Duke Ellington Wins Over D.C.

By David L. Ganz

Washington, D.C., chose Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899-1974) as its choice to appear on its quarter design for 2009 in a contest that pitted the jazz great against abolitionist Frederick Douglass and scientist and surveyor Benjamin Banneker, who laid out the boundaries of the District of Columbia two centuries ago.

Ellington, who was born in his grandmother's house in Washington and lived there in his early years, was a jazz great whose band played from the 1920s until today (it was managed after his death by his son, Mercer, and then his estate).

A total of 6,089 residents of the federal district voted in the selection process and of these 36 percent chose Ellington, whose piano playing was legendary and whose style of play took him on the "A Train" to Harlem's Cotton Club.

Voters went 33 percent for Frederick Douglas (1818-1895) who also lived in Washington in the Anacostia section across the Potomac River and 31 percent for Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), whose professions included surveyor, mathematician, astronomer, clockmaker, and publisher. All are African-Americans.

District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty advised Mint Director Edmund Moy on June 19 of the winning vote, but the exercise in democracy now depends on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who must make the final decision on coin design. He is not bound by the popular vote.

It's ALIVE!

By Jon Nadler

Post-Fed meeting dollar sentiment shifted back towards aggressive selling andcrude oilleaped towards $139 along with hefty rises in practically every commodity today.Gold got a nitro boost from the hedgies today and vaulted by some 3% on the day, trading at near $912.00 at last check. The Fed may have changed the language in its most recent statement to signal a more hawkish stance on inflation, but markets took the absence of a Fed rate hike timetable specification in its post-meeting statement as a signal to continue the commodities rally.
In effect, the Fed's lack of immediate rate hikes had the same effect on the dollar and on gold today as an actual cut in rates in months past. While the Fed cautioned that 'in light of the continued increases in the prices of energy and some other commodities and the elevated state of some indicators of inflation expectations, uncertainty about the inflation outlook remains high,' it failed to address inflation matters with anything more than a rate cut cessation. The perception that the Fed is now behind the curve on raising rates as much as it was behind it when cuts were actually needed, very clearly emboldened the return of momentum traders with their large cash piles into the commodities complex.

Today's surge was a legacy of the fact that just as the market may contain many sell stops, it also obviously contains a number of buy stops. A good part of today's move came from Asia and London before NY opened for business. While today's run to well above $900 represents an encouraging move on the charts, the $915 mark and then $945 mark must both still be overcome in order to re-establish the full-on bull track in gold.

One floor trader wryly characterized the day after the Fed meeting as one during which interest rates and the greenback were sharply unchanged making a reference to the pattern of continuing low short-term interest rates and the weaker dollar.In addition, the escalation in Comex gold's open interest level appears to indicate that our old friends, the momentum trading funds are back in action. Finally, the advent of electronic trading tends to sharply augment volatility levels. Some analysts argue that this can do damage to the floor trading crowd, as price swings of this magnitude now only take minutes and hours instead of several days.

While the inflation hawks have clearly won at this week's meeting, the central bank deemed it was a bit too early to signal an actual rate hike given still fragile conditions in the financial sector and the economy. With the euro still looking like it will be the first beneficiary of a rate hike this summer (which is tantamount to a virtual rate cut in the dollar), the dollar retreated to near 72.60 on the index and thus gold made up yesterday's losses and added another 1% to them ahead the start of today's session.

