45 million Germans owning gold?

[silenceissilver]

According to this article 45 million Germans own gold of which 26 million in the form of bars and coins. Altogether over 8,000 tons. It's based on a survey. I find the number hard to believe, particularly the 26 millions that own bars/coins but the sheer number of suppliers seems to support it.

In any case an interesting article. It would also be interesting to know the figures for the UK and the US. I came across figures of between 0.1 and 1% on the bottom end of the estimations (for the US) but I couldn't verify it.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-28/vast-gold-hoards-held-germanys-population

[sixgun]

Why find it hard to believe?

How many coin shops are there in the UK to buy from - a few dotted around but mainly small affairs other than a few in Birmingham including Atkinsons  and then Chard, HGM etc. However look at the number you can find on https://gold.de for example - loads of dealers. There must be a decent number of Germans buying to keep all these going. Let's hope there isn't a bail in or else the banks might be stealing a lot of gold from the safety deposit boxes. 

[silenceissilver]

6 minutes ago, sixgun said:

Why find it hard to believe?

Maybe rather surprised as my expectation would have been 5% of adult Germans that own bars or coins.

[BullionBuyer]

The Germans understand real money as they have experienced hyper-inflation and it is in their Psyche. It really doesn't surprise me that as a nation they hoard gold like Indians and Chinese. What does shock me is how a nation like GB, which once used the gold sovereign as money, now has no understanding of real money and virtually no understanding of the importance of precious metals. What went wrong??? How did we end up in this state of the global economy reliant on fiat currency??? 

OK, rant over!!!!

[motorbikez]

It is in the Germans psyche to own gold, older Germans still remember the money going bust during & after the 2nd world war, paper money was worthless. People were paid by the suit case full of worthless Reichmarks due to hyper inflation.

[Zhorro]

10 minutes ago, BullionBuyer said:

The Germans understand real money as they have experienced hyper-inflation and it is in their Psyche. It really doesn't surprise me that as a nation they hoard gold like Indians and Chinese. What does shock me is how a nation like GB, which once used the gold sovereign as money, now has no understanding of real money and virtually no understanding of the importance of precious metals. What went wrong??? How did we end up in this state of the global economy reliant on fiat currency??? 

OK, rant over!!!!

You just got in before me, but I'll still make my points.

At first sight, 45 million German people owning gold does seem a lot.  However, we have to remember the economic history of Germany:

1)      In the early 1920s Germany suffered from hyperinflation, and

2)      Towards the end of WWII the Reichmark had almost been rendered worthless due to inflation.

These economic events would have wiped out the value of any savings – and this is probably still remembered.

Add to this the current concern about Deutche Bank, and maybe one can see why Germans like to hold gold.

Also, the Germans have one of the lowest home ownership rates when compared to other advanced economies, so not as much of their money is tied up in this type of asset and so it seems that they have money available for gold – unlike in the UK.

Maybe a German member could comment on this?

[motorbikez]

Just found these in an old stamp album, note the 500 million mark stamp, insane. Not just African & South American banana republics fiat going tits up. Should be food for thought for everyone. The Germans are wise to all this we should be too.

[whuamai]

2 hours ago, Zhorro said:

You just got in before me, but I'll still make my points.

At first sight, 45 million German people owning gold does seem a lot.  However, we have to remember the economic history of Germany:

1)      In the early 1920s Germany suffered from hyperinflation, and

2)      Towards the end of WWII the Reichmark had almost been rendered worthless due to inflation.

These economic events would have wiped out the value of any savings – and this is probably still remembered.

Add to this the current concern about Deutche Bank, and maybe one can see why Germans like to hold gold.

Also, the Germans have one of the lowest home ownership rates when compared to other advanced economies, so not as much of their money is tied up in this type of asset and so it seems that they have money available for gold – unlike in the UK.

Maybe a German member could comment on this?

I am a German member. 

Germany has about 83 million citizens. 45 million gold owners would be 54%. 

I can not imagine that that is true. A small piece of jewelery... Maybe. But bullion coins or bars? I really don't think so. Many people have a lot of debt and are far away from owning gold. 

[Xander]

This could be an average of 45 million people. possibly, in reality, 5% own 95% of the gold, the other 5%  is owned by 95% of the plebs, like rings, jewellery, some coins and a couple of small bars.

Sounds like another dodgy story.😎

[blindguy]

This news story seems high but where else can they invest their money? German bonds do not pay and the stock markets seem to high. And all we here on the news is central banks are buying gold and some big banks in the U.S. are buying lots of silver. As far as myself I never buy anything when the price is high so now I am buying gold and silver and when the stock market drops 20% or more then I will buy stocks again.

[dicker]

When Germany gave up their treasured Deutschemark, in favour of Euro’s there was naturally a lot of cash which people stored / stashed. 

They had two option....take the cash to the bank and pay it in at which point it became visible to the tax authorities.  Or spend it. 

I am given to understand that many many careful Germans didn’t want to blow cash on a new BMW, but instead bought gold with Deutschemark cash just before the switch to Euros

Best

Dicker

[TonyS]

I was offered a job in Rhodesia just before independence. The laws changed and my plan to send Krugerrand’s home was sunk. I back peddled like mad to get out of the contract.

A few years later…………

[gustavus]

23 hours ago, sixgun said:

However look at the number you can find on https://gold.de for example - loads of dealers. There must be a decent number of Germans buying to keep all these going. Let's hope there isn't a bail in or else the banks might be stealing a lot of gold from the safety deposit boxes. 

Germans also sell a lot to other countries (my wild guess). Example in Finland silver is under vat but when ordering face value silver from Germany, there is no vat. And some shops have decent postage fees, so it comes cheaper to buy from Germany than closer like Estonia (=Europeanmint).

[PansPurse]

I strongly suspect this was the result of one of a survey that includes owning any gold jewelery. There's probably similar figures for the uk if you phrase the question right, doesn;t necessarily mean the whole country is desperately stacking for doomsday

[universalcurrency]

Well the data might not be representative of the total population as the survey was only conducted on 2000 people, extrapolating the data and infering that it represents the whole population seems a jump to far imho.

[ilovesilverireallydo]

A friend of mine who finds me the odd coin here and there said that Silver and Gold ownership is quite common, and that most towns will have a few good coin shops. Seeing the variety he gets his hands on, doesn’t surprise me a large number of population do buy. Maybe not as high as the numbers quoted, however high enough demand to warrant opening so many shops.