Bullish on bullion

Some investors want savings that they can caressAROUND the corner from The Economists offices in Mayfair, a shop dealing in old coins has a faded notice in the window. It advertises what were once daily prices for Krugerrandsgold coins from South Africaand dates back to times when trade in such coins was brisk.The heyday for buying physical gold was in the early 1980s, when bullion reached its peak in real terms. Once again, business is picking up. According to the World Gold Council, retail demand for bullion in the fourth quarter of 2008 was almost five times what it was in the same period of 2007. Dealers report a surge in interest from those worried about the safety of banks or simply the lack of attractive alternatives to negligible deposit rates and volatile stockmarkets. Fanning such fears are those who argue that todays financial crisis does not so much resemble the Depression of the 1930s as the hyperinflationary Weimar era of 1923.