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As this article about gold in the Ely Times, and many others recently have observed, the rising gold price is not only good for those who hold and collect gold, but it is also good for gold miners, and for those areas where gold mining underpins employment and the local economy. But wait, shouldn't any boom in mining add to the availability of gold, and so drive the price down again? Isn't this how capitalism and the market work, to ensure goods or commodities are quickly produced in relation to the demand for them? In fact, as the article notes, gold is a special case, mainly because the world is a much different place to that previously available to gold miners. If you visit historical gold mining areas of the nineteenth century, you usually notice the huge holes and pits, the rusty abandoned machinery, the heaps of spoil and the devastation the mining caused. But nowadays, planning regulations, environmental considerations and the sheer cost of investment needed mean that the lead time from the planning stage to the first gold coming out of a new mine can be as much as ten years. So their won't be floods of new gold coming onto the market soon, only the steady flow we've always known, and higher payment for producers and higher prices for retail buyers of gold bullion and coins. As the article also notes, the world supply of gold is actually declining. So just the sort of thing a smart person would want to collect then?
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Gold Coins blog 
