Submitted by cpowell on Sat, 2011-01-29 18:30.

By Lars Schall

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Thanks to GATA consultant Dimitri Speck and U.S. economist James K. Galbraith, a copy of the so-called Blessing letter, written on March 30, 1967, can be published for the first time on the Internet. The letter's text refutes the widespread assumption among German gold bugs that the letter promised the U.S. government that the German central bank, the Bundesbank, would never relocate the German gold reserve from New York to Germany as long as U.S. troops were stationed in Germany. The letter has nothing to do with the location of the German gold reserve.

Instead, the letter, written by the Bundesbank's president at the time, Karl Blessing, and sent to the then-chairman of Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, William McChesney Martin Jr., made this important promise on behalf of the Bundesbank:

"By refraining from dollar conversions into gold from the United States Treasury, the Bundesbank has intended to contribute to international monetary cooperation and to avoid any disturbing effects on the foreign exchange and gold markets. You may be assured that also in the future the Bundesbank intends to continue this policy and to play its full part in contributing to international monetary cooperation."

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ADVERTISEMENT Prophecy Resource Spins Off Platinum/Palladium Venture:

World-Class PGM Deposit in Yukon Company Press Release, January 18, 2011

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Prophecy Resource Corp. (TSX-V:PCY)and Pacific Coast Nickel Corp. announce that they have agreed that PCNC will acquire Prophecy's Nickel PGM projects by issuing common shares to Prophecy.

PCNC will acquire the Wellgreen PGM Ni-Cu and Lynn Lake nickel projects in the Yukon Territory and Manitoba respectively by issuing up to 550 million common shares of PCNC to Prophecy. PCNC has 55.7 million shares outstanding.

Following the transaction:

-- Prophecy will own approximately 90 percent of PCNC.

-- PCNC will consolidate its share capital on a 10 old for one new basis.

-- Prophecy will change its name to Prophecy Coal Corp. and PCNC will be renamed Prophecy Platinum Corp.

-- Prophecy intends to distribute half of its PCNC shares to shareholders pro-rata in accordance with their holdings.

Based on the closing price of the common shares of PCNC on January 17, $0.195 per share, the gross value of the transaction is $107,250,000.

For the complete announcement, please visit:

http://prophecyresource.com/news_2011_jan18.php

Speck, author of the German-language book "Geheime Goldpolitik" ("Secret Gold Politics," about which more information is available at http://www.gata.org/node/9349 ), puts the Blessing letter in context:

"In 1967 the Americans and British threatened to reduce their troops in West Germany on account of the cost. Because of the Cold War, West Germany wanted to avoid a reduction in military forces but didn't want to pay more for those forces. Part of the resolution of the issue was the Blessing letter, which confirmed Germany's waiver of conversion of dollars into gold. Thus Germany, like other countries, bought security by accumulating dollar claims as foreign-exchange reserve.

"The right of governments to convert dollars into gold from the U.S. Treasury was canceled by the U.S. government in 1971. But four years earlier the Blessing letter affirmed the formal renunciation of the largest dollar holder, Germany, of conversions of dollars into gold. The letter was thus an essential step toward the global dollar standard, which was recognized already by the U.S. government and communicated in internal documents."

The Blessing letter is archived at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. Because of his research, Speck gave the decisive encouragement for its publication here. Galbraith, a professor at the University of Texas in Austin and author of "The Predator State," gave the decisive help in obtaining a copy of the letter.

The Blessing letter can be viewed at GATA's Internet site here:

http://www.gata.org/files/BundesbankLetter-03-30-1967.pdf

An article in German about this discovery has been published simultaneously at the German Internet site Goldseiten here:

http://www.goldseiten.de/content/diverses/artikel.php?storyid=15325

And at the German Internet site Infokriegernews here:

http://www.infokriegernews.de/wordpress/2011/01/29/der-mysterioese-brief...

-----

Lars Schall is a freelance journalist based in Germany.



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ADVERTISEMENT Sona Drills 85.4g Gold/Ton Over 4 Metres at Elizabeth Gold Deposit, Extending the Mineralization of the Southwest Vein on the Property Company Press Release, October 27, 2010

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Sona Resources Corp. reports on five drillling holes in the third round of assay results from the recently completed drill program at its 100 percent-owned Elizabeth Gold Deposit Property in the Lillooet Mining District of southern British Columbia. Highlights from the diamond drilling include:

-- Hole E10-66 intersected 17.4g gold/ton over 1.54 metres.

-- Hole E10-67 intersected 96.4g gold/ton over 2.5 metres, including one assay interval of 383g of gold/ton over 0.5 metres.

-- Hole E10-69 intersected 85.4g gold/ton over 4.03 metres, including one assay interval of 230g gold/ton over 1 metre.

Four drill holes, E10-66 to E10-69, targeted the southwestern end of the Southwest Vein, and three of the holes have expanded the mineralized zone in that direction. The Southwest Vein gold mineralization has now been intersected over a strike length of 325 metres, with the deepest hole drilled less than 200 metres from surface.

"The assay results from the Southwest Zone quartz vein continue to be extremely positive," says John P. Thompson, Sona's president and CEO. "We are expanding the Southwest Vein, and this high-grade gold mineralization remains wide open down dip and along strike to the southwest."

For the company's full press release, please visit:

http://sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR19_2010.pdf

