Bullion coin sales soar as Britons flock to ‘protect wealth', Royal Mint says
The UK's official maker of British coins said the surge reflects people turning to so-called 'safe haven' assets in a bid to protect their wealth.
Between January and March, revenue from bullion coins was quadruple the amount generated in the same period a year ago, The Royal Mint revealed.
It also jumped 46% when compared with the previous three months, between September and December.
The coins are made from precious metals including gold, silver and platinum and feature different designs, and are typically sold as an investment product.
The Royal Mint said it reflected the strongest start to the year since it first started selling the coins online.
Demand was driven by a combination of gold prices spiking and more people making purchases – with many buyers attracted to bullion coins being exempt from capital gains tax, according to the firm.
The tax applies to profits when people sell an asset that has gone up in value, but its bullion coins are exempt for UK residents because of their status as British currency.
The total weight of gold coins sold tripled over the period, while revenues of gold coins soared 329% compared with last year.
The price of gold rose to hit an all-time high on multiple occasions during the quarter – most recently reaching 3,500 US dollars (£2,623) per ounce last week.
Experts say the precious metal tends to carry less risk than other investments, such as stocks and shares, and often outperforms financial markets during periods of turbulence.
US President Donald Trump's tariff announcements earlier in April sparked sharp drops in asset prices across global equity markets, as traders reacted to uncertainty and the escalation of global trade tensions.
Meanwhile, interest in other precious metals has also spiked in recent months, The Royal Mint said, with sales of silver bullion coins more than doubling year-on-year.
It also reported growing appetite for platinum, with the number of buyers rising 23% compared with the first quarter of 2024.
Stuart O'Reilly, market insights manager at The Royal Mint, said: 'The sustained surge in gold demand shows the growing appeal of safe-haven assets in today's economic climate.
'This activity signals a shift in investor sentiment, as more individuals seek to protect and grow their wealth amid global volatility.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
11 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump's planned 100% computer chip tariff sparks confusion among businesses and trading partners
President Donald Trump 's plans for 100% tariffs on computer chips that aren't made in the U.S. are stoking confusion among businesses and trading partners — boosting stocks for leading semiconductor companies while leaving smaller producers scrambling to understand the implications. The U.S. imports a relatively small number of chips because most of the foreign-made chips in a device — from an iPhone to a car — were already assembled into a product, or part of a product, before it landed in the country. "The real question everybody in the industry is asking is whether there will be a component tariff, where the chips in a device would require some sort of separate tariff calculation,' said Martin Chorzempa, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Trump said Wednesday that companies that "made a commitment to build" in the U.S. would be spared the import tax, even if they are not yet producing those chips in American factories. 'We'll be putting a tariff of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors,' Trump said in the Oval Office while meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook. 'But if you're building in the United States of America, there's no charge.' Wall Street investors interpreted that as good news not just for U.S. companies like AMD, Intel and Nvidia, but also for the biggest Asian chipmakers like Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company that have been working to build U.S. factories. But it left greater uncertainty for smaller chipmakers in Europe and Asia that have little exposure to the AI boom but still make semiconductors inserted into essential products like cars or washing machines. These producers "probably aren't large enough to get on the map for an exemption and quite probably wouldn't have the kind of excess capital and margins to be able to add investment at a large scale into the United States,' Chorzempa said. The announcement came more than three months after Trump temporarily exempted most electronics from his administration's most onerous tariffs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a shortage of computer chips increased the price of autos and contributed to higher inflation. Chorzempa said chip tariffs could again raise prices by hundreds of dollars per vehicle if the semiconductors inside a car are not exempt. 'There's a chip that allows you to open and close the window," Chorzempa said. "There's a chip that is running the entertainment system. There is a chip that's kind of running all the electronics. There are chips, especially in EVs, that are doing power management, all that kind of stuff.' Much of the investment into building U.S. chip factories began with the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022, providing more than $50 billion to support new computer chip plants, fund research and train workers for the industry. Trump has vocally opposed those financial incentives and taken a different approach, betting that the threat of dramatically higher chip costs would force most companies to open factories domestically, despite the risk that tariffs could squeeze corporate profits and push up prices for electronics.
