Dear Dave, Good point. On reviewing the audit page myself, it does show that my understanding of Craig's post was mistaken.
From the page itself, I gather that the "net silver" and "net gold" numbers shown there are the amounts of silver and gold placed into the warehouse less the amounts of silver and gold redeemed from the warehouse. Seems pretty orderly to me. As of the September audit, I believe that all the warehoused gold and silver was for paper receipts issued. What isn't indicated is how much physical metal is in circulation. Obviously, the warehouse receipts that were redeemed represent a portion of the physical metal in circulation, but there were gold and silver pieces issued and placed into circulation without ever being represented by warehouse receipts. I gather from these figures that the vast majority of the NORFED materiel in circulation is physical coins. From my own experience, it is much easier to make exchanges with the silver coins than with the paper warehouse receipts. So, it make sense that a whole lot of silver pieces would be in circulation. As for auditing how many silver pieces are in circulation, I think that's not needed. After all, the silver piece isn't redeemable in silver - it is silver. Which, as Craig Spencer points out, is much easier to deal with than anything requiring a third party warehouse service provider or a third party computer system service provider. I remain very intrigued by the prospect of a NORFED-related smart card, which I have seen, and a sample of which I have in my possession, but which I've never used. As I understand the technology, one of the advantages of the smart card is that it will be useful in person-to-person transactions without having to connect to an ATM or the Internet. In other words, it can be used more like money is used. By some accounts, Crowne Gold is also putting together a smart card, which they are calling the Genius Card. I'd certainly like to hear more about these cards on this list. Regards, Jim http://cambist.net/ --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: archive@jab.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
