Readers of these pages will be familiar that in addition to holding its gold bars in a HSBC vault in London, the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), the world's largest gold-backed ETF, at times also holds some of its gold bars in the vaults of the 'Bank of England' in London.

Gresham's Law in action: The diminishing availability of physical gold from the market (per several different accounts in London) corresponds to the proliferation of fiat currency printing and paper gold derivatives. Since September the Fed has increased the size of its balance sheet by $414 billion or 11% in less than four months.