PORTFOLIOS, ETC.; Heads or Tails, Gold Coins Might Lose
By JONATHAN FUERBRINGER, The New York Times April 25th, 1999.
What we like best about this article is the doomy note introduced by:

But buyers should remember that all of this has not done much for gold prices. In 1998, the average price of an ounce of gold fell 11 percent, to $294.09, the lowest average annual level since 1978. As of Friday, the spot price in London was down to $283.30.

PORTFOLIOS, ETC.; Heads or Tails, Gold Coins Might Lose
By JONATHAN FUERBRINGER
AT Blanchard & Company, a gold-coin dealer in New Orleans, the phones begin to ring in earnest when the price of gold drops to around $280 an ounce. Investors, said Christopher W. Holton, the vice president of marketing, ''are bargain hunting.''
If that is the case, it is a switch for American investors, who have too often been attracted to the glitter of gold when the price was rising, only to be disappointed when a rally was followed by another slump, a regular occurrence in recent years.
But bargain hunting is not the only reason for the spurt in buying of the American Eagle gold bullion coins this year, Mr. Holton said. Fear of a Year 2000 computer meltdown has given sales a big boost, especially of the one-tenth ounce Eagle coin, which has been singled out by many gurus of the Year 2000 survivalists. According to the United States Mint, 127,500 ounces of these coins have been sold so far this year, compared with 15,000 ounces in the corresponding period of 1998.
Mr. Holton says other investors are buying because they want some ''insurance'' against a stock market reversal. And he gives credit to the marketing program of the Mint, which announced last week that total sales of American Eagles, first struck in 1986, have now exceeded 10 million ounces.

But buyers should remember that all of this has not done much for gold prices. In 1998, the average price of an ounce of gold fell 11 percent, to $294.09, the lowest average annual level since 1978. As of Friday, the spot price in London was down to $283.30.

Last year, gold coin sales in the United States jumped 120 percent, to 1.84 million ounces, according to Gold Fields Mineral Services, a London-based commodities research and consulting firm. But those sales accounted for just 1.4 percent of the total demand for gold in 1998. Worldwide gold coin sales were just 3 percent of demand.
In Europe and other regions, which appear less prepared than the United States for the computer shift into the new millennium, coin sales fell 9 percent last year.
One argument for a price spike has been that the world's central banks will shut off their gold lending around year-end because they are worried about Year 2000 computer problems. Because the central banks, through their loans, supply much of the gold that is needed in hedging by gold producers and speculating by investors, a shutdown would send the price of gold soaring.

Media Doom Mongers
Way back in 1999, we were saying that gold was cheap, and a good buying opportunity. Most journalists, if they commented at all, were being very negative. One of the most memorable press comments was that gold had done nothing but gone down in price for the past 25 years.
It is always when everybody is at their most negative about a product, commodity, or share, that makes it the best time to buy.