The euro climbed backabove 1.57 against the greenback andparticipantsfocused on currency movements almost exclusively today, largely ignoring final Q1 GDP, existing home sales, and initial jobless claims.Silver rose46 cents to $17.20 while platinum got a $52 boost today, rising to $2055 and palladium climbed $2 to $464 per ounce. First quarter GDP was revised to 1% - a rate of growth which was higher than the feel in the real world and puts the US economy on a 2.5% expansion track over the past year. What recession? Well, don't tell that to the averageUS worker who is angry enough at his President to squarely lay blame for rising fuel prices on him and curtail spending while socking away the $600 stimulus cheque sent to him by Uncle Sam.
What's next in the world of commodities? Some expect a mushroom cloud of speculative fever to engulf the complex for as long as the window of cheap dollar opportunity is kept open by the Fed. However, the lack of firm action or stronger rhetoric may come back to bite the Fed yet, as it watches commodity-driven inflation spoil the summer fun. On the other hand, according to some players who have made good money trading the complex, the commodity price chart street that we are on is not marked 'one-way' for its entire stretch, although it still presumably leads to Eldorado. One familiar name to those who follow gold and the dollar thinks we are still in for a pause/correction/pullback - whatever one would like to call it, despite the spike to a new record in the commodity index. Bloomberg fills in the details:
Commodities face a ``correction'' after a seven-year rally, which will help ease global inflation, noted investor Dr. Marc Faber said.

``Commodity prices will come down in the next six months to one year,'' Faber, publisher of investment newsletter the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report, said at a briefing in Taipei today. Commodity prices will resume their gains after the correction, he said, with demand for oil doubling in the next 12 years. ``Some inflation pressures will abate'' as commodity prices decline, said Faber. ``It doesn't mean I am bearish about commodities. I think commodity bull markets will last'' about 20 years, he said. Dr. Faber said he's negative about the dollar in the long term, though the U.S. currency may ``strengthen somewhat'' in the short term. An afternoon close above $915 couldalter the terrain of the playing field and bullion could once again try to retake aim at $935/$945 unless the hedgies pull the profit plug. The Dow's 277 point plunge and breach of the 11750 level and oil taking out the $140 level in aftermarket trade could provide just the right stimulus for such a track, but as we have seen over the past two weeks, volatility is more than alive and well - it is spreading like the Andromeda Strain. Sizeable moves in various markets are now in the picture. Tread extremely carefully.

Global Price Rise Makes Gold the Best Business to Invest

by Natia Taktakishvili

According to the several analyses made by foreign specialists, since April 2001 the gold price has more than tripled in value against the US dollar. In March 2008, the gold price increased above $1000, which in real terms is still well below the $850 peak in 1980.

The price of gold is increasing in Georgia too. The price of gold is hitting new record and it is increased by GEL 5 from January, 2008. If one gram gold cost GEL 40 in 2007 at the Georgian Gold Exchange, today one gram gold costs GEL 45. Value increasing of the material causes price rise of jeweler products.

“Zarapxana’s products are created for middle and high income population. The price of the products begin from GEL 40 and goes up according to the difficulty of the work and the value of gemstones”, Nina Enukidze, Marketing Manger of Zarapxana, told the FINANCIAL.

“Zarapxana offers wide choice of products. Zarapxana’s stores are offering modern gold decorations as well as jewelry which are created on the old Georgian motivation. Georgian Gold exchange market is popular among special segment of population, though quality of these products and the equivalent price is doubtful. Zarapxana checks each product’s quality and after this examination, jewelry products are sent to the different stores of Zarafxana. I can declare doubtlessly that people can trust Zarapxana products”, Enukidze noted.

According Enukidze, in 2006 Zarapxana made a new investment and began to produce jewelry products with individual design. New design is well adapted to the modern world trends. This caused popularity of Zarapxanas’s products among Georgian customers. Today Zarapxana is employing the best jewelers of the country and this is the second factor of causing popularity.
Georgian gold has a long history. Company Zarapxana’s history goes back to the Second World War. Simple initials of producing gold became the guarantee of creating Georgian jeweler manufacturing. Georgian jewelry factory always occupied the leading positions among five best manufacturers at the post USSR market.

“Zarapxana’s loyal customers are Presidents’ apparatus, Ministries of Georgia, companies and different departments. As for coins, existing at the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), they are made abroad. Zarapxana is not their manufacturer”, Enukidze noted.

In her words, Zarapxana plans to introduce jewelry renting service which is very popular abroad. This service is a well appropriated in the USA and European countries. Most of the world’s leading Jewelry Companies are applying this service.

Jewelry as well as bijouterie has its special segment of users and these two sections can not be regarded as competitors to each other. Modern trends are implicated in the bijouterie as well as in the gold products. Gold products will always be separated from the bijouterie user segment. Zarapxana renovates its collection of jewelry and souvenirs seasonally.

