So maybe you heard about this, but there's now going to be ATM's that sell Gold bars in America. No longer will the folks of Dubai be the only ones to flaunt their wealth with Gold from a vending machine, America's getting in on this action, starting in Las Vegas and Florida!
ATMs That Sell Gold Bars Are Coming Soon to America
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.
I've always wanted a couple Krugerrand to hide under some crown molding or a foot board but I just don't give enough of a shit to seek out this machine. I can't wait for conservatives to head into restaurants and stores and try to pay in gold. If you thought that you get funny looks from attempting to spend that dollar coin, just wait till you bust out some gold bricks!
Who thought of this? Why yes, let's put thousands of dollars in untraceable gold left out in a dispenser! Brilliant idea! Though I presume that they'll only be in luxury hotels which already have high end security. Which I guess would be enough for common criminals, but I doubt it'll stop Danny Ocean.
Ha! 10g only? What are you? Poor? Anyone who buys less than 10oz at a time better be thrown out of my hotel. Not even worth tipping the illegal workers with.
This is a show of wealth and nothing more. It has nothing to do with "economic uncertainty" in any sense beyond the connection between the recent recession and the shift of wealth towards the top. People aren't running to these ATM's in some dramatic economic downturn, they are going to places that have them or simply using them as a way to cement their status symbols, and to buy into Glenn Becks fear mongering and gold advertisements.
Why yes, let's make a scare commodity extremely easy to get. What could go wrong with that? I hear there's one of these at the presidential palace in Abu Dhabi, I hate to think that it's anything more than tacky. But hey, let's bring them to Vegas and Florida!
If there is a collapse to the market, wouldn't those guys who bought gold 'on paper' be just as fucked as anyone else? At that point the person who put their money and bought a pressure canner and canned their green beans and other food is looking like the wise investor. The only way you can really get into that market is if you invested in a can opener, a gun or a stock pile of cans yourself.
It's been a couple of days since this story broke so I'm curious to see if anyone has been able to explain why someone would need gold.. on the go? It's as if your distrust for the currency you are currently holding is so strong that you wish to divest yourself of it, but not that much. Why hey, there's a gold machine, let me add some more dead weight to my persons.
The bigger question is aren't gold bars very heavy? I haven't actually ever touched a gold bar myself. So I don't have first hand knowledge of it, but the film Die Hard with a Vengeance made this aspect of robbing gold the tricky part and if there's one thing I trust it's Bruce Willis.
I just wonder why people believe that the value of an ounce of gold is any less imaginary than a piece of currency. I mean sure, the element gold has legit industrial applications, and it is scarce. But surely it is valued far greater than its actual market value would be if it were traded like any other element like, say, mercury or tungsten.
Much of its monetary "value" comes from perceived imaginary value for trade, not actual concrete usefulness. When civilization collapses that "value" will just disappear like it will for every other abstract representation of value. So it's basically just another form of currency, the supply of which happens to be fixed and finite.
If you think about it, money is actually just paper and papers not worth much at all, so my 100 page binder makes me rich. Dude, whoa, think about it! In this instance, it's pretty strange and cool that the paranoids buying gold has actually driven up the price of gold so their investment has paid off slightly... My, that doesn't sound anything like a bubble to me.
Archaeologists from the future are going to stumble across so many mummified obese Americans in their basements grasping on to their gold coins surrounding them and even choking their own dessicated maws.
I'll leave you with a little fact - Did you know that there is one ATM in Antarctica. It's at McMurdo Station and it is operated by Wells Fargo. I wonder when they will get one of these fine ATM's? I bet if you did knock over one of these, you could totally take it to cash 2 gold and get a sweet $50 bucks back.
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