruit orchard. This turned out to be a particularly rewarding exercise: "I found that deciding which bits to cut off was sufficiently demanding mentally to take my mind completely off where the Official Cash Rate should be!"

His successor, Alan Bollard, is no less adventurous, most recently trotting off to Syria, Jordan and Egypt to see something of the Arab world: "It was a great time to travel - I think we were the only western tourists in Syria." But this Christmas he has plans to stay in his forest outside Wellington where he intends to "prune trees, chop wood, swim or raft down the ice cold mountain river, have lazy barbecues with great local produce, pick blackberries and mushrooms, listen to complaints from the local farmers, and read that very long book about Paul Volcker and the Fed that I keep putting off."

Gerry Corrigan, Volcker's former colleague and protégée and the former president of the New York Fed (now slumming it at Goldman Sachs along with the likes of Robert Hormats), was known to go out camping in the wilds for weeks on end.

One current Fed official is also a fan of the great outdoors, having just returned from a vigorous ten-day march around Mont Blanc, and has in the past been known to undertake some of the more precipitous Andean trails. As for his colleagues, he disappointedly sighed, they tend to go for the more "standard issue" type of holiday, but he is doing his best to raise the standard.

Alexandre Lamfalussy, former head of the BIS and the European Monetary Institute, forerunner of the ECB, was in his time particularly intrepid, with a liking for hiking in the African hinterland. Andrew Crockett, Lamfalussy's successor at the BIS, and now off to JP Morgan, apparently found it harder to sever all ties from his working life, making sure his mobile telephone or email was always within easy reach when on his regular trips to the French Antilles where he indulges his passion for golf. [In fact, Newsmakers actually spotted him hurrying off from the most recent BIS annual meetings wearing a dapper straw hat with golf bag slung over shoulder, in order to take on some of the braver central bank governors attending.]

As for other Europeans, Eddie George always enjoys a gentle cruise round the Solent (off the Isle of White), while the bronzed Karl Otto Pohl, former head of the Bundesbank, used to cut a dashing figure on the ski slopes. Jean-Claude Trichet is refreshing himself with a traditional French holiday, in France but well away from the bright lights of Paris. With eight years to go in Frankfurt, who can blame him?

In Finland, central bankers like to retreat to the countryside to stay in the bank's guest house in Lapland, where they can go for a spot of skiing (energetic, cross-country, of course) in the winter or hiking in the summer (when the mosquitoes allow it). One Icelandic central banker complained that on his recent holiday the weather was actually too hot to go salmon fishing, bringing home just one measly trout. (A colleague however found the same hot weather perfect for some hearty walking in the highlands.) But Scandinavians need to come home for the crayfish season when they can gorge themselves on seafood and aquavit.

Many central bankers love the sea; all those nautical metaphors about "sailing close to the wind" and "central bankers in uncharted waters" are not without substance. One "passionate camper" has a fondness for the Adriatic ("the sight of it, the smell and the sound, the tremendous sunsets...") and has been snatching opportunities for a few days off all summer. There are even quite convenient conferences held from time to time in nice places like Dubrovnik (call Jacob Frenkel, former governor of the Bank of Israel, for more details).

Meanwhile, in a number of South American countries the beach, particularly perhaps in Brazil, is the place to be seen - "whenever they find the time and the money", that is... And then there are always those very special islands off Venezuela

For a cold shower, in conclusion, it has to be said that a disturbing number of central bankers actually expressed surprise at the existence of such a thing as a holiday, and even if they knew about such a thing, view it as a fairly alien concept. One governor said, "On the rare occasion that I do go on holiday, I usually spend it with the kids shopping, going to the movies or visiting fun parks."

One central banker was fairly sure his governor never goes on holiday at all, while another said that if he did, it was never for long. Yet another didn't know so much about his governor's holidaying antics, but could reveal that he was a dedicated weight lifter (this contrasts with the informant's own personal preference for strumming on the guitar to ease his worries). As one all-too-knowingly put it, "central bankers never rest".

