Back in the 60's, we were quite actively promoting gold coins as a good investment. Most professional investors realise that any artificial constraint placed on commodity prices will eventually fail, having produced ideal speculative opportunities. In 1968, great pressure built upwards on gold and downwards on the dollar. It has recently fallen again as Central Banks have made large disposals, and has dipped below 300. We feel now that the effect of the 35 year artificial restraint on gold's price has now been well corrected, and we feel there is no particular influence which should push gold in either direction in the foreseeable future.
Gold is, and always has been a very steady priced, reliable commodity.
In our opinion, it is not one which will provide rich speculative profits. The main benefit of investing in gold is supreme safety. A mattress full of bank notes can go up in flames, or be devalued or demonetised overnight. This just cannot happen to gold. In countries like Britain, where we have a relatively stable currency, there is not a high risk of devaluation, although this did happen in 1964 and again in 1992, but for people in third world countries, or even in superpowers like the late USSR countries, it is probably a very desirable insurance against devaluation or even complete collapse of their currency.