The Royal Mint, Britain’s government-owned body which is authorized to manufacture the coins of the United Kingdom, has announced that it is to operate a service which provides the sale of precious metals to retail clients for physical delivery.
Silver minted bars are available in 100 gram units, while the gold bars range from 1 gram to 100 grams, whereas depending on the price of the precious metals at the time of purchase, a 1 gram gold bar could cost around £40, while 100 grams could be around £2,800.
Established in 886, the Royal Mint has a reputation for solidity and traditional manufacturing of sovereign currency, and is not normally associated with the ultra modern world of online commodities trading, however by providing this service, the organization is to some extent entering into competition with online trading companies, many of which have been keen in recent years to include silver and gold to the range of instruments traded on retail platforms such as MetaTrader 4.
There is, however, another aspect to this service which may appeal specifically to British investors, and that is the direct accessibility of precious metals with no intermediary, and physical delivery at a point in time in which the future of the European Union’s economy is continually under a microscope.
The UK’s savior is its retention of its sovereign currency, the Pound, which stands the country in good stead should the European Union begin to fragment as a result of the potential exodus of Greece, which would expose the European Central Bank to approximately 190 billion Euros in unserviceable debt, and with it bringing further economic woes to the already indebted eurozone.
British retail customers will be able to invest in gold, and retain it themselves. In a report by the Daily Mail, Lisa Elward, the Royal Mint’s head of international sales and bullion, made a commercial statement that “We are thrilled to be able to add minted bars bearing the historic Royal Mint Refinery marque to our bullion range.”
The bars, which are launched with the designation RMR, are being made available directly to customers through royalmintbullion.com, the Mint’s online bullion trading platform which was set up last September to help people to buy and sell gold easily and securely.
When the Mint set up the site, it said that consumers had in the past been been deterred by perceived barriers to buying precious metals.
The Royal Mint also indicated that, according to research by the World Gold Council, is potentially £4 billion-worth of untapped demand for gold investment within the UK alone.
Photographs courtesy of the Daily Mail