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-- Posted Thursday, 11 February 2010 | Digg This Article | | Source: GoldSeek.com
The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre has proposed that the UAE Central Bank issue gold coins that will be legal currency for the first time in the modern history of the Middle East. In September 2007 the DMCC minted the first ever UAE commemorative gold coin featuring the Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (see above). The proposed design for the new currency has the President of the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed on one side and the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa on the obverse. New gold currency The new coins would join the ranks of other gold coins that are legal tender such as the Australian Nugget, British Sovereign and South African Krugerand that are already popular with investors in gold in the UAE. DMCC executive chairman Ahmad bin Sulayem said: ‘We are confident that this design represents the face of the modern UAE. This is a great time to launch a reliable, easily transacted legal tender gold coin, since the level of interest in gold investment is the highest it has ever been globally.’ Among gold bugs there is bound to be immediate speculation as to whether this would mark a step towards a gold-backed currency in the UAE. But that is clearly a very presumptive and premature conclusion as the UAE does not presently even have any official gold reserves. Gold increasingly popular This is therefore better seen as a confirmation of the growing appreciation of gold as an investment class in the emirates, a country that often leads trends in the Arabian peninsula much in the way that what is new in California tends to spread across America. However, it would also be wrong to see this as the start of a big rush to invest in the yellow metal. Take up for the DMCC’s other recent initiative, the Dubai Gold ETF has been very disappointing, and the new gold coinage is actually a third attempt to win retail investors over to the yellow metal. Sales of the original Sheikh Mohammed gold coins were poor as the premium paid over the price of gold put buyers off. Perhaps a legal gold currency will better capture the public imagination.
-- Posted Thursday, 11 February 2010 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com
Previous Articles by Peter Cooper
About Peter Cooper:
Oxford University educated financial journalist Peter Cooper found himself made redundant by Emap plc in London in the mid-1990s and decided to rebuild his career in Dubai as launch editor of the pioneering magazine Gulf Business. He returned briefly to London in
1999 to complete his first book, a history of the Bovis construction group.
Then in 2000 he went back to Dubai to become an Internet entrepreneur, just as the dot-com market crashed. But he stumbled across the opportunity to become a partner in www.ameinfo.com, which later became the Middle East's leading English language business news website.
 Over the course of the next seven years he had a ringside seat as editor-in-chief writing about the remarkable transformation of Dubai into a global business and financial hub city. At the same time www.ameinfo.com prospered and was sold in 2006 to Emap plc for $27 million, completing the career circle back to where it began a decade earlier.
He remains a lively commentator and columnist as a freelance journalist based in Dubai and travels extensively each summer with his wife Svetlana. His financial blog www.arabianmoney.net is attracting increasing attention with its focus on investment in gold and silver as a means of prospering during a time of great consumer price inflation and asset price deflation.
Order my book online from this link
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Dubai Proposes Gold Coins As Legal Tender In The UAE
