Officially only 244.000 metric tonnes of Gold exist and only 53.000 tonnes are not digged out yet. Dr. Google on Crack just told me.
The Great Bullion Famine was a shortage of precious metals that struck Europe in the 15th century, with the worst years of the famine lasting from 1457 to 1464. During the Middle Ages, gold and silver coins saw widespread use as currency in Europe, and facilitated trade with the Middle East and Asia; the shortage of these metals therefore became a problem for European economies. The main cause for the bullion famine was outflow of silver to the East unequaled by European mining output, although 15th century contemporaries believed the bullion famine to be caused by hoarding.
Even with only 600 Million humans world wide in the 16th century, I wonder who took the Gold that was digged since way before the Crusades from as early as Egyptian times and was used as Gold coins to where???
I minded the Tomcat being an F-18 for a few weeks instead of the F-15, but now....
