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Exchange at 3711 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach, CA. You can write them for information about buying and selling silver and gold bullion and coins, or foreign currency if that interests you. They have about 6 or 8 offices around the country and can tell you the one nearest you. It is the oldest and largest company in the field. If you do business with other local brokers, it would be well to inquire about them from some state agency to be sure they are on the up and up.

12. What about gold? On Aug. 15 a bill was signed, which becomes effective Dec. 1, which will permit American citizens to own gold bullion for the first time since the early thirties. When people are enabled to do this there will be a big rush to do something they have not been able to do for 40 years. This will push the price up. When it gets 15 or 20% higher than it was Dec.1 there will be a lot of people who will say, "Wow, look at the profit I've made!" and will sell it. That will make the market go down temporarily. The idea would be to get in sometime before Dec. 1 (into gold coins, not bullion, which won't be legal till Dec. 1), ride up with the rush and get off at the top. Take your profits, wait till the market turns around in the next few weeks and then get in again in order to ride up more slowly in a more ordered market. As I write this, gold is hovering around $155 an ounce. Most of the authorities see it as going as high as $300 in the next year. Want to take the trip?

13. I mentioned gold coins as distinct from gold bullion. The former you can buy now, the latter only after Dec. 1. You are ostensibly buying the coins as a collector and many companies sell them. In actual fact you are buying them for their value in gold at the moment of sale, plus a “pre- mium" which is an added value based on the fact that they have had work done on them to coin them in the first place, plus a rarity factor too. This is the "numismatic premium" (numismatics is the name for coin collect- ing), and it varies considerably. It is lowest for Austrian Coronas pres- ently selling for around $160-$165 apiece. Mexican 50-peso pieces have the next lowest premium, while British Sovereigns and U.S. $10 and $20 gold pieces have very high premiums. So you get the most for your money in gold with the Coronas.

14. Why gold coins? Because from time immemorial gold has had a recognized scarcity value plus the fact that it has high value for small size. Its beauty and easy workability have made it desirable for jewelry and decoration since it was first discovered. Therefore, it is a good way to store value-a lot of value in a small space plus easy convertibility. Obviously one would not take a $150-$200 coin to the shopping center -