Tuesday, 27 September 2011 14:52
Apparently the Federal Reserve is not the only entity threatened by gold. Central banks in Europe are restricting the sales of precious metals, presumably threatened by the fact that citizens are increasingly abandoning the devalued paper currencies and preserving their wealth by purchasing gold and silver.Most countries in Europe — with the exceptions of Germany and Switzerland — have already mandated that residents may acquire gold only by purchasing it directly from local bank branches. Banks have justified the new policies by claiming that they are intended to prevent money laundering.
The Austrian government announced that it would restrict the sale of precious metals to $20,000 at a time, which currently amounts to approximately 11 ounces. The new law — which reflects the growing trend to restrict the purchase of gold in Europe — was passed relatively quietly and took place over the course of a month.
SHTFplan.com predicted that Austria's new gold policies would spread across the EU: “As Austria is one of the more developed nations in the Euro Zone, there is a strong likelihood that they are not the sole country implementing these new policies — and that this has been, or soon will be, implemented across the entirety of EU nations.”
Just three weeks later, France has made a similar policy change relating to the sale of gold. The law states:
Any transaction on the retail purchase of ferrous and non ferrous [metals] is made by crossed check, bank or postal transfer or by credit card, not the total amount of the transaction may not exceed a ceiling set by decree. Failure to comply with this requirement is punishable by a ticket for the fifth class. Any amount over 450 euros or $600 US dollars must be paid by bank transfer.
Mac Slavo of SHTFplan.com notes:
According to independent reports the law was passed to curb the illegal sale of stolen metals like copper, steel, etc. Given the rampant rise in thefts of these metals from telephone poles, construction sites and businesses here in the United States, we can certainly see this as a reasonable assessment for why the French passed this law.
However, the fact that no exception was made for gold and silver simply cannot be ignored. The new law effectively makes it illegal to purchase even a single Troy ounce of gold or around 18 ounces of silver in cash....finish reading at original
