Bullionvault snapshot: UK retail Au bullion market, 5 Years

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/mar/14/british-bullion-gold-investment-boom


1) PM bullion and RHODIUM storage:
"Barclays Bank is also keen to cash in on the UK's new passion for gold – it opened its first gold vault last September. The secret facility, somewhere within the M25, is one of the largest in Europe and stores gold, silver and platinum, as well as palladium and rhodium"

September 2012 was only ~ six months ago. I knew that Deutche Bank has had a small Rhodium hoard since late 2011; this is the first mention I've seen that Barclay's now has one, too (perhaps they only store Baird Mint's supply for ingot??) Investment Rhodium has arrived, folks.


2) BullionVault's 'storage' business declined abit even as it became more popular. The average holding size IN GOLD OUNCES appears to have fallen. Maybe they're losing ground to other (foreign) bullion storage facilities? Gold pierced $1,000ozt March 14 2008. Five years later is March 14, 2013.

Back of the envelope calc and adjusting for conflicting BV data on clients*
With Au at £1,070/ozt (3/13/2013: USD$ 1,586) Bullionvault held a total 1,037,383 ozt Au for 45,000 UK clients (avg holding: ~23 ozt Au per UK client = £24,667) ; British clients were 50.63% of total BV holdings, 525,234 ozt.
With Au at £ 493/ozt (3/13/2008: USD$ 1,003) Bullionvault held a total ~114,000 ozt Au for ~2,925 UK clients (avg holding: ~39 ozt Au per UK client = £19,214) ; British clients were ~42% of total BV holdings, ~273,874 ozt.

* BV claimed 40,000 total clients in early 2008, but it appears they changed categories of "clients" "active users" etc. and they didn't initially break-out the UK storage segment. NOT SURE these figures are correct though!