jultorsk

Correct, "enlightening'" in all possible interpretations... the ones marked are too large to fit in a standard 22mm capsule. On the photo they look also a fraction skinnier than the rest. 🤷‍♂️
Have not had a chance to XRF the two yet. 
 

"Experts uncover mystery cause of Gold price fluctuations".
"Experts at Roysters news agency are quoted as saying that experts have discovered a strong link between recent price volatility on the Comex, and a little known British website where a kingpin price manipulator has been operating with impunity up until last night."
"The website in question is now at the centre of an international storm after it was discovered that a character known simply as "Paul", had been affecting the price of gold by repeatedly "asking for a friend".
"It's not yet clear as to the full extent of Paul's manipulation, but it is clear according to experts, that he is the sole reason for the volatility seen in the Gold price over the last few trading sessions.  It would also appear that his diabolical scheme was set up many many years ago, and that his coordinating thread indicates clear premeditation and foresight to his crimes.  Our experts also told us that his drunken antics last night were carefully designed to affect the price of Gold, and that the drop in price which is currently playing out this morning may not end until he get's out of bed with a severe hangover and regrets it."
"In the meantime, Central Banks are doing the best that they can to weather the storm.  The UK has announced that it is resisting "a strong urge to flog the nation's savings down the local pawn shop at half price", with a treasury spokesman saying that whilst they didn't want to sell the nations reserves, they definitely wouldn't let it sag as far as Brown's bottom before selling this time."
"The world is currently holding its breathe and awaiting Paul's return.  Fears persist of further falls during the Asian session, with little chance that Paul will wake from his drunken stupor any time before lunch."
  

1oz Perth Mint Bars marked 9999 
Fresh from tube - selling as bullion.
£27 each + post
5 left

To create panic and fear, as the vast majority are easily manipulated controlled when fearful

They'll probably hold off until the markets are closed at the weekend.

Speaking of @LawrenceChard @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer - congratulations are in order, I believe 
 
 

Hope we don't drop below 1842 😬

BORING !
What a lack lustre day
think I will go back to stacking silver.
At least disappointment was guaranteed daily and it didn't get your hopes up like the teasing minx gold is

Here’s one, 

The steaks are high in that game

I diversified into hoarding beef stock instead, I now identify as a bouillionaire 

2500usd at somepoint tomorrow is a guess I'm willing to make 

Surely Iran's attack was already factored into the price of gold, I mean, we all knew it was coming.

Didn't realise you were a freeloader. Never speak to me again.
#standards

I walk on the streets sometimes after midnight. 😊

Bert, the old, venerable and honourable member from Herefordshire is the emotional support animal for the Gold Monitoring Thread, who has been able to predict the price of gold correctly on one occasion (citation and source required).
The rest of the time, well... maybe he should be with the rest of us reprobates.

Hereford.mp4  

I went with woodland. Treellionaire.

Dominic Frisby talking to Ross Norman (albeit before the Iran attack)
Interesting reading

 
At least, I didn’t think that the price action was particularly abnormal until I spoke to my mate Ross Norman of Metals Daily yesterday. We had a long chat, and he is very concerned about what is going on. He thinks something big is afoot. I have to say, when it comes to gold price action, I bow to Ross. He has been at the coalface all his life. Current prices are a long way from traditional buyers, he says.
 
In the 1970s, the Hunt Brothers accumulated extraordinary amounts of silver so that by 1979 they had nearly cornered the market. The silver price famously rose from $11/oz in September 1979 to $50 in January 1980. It then collapsed all the way back to $11 and below. The Hunt brothers were charged with manipulating the market and eventually filed for bankruptcy.
Obviously, the gold market is many times bigger than silver was, but Ross thinks that this price action is not normal and that there is a huge - perhaps even Hunt-Brother-huge - options trade somewhere behind it. I’ve spoken to others at the LBMA and the World Gold Council and they think the same. 
 
A normal gold market would have corrected after this week’s "strong inflation data prompted the dollar and 10-year Treasury yields to rally, casting strong doubts about a June Fed rate cut,” he told me. Gold ignored it.
The buying is not coming from physical demand in the West. That has "absolutely cratered." "US Mint sales of gold eagles in March 2024,” for example, “are down 96% year on year." ETFs have been seeing net outflows, especially with the listing of the bitcoin ETFs, and "shed 15% of their total holdings." Chinese demand is hot, but that is offset by weaker than usual Indian demand. "Flow of gold to Asia is currently 'good but not exceptional' ... and therefore not sufficient to propel gold to current levels." Global Central Bank purchases have also eased. In any case, central bank buying tends to be much more measured, unless a bank is buying in a hurry.
He discounts the idea that a sovereign state is behind the move, maybe a BRICs nation along the ongoing 'de-dollarization story'. "They tend to buy on the benchmark (or fix), and these purchases are not. For a move of this scale, we would have expected physical transfer amounting to several hundred tonnes - and there is no evidence of that." London physical gold holdings are actually up a little.
A lot of people are scratching their heads about this.
What about the options market? While there have been some large trades on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange with high strike prices, they are "not really sufficient to drive the market much higher." So that just leaves the murky world of Over-the-Counter (OTC) Markets, which "seems to have been corroborated today by the LBMA data. Someone has evidently made a monumental bet on the gold market via the OTC options market."
Golden bean counters at the LBMA are crunching the data, as I write, also trying to figure out what is going on. As this is the OTC market, we don't know "precise volumes, strike prices, or expiry dates ... all we know is it appears to be extremely significant in size. A well-known hedge fund did precisely this back in the early 2000s with enormous success." I'm hearing numbers as big as 50-100 million ounces. That would be 1,500 - 2,500 tonnes. China's entire official holdings, to put those figures in context, and many times the UK's. Huge, if true. 
Here's the thing, when those calls expire, the gold market, as Ross says, "will quickly discover gravity." We just don't know when