Secret reserves: Swiss hoard billions of dollars worth of old gold

class=”sc-29f61514-0 icZBHN”>

17.2 billion francs! This is the amount of old gold that Mr. and Mrs. Schweizer have accumulated in the house. This is St. It is the result of an estimate made by the University of St. Gallen and precious metals dealer Philoro Switzerland. This is almost a third of the gold holdings of the Swiss National Bank (SNB). And for the price of gold, that’s a whopping 319 tonnes of jewels, or roughly a fully loaded Airbus A350!

The basis for the calculations is a survey of 2,633 Swiss people. Although survey respondents own an average of 7 pieces of jewelry per person, scrap gold is not evenly distributed. In particular, people with higher incomes or higher education levels are more likely to own gold jewelry. And age also plays a role. As participants get older, the amount of gold jewelry they own decreases. Often the jewelry has already been sold or inherited.

Speaking of selling: More than half, 51 percent, have already done so once when it comes to gold jewelry. The main reason was simply “quick money,” as just over a third of those surveyed said. But the precious metal is also frequently converted into cash to buy new jewelry (15 percent) or save for a vacation (12 percent).

Imprecise forecasting methods

The tricky part: Jewelry is often sold below its real value. The most common forecasting methods are also the least accurate. 41 percent of the survey participants stated that they made the valuation by weighing. The acid test comes in second place (26 percent).

In fact, 12 percent said buyers value the precious metal solely on their instincts or eyes. X-ray fluorescence analysis, which actually allows precise predictions, was reported by only 10 percent of survey participants.

This can yield much more results, as Christian Brenner (44), CEO of Philoro Switzerland, explains: “With this precise analysis, all precious metals in a piece of jewelery are measured, namely gold, silver, platinum and palladium.” Other components besides the main precious metal can account for up to 10 percent of the total purchase price.

Gold prices are on the rise again

Buyers are mostly local gold dealers (33 percent), followed by jewelers (32 percent). However, according to the survey respondents, the second group pays the least satisfactory amounts. But nearly two-thirds of customers don’t get a second opinion on the estimate.

However, it will always be worth it now. The gold price rose again on Monday for the first time in seven months. Albeit for an unpleasant reason: The attacks on Israel over the weekend are causing uncertainty in the markets and causing investors to put more faith in gold bonds again.

Source :Blick