While Russia and China are amassing unprecedented amounts of gold, its passage around the world has reportedly become that much harder this week.
FedEx, precious metals company Amagi Metals Inc announced in a statement yesterday, has altered legislation to no longer make it possible for gold or silver to be transported from the US to Europe and Asia in quantities worth more than US$2,500.
Spotlight on alternatives
This rules change will effectively prohibit large-scale shipments of the precious metals abroad by the enterprise’s more significant customers, and it says it is “diligently researching new shipping methods”.
In a blogpost yesterday, Amagi representative Megan Duffield stated that FedEx now considers more than the aforementioned amount of gold or silver to be “dangerous goods”, a description which if released as an official statement may well garner a fair amount of comment.
Reddit users already reacted to the news, proclaiming “time for Bitcoin.”
While it is unclear whether the change was motivated at government level or internally, FedEx’s regulation may well be the cause for abrupt changes in international shipping policy. Amagi considers it high time for “a new shipping company that takes the risk of working outside of these parameters.”
Whether the measures are temporary or long-term, the alternative solution of using Bitcoin instead of transferring gold at all could now potentially gather some popularity.
Customers would need to balance the cost of selling gold for fiat, purchasing and selling Bitcoin and purchasing gold again against the flat fees charged by an international courier, should any remain available to process larger transactions.
Meanwhile, FedEx could well be tightening its belt after being stung with a US$235 million lawsuit for delivering over US$400,000 worth of untaxed cigarettes to domestic customers, which Attorney General Eric Schneidermann states will cost the economy over US$10 million in lost revenue.