BIS Increases Transparency

Something which has largely escaped people's notice amid the flurry of recent changes at the BIS is that it has now declared the salaries of its senior management. This is consistent with its more general drive for greater transparency, since, as the new general manager Malcolm Knight told Newsmakers, "At the BIS we encourage greater transparency in the financial system, and we have to live by what we preach. That's why we recently acted to make our own financial statements much more transparent." Malcolm Knight himself is paid 617,050 Swiss francs ($456,567) while his deputy gets 566,500 Swiss francs ($419,164) and heads of department get 526,070 Swiss francs ($389,249). This compares with Alan Greenspan who only gets around $170,000 (actually much less than other regional Fed governors, some of whom get almost double that) but more in line with, say, Mervyn King at the Bank of England who gets £256,893 ($417,271).

Meltzer Magic

Allan Meltzer and the dear old Bretton Woods twins haven't always been on the best of terms. As he told Central Banking journal barely a year and a half a go: the world bank's inefficiencies were a "scandal"; in many of its activities it "contributes little"; the IMF threw money at Argentina and the much-hyped SDRM (hey - remember that?) was "one of those ideas that will never happen". Meltzer certainly doesn't shy away from targets. Governments, central banks, academics they have all been felled by what Karl Brunner described as his machine-gunner style of argument.

With this sort of form Newsmakers was startled by a glowing interview in Finance and Development (or F&D as it has stylishly re-branded itself), the IMF's venerable quarterly organ. Things seemed to be on the mend between Meltzer and the Fund. The Fund, Meltzer says, took his commission seriously and tried to implement some of things it proposed. The Fund seems to have accepted with great alacrity the role of setting standards with countries left to implement them. The Fund's role should be to help victims not the culprit - ie, lend to those threatened by contagion who maintain specific policies.

But he has not softened his stance on the Bank. There's an "enormous difference" between the response from the Fund and Bank Meltzer tells F&D. The World Bank's "record of accomplishment in the poorest countries is very poor." Oh dear. With the rows over reciprocal canteen rights still fresh in everyone's minds, Newsmakers hopes that this won't be start of more internecine warfare.

At present Professor Meltzer is of course working on his gargantuan history (Volume II) of the Fed, a story which itself bids to become a piece of the Fed's history. Meltzer certainly seems to be part of the furniture. He has been around so long he is starting to come across himself in his own research.

Macfarlane Soldiers On

Ian Macfarlane, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, is buckling down for another term - but not a full one. At the age of 57, it seems that the prospect of another whole seven-year term would have been a bit much, so he put a bid in for a shortened second term of three years, which was accepted by Australia's Treasurer Peter Costello. It would have been odd if he hadn't accepted: as a source put it to Newsmakers, Macfarlane's reappointment was a "no-brainer" for Costello. After all, "He's been doing a good job, the economy has done well - why even consider not reappointing?" Fair point.

In any case, Macfarlane will be able to retire at the round age of 60 - in September 2006 - having spent a full decade as governor (and it is rumoured that Macfarlane has said that ten years in the top job would be enough for anyone), and another 17 years at the bank before that. He had previously said, when probed on the subject, "If you are young enough to do another [term] you will think about doing another one." Although he was thinking about doing another term, maybe he wasn't sure if he was young enough. In the end he managed to wangle a compromise that keeps everyone happy. After all, he has presided over the central bank during a particularly prosperous period, and politicians have proved to be more than happy for this to be prolonged.

The only other Australian governor to make it into a second term was H.C. "Nugget" Coombs back in the sixties. Macfarlane is known by some as Big Mac, although apparently not to his face. He is greatly liked by his colleagues, who are said to be as delighted with his reappointment as he is. Macfarlane's unassuming character endears himself to others: he is rumoured to have once described himself as "a sort of banker" when asked his occupation by a Sydney golf club, according to Reuters. Although he partakes in the BIS annual golfing tournament - an informal and soothing affair which takes place after the AGM - he has never won. Macfarlane says Asian central bankers always win it. Raised in Melbourne, he spent six years at the OECD in Paris before moving straight to the central bank. He is married with a son and a daughter.

