Yesterday, I found this news in my local Star newspaper. The Krugerrand, named after President Paul Kruger of the old Boer republic of the Transvaal, was first mass produced in 1970 and remains the world's dominant and most widely held gold bullion coin. The millennium coin is engraved with the image of a springbok.
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STARBIZ
wednesday, 25 february 2009.
JOHANNESBURG: Rand Refinery Ltd, the world's largest gold refinery, increased coin output to the highest in about 23 years as demand for South African Kruggerrands rose. The Johannesburg refinery last month doubled weekly production to 20,000 ounces of blank coins for minting by the state's SA Mint as Kruger coins, Johan Botha, head of precious metals sales, said by phone from the city yesterday.
Gold, the best performing metal in 2008, is trading near its March 17 record of US$1,032.70 an ounce as investors seek safer bets than equities and currencies. Goldman Sachs Group Inc raised its three-month gold forecast by 43% to US$1,000 an ounce this month.
"Demand for our blank is higher than we've seen since 1986." Botha said "In the early 1980s gold then was a novelty and people wanted to own physical gold."
Rand Refinery has manufactured, marketed and delivered more than 46 million ounces of Kruggerrands since the gold coin was introduced in 1967, according to the company's website.
"Record stock market lows are translating into record highs for gold and Kruggerrands," Alan Demby, chairman of the South African Gold Coin Exchange, said in an e-mailed statement last week. Investor are "piling into Kruggerrands and Nelson Mandela gold medallions," he said. -Bloomberg
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Source: Bloomberg, randrefinery.com, Star.com.my
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