The price of Zimbabwe’s biggest denomination of the gold coin, launched in July last year, has risen 10.36 percent to 2,012.85 U.S. dollars, according to trading data released by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the country’s central bank, Tuesday.
The gold coins, weighing one troy ounce with a purity of 22 carats, sold at 1,823.83 U.S. dollars at launch in July, and the price has been gradually rising since then.
Zimbabwe’s central bank launched the gold coins as a store of value, and in November last year, released affordable, smaller units of the gold coins into the market.
The smaller gold coins are in units of a tenth ounce, quarter ounce and half an ounce, with the smallest coin, containing just over 3.11 grams of gold, costing 188.48 U.S. dollars or local currency equivalent at the interbank rate in November.
The gold coins have liquid asset status, prescribed asset status, can be used as collateral, is tradable and can be bought back at the instance of the holder.
Individuals, and domestic corporates including institutional investors are allowed to buy the gold coins in both local and foreign currencies while international buyers can only buy the coins in foreign currencies that include the U.S. dollar, South African rand and the British pound.
As of November, 2022, the RBZ had sold a total of 14,200 gold coins worth 13.6 billion Zimbabwean dollars since their introduction in July. (1 U.S. dollar = 722.2308 ZWL)
