The mints all over the world recorded the increase in gold coins demand, Bloomberg said on January 27.
The Austria’s Muenze Oesterreich AG mint hired extra employees and started working round-the-clock. Besides, in January 2013, the demand for the Australia’s Perth Mint output rose by 20% compared to the last year. According to Bloomberg estimates, the U.S. will face the highest demand for gold coins since April 2013, when the gold prices started to fall. In early January, the UK’s Royal Mint announced that all the Sovereign gold coins were sold off, and clients had to wait for six days until the inventories were replenished.
The gold prices decline of 28% in 2013 made the gold coins more affordable for consumers and provoked such a boost in demand. The consumer activity increase bumped up the prices for gold bars. The physical gold price inched up by 7% compared to June 2013, when the value hit the record low levels.
In 2013, China became the world’s biggest consumer of this precious metal. According to the Thompson Reuters GFMS survey, the People’s Republic of China purchased 1,189.8 tons of gold. Chinese jewellery fabrication edged up to 724 tons.
In summer 2013, the Russian banks reported on the shortage of the precious metals coins, in particular, gold and silver George the Victorious coins. According to the Bank of Russia, the mintage was 500,000 pieces.
