Netherlands: Hey, Let's Bring Our Gold Home

Reports are coming in that the Dutch Christian Democratic Appeal party on Wednesday formally addressed the issue of repatriating the Netherland's gold reserves, according to a (loosely translated) report from rtl.com cited by both Seeking Alpha and noted economist Jim Rickards:

Now #Netherlands wants #gold back bit.ly/S4Bj3L. My 2011 interview got that ball rolling bit.ly/zaBz7M. Cameo @laurenlyster

— Jim Rickards (@JamesGRickards) January 16, 2013

“Part of the Dutch gold stock is now in the basement of the De Nederlandsche Bank in Amsterdam," the rtl.com report explains. "[The] Netherlands has 24 billion in gold. Only 11 percent of it is actually in the Netherlands."

“The rest [was moved] just before the Second World War,” the report adds, noting that since being moved in 1938, 18 percent of the Netherland's gold has been kept in London, 20 percent in Ottawa, and over half (51 keep) “deep under Manhattan in New York City.”

And for those of you who didn't know, the Dutch actually have quite a bit of gold to their name:

"All the Gold in the World displayed in gold buillion bars ranging in sizes as following: 1 gram, 5 grams, 10 grams, 20 grams, 1oz, 50 grams, 100 grams, 250 grams, 500 grams, 1 kg, 400oz. United States and World Government Gold Reserves and World Total Gold is visualized as well." (demoncracy.info).

"The Dutch government says it has 612 tonnes of gold -- with a value of around 24 billion euros -- and is thereby in the top 10 of countries with the biggest gold reserves," Netherlands Info Services explains.

The CDA’s motion to repatriate Dutch gold comes shortly after Germany’s central bank announced yesterday its intention to bring home approximately $36 billion worth of gold from the United States and France, TheBlaze’s Billy Hallowell reports.

“The Bundesbank said in a statement Wednesday that it will repatriate all 374 tons of gold it had stored in Paris by 2020. An additional 300 tons -- equivalent to 8 percent of the Bundesbank’s total reserves worth about $183 billion -- will also be shipped from New York to Frankfurt,” Hallowell notes.

However, although the move by both the CDA and the Bundesbank is noteworthy, it’s not entirely shocking. Indeed, as Netherlands Info Services reported in November 2012, the Germans and Dutch have been talking about repatriating their hard assets for some time now.

“More and more citizens, politicians and economists in Europe are questioning whether the foreign gold reserves, which their country possesses on paper, are still in fact physically there. Germany decided last month to move to verification,” NIS notes.

“In the next three years, the German Bundesbank is to recall about 4 percent of its gold reserves from America, at the same time looking to see if the ingots are pure,” the report adds.

Apparently, the Germans suspect someone has been playing around with their gold reserves.

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