“Today Zarapxana has six stores under Zarapxana logo. In future, we plan to represent jewelry copies of Mtskheta Collection created on the old motivation. In this collection new modern trends were merged with ancient style. Zarapxana also cares about children and soon the company will represent Children collection as well. Today Zarapxana is the only product which occupies leading position at the Georgian jewelry market. According of the sales amount, Zarapxana’s stake at the Georgian market consists 15 – 20 % and annual turnover is GEL 4 million”, Enukidze declared.

Gold has been known and highly-valued since prehistoric times. Gold metals and gold coins have a long history in the world, as they were always regarded as one of the most reliable ways for investing money in the inflation period.

Gold coins are one of the oldest forms of money. The first gold coins in history were coined by the Lydian king Croesus in about 560 BC, not long after the first silver coins were minted by king Pheidon of Argos in about 700 BC.

Gold coins then had a very long period as a primary form of money, but most of the world stopped making gold coins as currency by 1933.

However, gold-colored coins (not made of real gold) have made a comeback in many currencies. Furthermore, many countries continue to make legal tender gold coins, but these are primarily meant for collectors and investment purposes and are not meant for circulation. Now produced gold coins have numismatic value and as a rule they are not used for paying, as the cost of the coin is far above the nominal. Gold coins can be regarded as a good source of investment, because of its high value especially in the period of inflation. Population uses gold coins as a way of invest money.

According to George Kalandadze, Head of Public Relations Department of National Bank of Georgia, for the last period Georgian National Bank has began a special project to restore existed numismatic traditions in Georgia.

“There are two categories of gold coins nominated in Georgian Lari: for investment and anniversary. 1/10, 1/4, 1/2 , 1, 5 and 10– ounce gold coins are created according to the Argo thematic (with golden fleece craft), these gold coins are created for investment purposes (999,9 gold probe). The coins were cut in Austrian Mint in 2006. The designer of these Georgian Gold coins is Mamuka Gongadze”, Kalandadze declared to The FINANCIAL.

“The sale price of these gold coins is established by the National Bank of Georgia twice a day (10 p. m and 15 p. m) according to the set up value by exchange association of London precious metals’ ”, Kalandadze added.

In the last century, during the economic crisis periods, (such as the Great Depression, World War II, the first and second oil crisis) investors tried to preserve their assets by investing in precious metals, most notably gold and silver.

The long-term trend in the Dow/Gold ratio since 2001 shows that such a scenario is currently repeating. Major reasons are, among others, the rapid increase in money supply in Europe and the USA (monetary inflation) and the high double deficit of the USA. These economic problems have led to the financial crisis, high price inflation and the strong depreciation of major currencies against commodities, most notably of the US-Dollar.

As Kalandadze noted, cutting and realization of these numismatic and anniversary coins revealed existed coin collecting traditions in Georgia.

The popularity of anniversary coins is growing day by day and soon it will come into new phase, it is confirmed by the big number of customers. NBG sold 2 995 coins with GEL 10 nominal (total number of them from the very first day of cutting was 3000), 1 895coins with GEL 25 nominal (total number of them from the very first day of cutting was 2 500), 858 coins with GEL 50 nominal (total number of them from the very first day of cutting was 2 500), 525 coins with GEL 100 nominal (total number of them from the very first day of cutting was 1052), 17 coins with GEL 300 nominal (total number of them from the very first day of cutting was 100), 10 coins with GEL 1 000 nominal (total number of them from the very first day of cutting was 10).

“Each person can purchase these coins from NBG’s Currency Museum, as well as from its branches. This ability is given to Georgians, who live abroad. As for anniversary coins, they were produces by NBG in 1995. The anniversary GEL500 nominal coin is a memorial symbol of Second World War. This coin is not regarded for circulation, it only has numismatic meaning. The designer of the coin is Nodar Malazonia. The coin weights 17 grams. The number of these memorial coins from the day of its cut consists 2 000. 1806 of the coins are already sold”, Kalandadze said.