One of the most memorable incidents of my career. There has never before or after the price of gold in asset preserving been made so clear . it was in the seventies. The United States was removing its armies from the war in south Vietnam. Many South Vietnamese citizens had escaped their homeland due to the battlefield it had become instead of facing the avengeful communist forces that were moving in swiftly.
In my office, a man and his wife who were from South Vietnam who had been part in fleeing from their land were sitting on the other side of my desk. They wanted to sell their gold. The man did his best to speak to me in English as he explained the story of how they had escaped the overtaking of Saigon and some reprisals by the soldiers of the North Vietnamese armies. They escaped with only a few personal possessions and a small cache of gold the he placed in front of me. He became excited as he described to me why they had become lucky to have escaped and survived those final frightening days of the Republic of South Vietnam. They were able to escape in a fishing boat and sailed into the South China Sea. Where they were saved by the US Navy. They were the ¨boat people¨ of Vietnam, people who had survived that part of the Indochina tragedy. Now they had plans to salvage their life savings in gold so that they could begin a new business in this country, new to them.
Their type of gold which is called Kim Thanh, one that is commonly used in Hong Kong and the far east was wrapped in rice paper. Kim Thanh have the weight of about 1.2 troy ounces or a tael, as it is called in the east. They have the appearance of thick gold leaf rectangles 3 to 4 inches long, one and a half to two inches wide and a few millimeters deep. Kim Thanh are marked with oriental characters explaining the purity and weight. As a gesture to the west they have a stamp in the center with the inscription of OR PUR, “pure gold.”
The amount of gold wasn’t much, it was about thirty ounces, but to them it was worth a ton. The man and his wife considered themselves very lucky to have been able to escape with this small amount of gold. They were immensely grateful to me for buying their gold. As we talked about Vietnam and their future plans in the U.S, I had no choice but to become as enthusiastic as they were about their future. These resilient, hardworking people now had a new perspective in life. Once they left my office that day I pondered and had no doubt that they would become very successful in this new life they had chosen. It was satisfying to know that gold had done this for them. I felt very fulfilled knowing that I had helped them in this small way.
I didn’t let go of those golden Kim Thanh for a long time. They had become a kind of symbol to me, something that reminded me of the importance and power of gold. Today when economic and financial problems have begun to deepen, more principal preoccupation’s for the United States, I always remember that Vietnamese man and his wife and how important gold can become for the future of a family. If the couple had escaped from south Vietnam with paper money instead of gold, nothing could have been done for them. The South Vietnamese currency had no exchange rate now that South Vietnam no longer exists. The couple had been very wise to convert their savings to gold much before the helicopters took the US diplomats away from the American embassy in 1975.
As years pass I come to understand the importance of gold in all its uses, cultural, industrial, economic and artistic. Gold is unsurpassed as a high tech electricity conductor and for jewelry. Gold has medical applications in dentistry and in treating diseases from cancer to arthritis. Computers and many other information age technologies use gold plating. all of these dim, though, in gold’s ancient function as money. As a resort asset, the most important general welfare contributor is gold. One common thread is economically debacled through human history: the ones who survived financially did so because they owned gold. Lately, gold has regained its interest among American investors. This renewed interest in gold isn’t a hedge against the destruction of wars but against something more discreet, the likely devastation of wealth from an international dollar collapse and a subsequent economical breakdown.
http://www.e-goldprospecting.com/html/preservation_of_assets__why_we.html
In my office, a man and his wife who were from South Vietnam who had been part in fleeing from their land were sitting on the other side of my desk. They wanted to sell their gold. The man did his best to speak to me in English as he explained the story of how they had escaped the overtaking of Saigon and some reprisals by the soldiers of the North Vietnamese armies. They escaped with only a few personal possessions and a small cache of gold the he placed in front of me. He became excited as he described to me why they had become lucky to have escaped and survived those final frightening days of the Republic of South Vietnam. They were able to escape in a fishing boat and sailed into the South China Sea. Where they were saved by the US Navy. They were the ¨boat people¨ of Vietnam, people who had survived that part of the Indochina tragedy. Now they had plans to salvage their life savings in gold so that they could begin a new business in this country, new to them.
Their type of gold which is called Kim Thanh, one that is commonly used in Hong Kong and the far east was wrapped in rice paper. Kim Thanh have the weight of about 1.2 troy ounces or a tael, as it is called in the east. They have the appearance of thick gold leaf rectangles 3 to 4 inches long, one and a half to two inches wide and a few millimeters deep. Kim Thanh are marked with oriental characters explaining the purity and weight. As a gesture to the west they have a stamp in the center with the inscription of OR PUR, “pure gold.”
The amount of gold wasn’t much, it was about thirty ounces, but to them it was worth a ton. The man and his wife considered themselves very lucky to have been able to escape with this small amount of gold. They were immensely grateful to me for buying their gold. As we talked about Vietnam and their future plans in the U.S, I had no choice but to become as enthusiastic as they were about their future. These resilient, hardworking people now had a new perspective in life. Once they left my office that day I pondered and had no doubt that they would become very successful in this new life they had chosen. It was satisfying to know that gold had done this for them. I felt very fulfilled knowing that I had helped them in this small way.
I didn’t let go of those golden Kim Thanh for a long time. They had become a kind of symbol to me, something that reminded me of the importance and power of gold. Today when economic and financial problems have begun to deepen, more principal preoccupation’s for the United States, I always remember that Vietnamese man and his wife and how important gold can become for the future of a family. If the couple had escaped from south Vietnam with paper money instead of gold, nothing could have been done for them. The South Vietnamese currency had no exchange rate now that South Vietnam no longer exists. The couple had been very wise to convert their savings to gold much before the helicopters took the US diplomats away from the American embassy in 1975.
As years pass I come to understand the importance of gold in all its uses, cultural, industrial, economic and artistic. Gold is unsurpassed as a high tech electricity conductor and for jewelry. Gold has medical applications in dentistry and in treating diseases from cancer to arthritis. Computers and many other information age technologies use gold plating. all of these dim, though, in gold’s ancient function as money. As a resort asset, the most important general welfare contributor is gold. One common thread is economically debacled through human history: the ones who survived financially did so because they owned gold. Lately, gold has regained its interest among American investors. This renewed interest in gold isn’t a hedge against the destruction of wars but against something more discreet, the likely devastation of wealth from an international dollar collapse and a subsequent economical breakdown.
http://www.e-goldprospecting.com/html/preservation_of_assets__why_we.html
1 comment:
Very informative article. Now I know why people Buy Gold Assets. I'll definitely recommend this post to my friends.
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