And you won't pick up the paper and find that a crook like Bernard Madoff has stolen away the value of your gold coins. The latest Wall Street desperado took investors for some $50 billion. And now the FBI, SEC and all the gumshoes and hacks are making a big deal of it.

Of course, in purely financial terms it is a big deal. The press has labeled it a "ponzi scheme." But Charles Ponzi took in only $10 million. Peanuts compared Madoff's scheme.

Another important difference. Ponzi took money from ordinary investors, widows and orphans. But Madoff went for bigger game - hedge funds, banks, and professionals. Today's news tells us that the world's largest bank - HSBC - was a victim. Banks in Geneva said they were out $4 billion. The Fairfield Greenwich Group said it had invested $7.5 billion with Madoff.

Of course, we don't like to see widows and orphans lose get scammed. But hedge funds? Banks? Who can honestly say that they don't enjoy seeing these mighty moneymen tripping over their own greedy delusions? Here at The Daily Reckoning...the news of Wall Street's losses cheers us up...like reading the obituaries and finding no mention of our own name.

But when you own a gold coin you won't have to wonder if the balance sheet is made up...or if the trades were fictitious...or why the SEC was asleep at the switch. A gold coin is what it is...no more, no less.

When the ground gives way...gold coins stay right where they were - or go up in value.

Not that we're urging you to buy gold coins. We did that for the last eight years. Now, you're on your own.

Bill Bonner
for The Daily Reckoning Australia

• Rare Coins as an Informal Way of Estate Planning
• A Funny Story About $20 Gold Coins
• Chartwell Enterprises – Pyramid or Ponzi?
• Bernie Madoff is a Giant in His Field
• Gold and Silver Demand Unprecedented