Gold coins scarce due to mint strike amid soaring prices

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Particularly the gold coin supply and prices have been affected by the strike. AA photo

The strike at the mint, which dropped the supply in the market, coupled with the rising optimism after the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled it would continue to pursue monetary stimulus, has made the gold prices in Turkey jump.

Particularly gold coins which are manufactured only by the mint have become really hard to find at the jewelries and have even entered the black market.

Since the union of the printing and press industry, Basın-İş, kicked off the strike on July 8 at the General Directorate of the Mint and Stamp Printing House and its branches, the price of gold has been on the rise due to stagnating production.The quarter, half and full gold coins require some labor which adds a cost margin to the prices of these. Since the mint, the only institution producing these coins, works slower, the labor cost rises.

The quarter gold coin, which could be bought for 152 Turkish Liras while a gram of gold was 88 liras, is still the same despite price of a gram falling to 78 liras, Balıkesir Jewelries and Exchangers Association Chairman İrfan Günsay told Anadolu Agency.

“The quarterly gold coin, which is being sold for 152 liras, while it should have been 135 liras, went to the black market,” Günsay said.

“The cost of workmanship was already heightened last week amid strike speculations,” a gold market specialist Mehmet Ali Yıldırımtürk told Reuters.

Even before the strike possibility, the market was under supply pressure, as the mint’s order deliveries were three weeks behind, he said. The gold prices were already on a rising trend because of the Fed remarks that freshened interest in gold. Tapering would support a rise in interest rates and bolster the dollar, making gold less attractive.