As progressives openly advocate the coining of a pretend trillion dollar platinum disc and the Fed continues to balloon the world's stock of dollars, Germany is bring home a good part of its gold bullion currently held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and all of its gold held at the Bank of England in London. It's a sign that the Fall of the Dollar as the World's reserve currency is officially underway.

No doubt we will be reassured that there is nothing to worry about here, but it is a clear sign that gold is going to be playing a larger role as a store of value for nations as well as individuals.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the UK Telegraph writes:

Germany's Bundesbank is to repatriate gold reserves held abroad to tighten control and combat currency crises in the future, pulling a chunk of its holdings from New York and all its bullion from Paris.

The move marks an extraodinary breakdown in trust between leading central banks and has set off ferment among gold enthusiasts, with some comparing it with France's withdrawal of gold from the US under President Charles de Gaulle as the Bretton Woods currency system crumbled in the early 1970s.

Handelsblatt said the Bundesbank will announce on Wednesday that it intends to relocate the gold to vaults in Frankfurt, said by insiders to include parts of the old archive library. Germany has 3,396 tons of gold worth roughly £115bn, the world's second-largest holding after the US. Most of the reserves were stored abroad for safety during the Cold War.

The bank holds an estimated 45pc of its gold at the US Federal Reserve in New York, and 11pc at the Banque de France, lower than originally thought.

Gold investors will welcome the move and the left will either dismiss it or hate it.

Herbert Stein's adages that "Something that can't go on, won't" is starting to come into play with the manipulation of the supply of dollars to finance deficit spending.

"This sends a message about storing gold near you and taking delivery no matter who is holding it. When France did this years ago it sent panic amongst the US financial leadership. History will look back on this salvo as being the beginning of the end of the US dollar as the reserve currency of choice," he said.

Many analysts say the world is moving towards a de facto gold standard again as China, Russia and other reserve powers boost their holdings to diversify out of dollars and euros.

Unlike Britain, Spain, Switzerland, Holland and others, Germany did not sell any of its gold when bullion was out of fashion. Nor did Italy. The two countries are now sitting on very substantial reserves that are starting to take on political significance.

Hat tip: James G. Wiles