BBC News
11 minutes ago
- BBC News
Trump calls for Intel boss Lip-Bu Tan to resign over alleged China ties
President Donald Trump has called on the head of US chipmaker Intel to resign "immediately", accusing him of having problematic ties to a social media post, he said CEO Lip-Bu Tan was "highly conflicted", apparently referring to Mr Tan's alleged investments in companies that the US says are tied to the Chinese military. It is unusual for a president to demand the resignation of a corporate which has received billions of dollars from the government to support semiconductor manufacturing in the US, did not respond to a request for comment. Mr Tan was appointed in March to turn around the tech giant, as it fell behind China and other competitors in chips development. A naturalised US citizen born in Malaysia and raised in Singapore, he is a venture capitalist well-known for his expertise in the semiconductor industry. In an update to investors this week, he said the firm would be scaling back its investments in manufacturing, including in the US, to match demand from customers. Intel has already cut thousands of jobs this year as part of an effort to "right-size" the firm. Shares in Intel fell more than 1.8% in morning trading after the attack from Trump, who has been critical of the firm previously and is preparing to raise tariffs on the chip industry. "The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem," Trump is known for targeting business leaders with public criticism to a degree unheard of in other presidents, but even by his standards, the demand that the leader of a private company resign is extraordinary. Responding to critics who said he had gone too far, the White House told the BBC: "President Trump remains fully committed to safeguarding our country's national and economic security. This includes ensuring that iconic American companies in cutting-edge sectors are led by men and women who Americans can trust."The president has been concerned about China taking advantage of US technology since his first term, but his policies have been mixed. He has recently threatened tariffs on semiconductors - a move almost universally opposed by the business community - while loosening some rules forbidding business with Chinese firms after pleas from tech giants such as Nvidia. In a statement earlier this week, Intel defended Mr Tan, saying he and the company were "deeply committed to the national security of the US and the integrity of our role in the US defense ecosystem". The statement was made in response to a letter that Republican Senator Tom Cotton sent to Intel's board seeking information about Mr Tan's hiring and his ties to China. Cotton said he was concerned "about the security and integrity of Intel's operations and its potential impact on US national security".He pointed to Mr Tan's role as the longtime chief executive of tech firm Cadence Design Systems, which pleaded guilty in July and agreed to pay $140m over US charges that its subsidiary in China had repeatedly done business with the country's National University of Defense Technology, violating US export controls. Mr Tan's ties to China were also the subject of a Reuters investigation in April, which found that he had invested at least $200 in hundreds of Chinese companies, some of which are linked to the Chinese military. The investments were made either personally or though his funds between 2012 and December 2024. A 2024 congressional report examining ties between US investment firms and Chinese businesses had also spotlighted some of the holdings of Mr Tan's San Francisco-based investment firm, Walden International. Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, a Trump ally, took up the attack on Mr Tan on Thursday, criticising Intel for delays in its plans for chip manufacturing in the US.
Reuters
11 minutes ago
- Reuters
Why is Trump targeting Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan?
BEIJING/SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has called for the immediate resignation of Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, just months after he took the top job at the chipmaker, following concerns over his ties to Chinese firms through several investments. Reuters reported exclusively in April that Tan made hundreds of investments in Chinese companies over decades, either himself or through venture funds he founded or operates. Intel did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment following Trump's demand. The following are some key investments uncovered by Reuters and their connections to Chinese state entities: Through Walden International, the San Francisco venture capital firm Tan founded in 1987, he became a seed investor in Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, China's largest chip foundry, in 2001, the year after it was founded, and served on the board until 2018. In 2020, SMIC was placed under sanction by the U.S. government for its close ties to the Chinese military, and Tan exited his SMIC investment in 2021, according to the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. SMIC did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. The firm remains invested in 20 funds and companies alongside Chinese government funds or state-owned enterprises, according to Chinese corporate databases, including tech hubs like Hangzhou, Hefei, and Wuxi. Walden has also invested in six Chinese tech firms alongside leading PLA supplier China Electronics Corporation, which was sanctioned by President Trump in 2020 as part of an executive order that banned purchasing or investing in "Chinese military companies." CEC did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Those joint investments, detailed in Chinese government databases, include Shanghai-based QST Group whose sensors have been found in Russian military drones captured by Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian government database. QST Group did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Another joint investment with CEC is a 2% stake in Intellifusion, a surveillance company thatwas placed on a U.S. Department of Commerce trade blacklist in 2020, opens new tab for alleged involvement in human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. Two Walden funds currently own over 5% of Wuxi Xinxiang Information Technology Company Limited, a supplier of remote control equipment to leading Chinese memory chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. Ltd, according to procurement data found in Chinese corporate databases. The Commerce Department added YMTC to a trade blacklist in 2022 and the Pentagon added it to a list of "Chinese military companies operating in the United States, opens new tab" on January 31, 2024. Intellifusion, Wuxi Xinxiang and YMTC also didn't respond to comment requests. Tan is listed as sole owner of Sakarya Limited, a Hong Kong-based holding company that invests in China, according to an earnings report from a Sakarya-backed chipmaker published on April 29. Sakarya controls 38 Chinese firms including Huaxin Yuanchuang (Qingdao) Investment Management Co., Ltd., which is Walden's main investment entity in mainland China that ties Tan to over 500 Chinese companies, according to Chinese corporate databases. Sakarya and Huaxin Yuanchuang did not respond to a request for comment and Walden declined to comment. Tan holds stakes in 68 Chinese firms through Seine Limited, another Hong Kong-based entity controlled by Walden Technology Ventures III LP, according to Chinese corporate databases. Seine holds a 3.1% stake in Guangdong-based component maker Dapu Technologies, which the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party identified as a PLA contractor, and an 8.3% stake in HAI Robotics, a firm the committee said has bid for a PLA contract and works with Chinese surveillance companies, according to filings. Seine Limited and Dapu did not respond to requests for comment. Hai Robotics confirmed Seine's stake in the company and said it has never bid for any military contracts. "All technology R&D and commercialization is centered on logistics technology innovation, focusing on civilian warehousing scenarios, and in strict compliance with the control laws and regulations of China, the U.S., and Europe," the company said in a statement. Reuters exclusively reported on August 6 that U.S. Republican Senator Tom Cotton questioned Tan's ties to Chinese firms and a recent criminal case involving his former company Cadence Design (CDNS.O), opens new tab. In a letter to Intel's board, Cotton specifically questioned whether the company was aware of subpoenas issued to Cadence during Tan's leadership and whether Intel had taken steps to mitigate potential national security risks before appointing him. Separately, Cadence had sold chip design products to a Chinese military university, according to the Reuters report. Last week, Cadence Design agreed to plead guilty and pay more than $140 million to resolve the charges. Tan ran Cadence as CEO from 2008 through 2021 and was executive chairman until May 2023. The sales to Chinese entities occurred under his leadership at Cadence, which makes design software and other tools used to manufacture chips.
