$111 Coin Contains $140 Worth Of Gold

[matcom]

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SRI Lanka's central bank has suspended sales of precious metal commemorative coins that were becoming gold mines for speculators, an official said.

Buyers could make a mint out of the eight gram gold coin priced at 8000 rupees ($111) when the equivalent gold value in the open market had shot up to at least 10,000 rupees ($140).

"We stopped the sale of the gold and silver coins pending a revision of prices," the bank's superintendent of currency, S. Wijesinghe, told AFP. "The gold value in the coin is more than the current market price."

The coin was issued with a face value of 5000 ($70)rupees to mark the country's independence golden jubilee in February 1998, with a tidy 3000 rupee mark up for the central bank.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10279233%255E13762,00.html