The Canadian Dollar is No Haven

[Redneck]

The Canadian Dollar is No Haven from a US Dollar Collapse

http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1306908360.php

The article points out the obvious.

What I found odd was this.

The Bank of Canada has virtually no gold backing the Canadian dollar

Since 1980, Canada has sold 99.5% of it gold. Canada now has the 78th largest holding of gold of all countries. Countries such as Bolivia, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Macedonia have more gold than does the Bank of Canada.

The Bank of Canada used to have 653 tonnes but today it only holds 3.4 tonnes. To give a rough idea of what all of Canada's gold holdings look like, we created this rough estimate of what it would look like if Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, was standing beside it:

(Click on link to see charts)

In other words, there are only 109,312 troy ounces of gold stamped into Maple leafs and all other forms of bullion.

If correct. (Big If)

Our friends to the North may want to stock up soon... Real soon...

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[theo]

That may be true, but Canada does have plenty of natural resources like oil, natural gas and timber along with some precious and base metal deposits. Also the Canadian Government is being far more fiscally responsible than the U.S. at the moment. Although I believe the Swiss Franc has some gold backing and may be preferred by most, I think Canadian coins/currency would be better positioned to serve as an alternative currency (at least for those of us in the North) in the event of a Dollar collapse as they are more widely recognized by many in the States.

[psi]

Really you could say the same about just about any modern currency regarding (direct) PM backing, but the CAD has made significant gains against other currencies over the last few years. None are immune to inflation but potentially it can be beat just by playing exchange rates. Giants like India and China will require huge amounts of mineral resources as their economies develop. The AUD has performed similarly and there are many similarities between the two economies (big mineral deposits, smallish population). In the short term though the USD has regained some ground lately which might make it a good time for USD holders to buy in.

[psi]

Also it seems flawed to look at reserve holdings alone in talking about the true value of a currency, with fiat currency it's really the economy itself that backs the value.

[gojomoso]

interesting read, but PSI is right, currency is no longer backed by gold or silver, its the economy that determines the value of the currency. I think the US should sell some of their gold to help the economy (not pay off the debt, that'd hurt our economy)

[Redneck]

It seems everyone has missed the point.

Canada has sold 99.5% of its gold.

Canada currently has a population of 34,728,400 and according to the article only holds 109,312 ounces of gold.

It would take only 0.318% of the people to buy 1 ounce of gold each in order to clean out the vault.

This ,if true, is startling...

If your a Canadian and would like to own gold, you may want to purchase some now before it's all gone.

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[psi]

I guess there is truth to that, gold maple mintages seem to have have dropped off significantly compared compared to the ~1 million average mintages of the one oz coin between 1979 and 1990: http://www.jandm.com/script/getitem.asp?CID=7&PID=33 At this point any coins minted would pretty much have to be made with gold purchased at market prices rather than dipping into a reserve supply, which arguably is more or less what they should have been doing anyway. Ideally though they would have been replenishing those reserves during periods where prices were unusually low, as they were during the late 90's and early 2000's for example. Selling off assets so the numbers make you look good is a common trick in government.

[fasTT]

Like every country in the world, they use a fiat currency that is unbacked.

Unlike many countries, Canada has significant oil, copper, gold, silver etc... in its sovereign ground.

[NickelExpress]

It would bug me more if Canada did not have huge stockpiles of other things that were valued high, water, trees, land, other minerals, hot woman,I think we have a few barrels of oil as well..what more does a country need.

[PennyPauper]

It would bug me more if Canada did not have huge stockpiles of other things that were valued high, water, trees, land, other minerals, hot woman,I think we have a few barrels of oil as well..what more does a country need.

Strategic Beer Reserves?

[frugalcanuck]

It seems everyone has missed the point.

Canada has sold 99.5% of its gold.

Canada currently has a population of 34,728,400 and according to the article only holds 109,312 ounces of gold.

It would take only 0.318% of the people to buy 1 ounce of gold each in order to clean out the vault.

This ,if true, is startling...

If your a Canadian and would like to own gold, you may want to purchase some now before it's all gone.

>

We have the internet in Canada as well... The gold market is global so the whole world would have to run out, if thats possible.
I was at the mint a few weeks ago and I saw much more than 100,000 ounces of gold there. Given the opportunity, I personally would not buy my gold from the Bank of Canada or the Federal Reserve because... well... They were created to steal our money.