Do we have any gold?

later12

I know that some nations such as The UK and The US store a significant amount of their savings in gold. What about us here in Ireland? Do we own or store any of our financial reserves in gold?

Just a question, given that it's an exceedingly good time to sell gold.

And on that point, why does the USA not sell off all of its gold right now? I once read a figure that they have gold reserves of about 300 billion US$

Slozer

Ireland has about 6% of its current reserves in gold. Where this is held I do not know. US is reported to have approx 8000 tons of gold in reserves but this has not been audited in a long time.

later12

Can't we just sell it? What are these reserves tied up in (committed to) - pension reserves?

If they sold it would they not just be handing it over for some paper they printed in the first place?

Atlantic Dawn

There's commercially viable quantities of gold in Co Monaghan, not sure if they have started to extract it yet.

gizmo555

We have six tonnes, which at current prices is worth about €190m. It's deposited with the European Central Bank, but where it's physically located, I don't know.

Atlantic Dawn

gizmo555 wrote: »

We have six tonnes, which at current prices is worth about €190m. It's deposited with the European Central Bank, but where it's physically located, I don't know.

Probably sitting next to the e-voting machines

later12

Excuse my possibly uninformed question, but, shouldn't we be selling this gold?

Seth Brundle

Apparently its all stored securely in Berties wardrobe!

Cavehill Red

My understanding is that we have only 2 tonnes of gold.

gizmo555

Cavehill Red wrote: »

My understanding is that we have only 2 tonnes of gold.

Your understanding is incorrect. Here it is from the horse's mouth. 193,000 troy ounces as of September 2010, which equals 6 tonnes.

Sticky_Fingers

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Probably sitting next to the e-voting machines

Those feckin' things probably cost us their weight in gold over their lifetime:D

Cavehill Red

gizmo555 wrote: »

Your understanding is incorrect. Here it is from the horse's mouth. 193,000 troy ounces as of September 2010, which equals 6 tonnes.

Happy to be corrected on this.
They've purchased in the past couple of years, so. Smart move, given how gold's gone.

gurramok

So we have 1.6bn of "Official Reserve Assets and other Foreign-Currency Assets (approximate market value)", including 190m of gold. That really is a tiny sum :eek:

Was there no investment other than the pension fund at all during the golden years? :eek:

Wolfe Tone

Someone shop the pic of Harney with the shovel into her digging for gold on the back arse hills of no where.... will be funny.

[MOD]Only for the mod who applies the ban to the poster in question.[/MOD]

Seth Brundle

gurramok wrote: »

Was there no investment other than the pension fund at all during the golden years? :eek:

Of course there was. We invested in valuable stuff like the e-voting machines

later12

How is the money in the pension reserve fund held? Investments? Bonds? 100 trillion Wham Bars?

I mean, I presume it doesn't sit in the Bank of Ireland account on college Green or stuffed into Brian Lenihan's mattress, so where is it?

Inquitus

gizmo555 wrote: »

Your understanding is incorrect. Here it is from the horse's mouth. 193,000 troy ounces as of September 2010, which equals 6 tonnes.

That's enough to pay the Public Sector for oooh, nearly a week.

gurramok

later10 wrote: »

How is the money in the pension reserve fund held? Investments? Bonds? 100 trillion Wham Bars?

I mean, I presume it doesn't sit in the Bank of Ireland account on college Green or stuffed into Brian Lenihan's mattress, so where is it?

Have a blast. http://www.nprf.ie/home.html

Worth about 24bn. It was raided to the tune of 7bn last year for bank recapitalisation purposes.