Gold

Abstract

Very few people of sense stockpile bank-notes. They know that a pound note (or any other modern currency for that matter) deteriorates in value from year to year. What a pound buys today is much less than what a pound would have bought, say, ten years ago. Most people with spare pounds try to put them to work earning interest, or profit, and so — at the very least — keeping the value of their savings static and, more optimistically, increasing it. But one of the oldest currencies in existence is still hoarded. In Britain it is forbidden to buy or hold gold bars and if you have a gold sovereign, remnant of the days before paper money, you should exchange it for paper money. Yet, all over the world, gold has never been more popular among hoarders. About £7,000 million worth is believed to be salted away in private hands, and lately the total has gone up by £400 million a year.