Finance Minister Becomes Governor In Peru

How will Javier Silva measure up as the new governor of Peru's central bank? Previously the country's finance minister, Silva stepped into the breach to replace Richard Webb after the latter's resignation on account of unworkable disagreements between himself and the board.

Judging by his progress to date, Silva might well fare better on that front. Silva has had some training in economics, and has been involved in various business ventures (reportedly with decidedly mixed success). However, our sources tell us that he has made good use of his varied experience in senior government positions - which included a stint as an international bureaucrat for the Andean Common Market secretariat. So he may be able to handle his board better than Webb. "He is a smart guy", said one acquaintance.

True, he is said to have only a nodding acquaintance with the complexities of modern finance. But then again, central bank governors do not necessarily have to be financial whiz-kids; it takes a combination of skills to run a central bank successfully.

New Serbian Governor Asserts Independence

Did the Serbian government give Mladjan Dinkic the boot because of his questionable running of the central bank? If so, his successor won't last long. Energy minister Kori Udovicki who has been chosen to take his place told the Financial Times, "I will continue, absolutely, with just as strict a monetary policy and just as strict, if not stricter, banking supervision. I expect continuity in terms of firmness, no doubt about it."

But, although she has been drawn in from the party ranks, she is adamant that she will not stand for any attempts at bullying the central bank into becoming the government's plaything: "People are waiting to see whether I really succumb to pressure from the government. I do not blame people for wondering, but I know that if anybody put me here for that reason they made a big mistake." She rubbished the notion that the government would have any success in making the central bank to manage reserves in any other way than normal: "Reserves will be managed as reserves, and there is no instrument for the government to try to put pressure on me other than, perhaps, something psychological."

Despite protestations by the senior central bankers that made a sharp exit from the central bank immediately prior to her arrival that the changes being made to the central bank would damage its independence, Udovicki predicts the opposite, albeit for different reasons: "I think there is going to be a boost to the independence and strength of Serbia's central bank in that I plan to have absolutely no political role, no political interest."

This would contrast with Dinkic who was and is intimately involved with the G17 plus party as a founder, who explained, "I entered politics out of necessity, recognising that we cannot transform the economy until we have political backing." He cited his attempt to implement the Yugoslav National Bank Law (rather than the existing one that resulted in his removal), which was dismissed for political reasons.

However, Udovicki intends to "extend and develop" Dinkic's work. As an ex-IMF staffer (she was chief economist for Yugoslavia from 1993 to 2001), she is a believer in the ways of the markets, and to that extent she differs from Dinkic who she labels "interventionist", calling herself "too naive" to have been able to do the job back in October 2000. But, "I am glad to inherit the institution he has created. But my goal - and I think I am more committed to this than he would have been - is to evolve the system with market-based instruments."

RETURN TO CENTRAL BANK INDEX

© Copyright 2002 Central Banking Publications. All rights reserved. Reprinted at USAGOLD by permission.

Benedict Mander
Email: bmander@centralbanking.co.uk
Central Banking Publications Ltd
6 Langley Street, London WC2H 9JA, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7836 3625
Fax: +44 (0)20 7836 3608
http://www.centralbanking.co.uk

Disclaimer of Warranty

Central Banking Publications assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in these materials.

THESE MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

Central Banking Publications further does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the information, text, graphics,links or other items contained within these materials. Central Banking Publications shall not be liable for any special, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, including without limitation, lost revenues or lost profits, which may result from the use of these materials. The information on this server is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Central Banking Publications in the future.

Centennial Precious Metals Gold coins & bullion since 1973 P.O. Box 460009 Denver, Colorado 80246-0009 We educate first-time investors!

We invite you to contact our trading desk for quotes and purchase information. 1-800-869-5115 00-800-8720-8720 6:00am to 6:00pm MtnTime; Mon-Fri admin@usagold.com

USAGOLD Rated A+