In economically uncertain times, everything falls on gold - and the price of gold is therefore in the amount dramatically. Of course, the bad times, in order to buy gold - but how would it be if we would find it yourself? On the west coast of the United States, where it is already in the 19th Century one or other "gold rush" was, chances are not so bad. And unlike other states, the gold deposits of the State of Washington in the past have not plundered.

With cheap flights (outward and return flights of less than 400 euros), a favorable dollar exchange rate (only 76 Euro cents!) And enviably low fuel prices (less than 45 euro cents per liter) lure the United States this year, more European visitors than ever. And at a gold price of just under 700 euros per ounce (about 28 g) would already have a gold discovery of 16 grams are sufficient to finance the flight, and with a single gram could be filling up already!

Of gold, rocks and the "Grouch"

In the mountains around the city of Kettle Falls (www.KettleFalls.com) in the extreme northeast of Washington, who as a result of the mining industry was born, there is actually still gold. It is a gold pan scrubber and buy in the streams and rivers in the area to try his luck, because there is water at the northern end of the roughly 250-kilometer-long Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake plentiful.

The waterfalls of the toponyms, however, looking in vain: The City of Kettle If that was originally in a very different place, about 4 kilometers further downstream, where it is actually a 15-meter-high waterfall there. As in the 1940s, however, the water behind the new Grand Coulee Dam at Lake Roosevelt-up today was, disappeared in cases like the old town beneath the surface of the reservoir. The residents were relocated and took the name with - but not the waterfalls.

That the people of Kettle If humor has, incidentally, do you recognize the same sign at the entrance, where the population with "1640 friendly people and one grouch" (1640 friendly people and a troublemaker ") is specified. The number of "friendly people" changes occasionally, but remains lonely whiners. It is however not a unteachable Mies Peter - no, the "Town Grouch" is held each year in June formally re-elected. Very democratic, it is certainly not to be: Each vote costs 25 cents, but can be as many votes as you want ... and the proceeds goes to a good purpose: the financing of the Town.

One must also not equal to the "Grouch", when in Kettle If you do not succeed in search of gold was: About 60 km further west along the state road 20 Where the City Republic (www.RepublicWA.com) in neighboring Ferry County even as "Gold Capital of the West". Again amateur prospector may be happy to take the pan and try their luck, but much more likely than a precious metals fund is the discovery of fossils from the Eocene, which up to 56 million years into the Earth's back. Prehistoric fish, plants and insects have their fingerprints left in the shale. Visitors to the "Stone Rose Interpretive Center, just a few miles east of Republic, can be up to three pieces per day to take home.

By Fiedler, Forty-Niners and dashing Flitzer

On the days of the gold rush of 1849 reminds us every year the town of Winthrop (www.WinthropWashington.com), which is a good bit farther west lies. After millennia in this place the Indians had gathered, he experienced his great hour, as in the 19th Century some of the gold seekers settled permanently here. Every year on the second weekend in May will be at the "'49er Days" with parades and wagon-horse parades officially the "Forty-Niners" - and this has been going on for 64 years. In addition to Western games and competitions, there are also prizes for the best beards in accordance with Western-style - and, of course, you can even gold panning.

In August, we served the right music to Western flair: In the annual "North Cascades Oldtimer Fiddlers Contest" is to bet gefiedelt until the strings break. And then who has not enjoyed enough nostalgia, you can in September for the annual "Winthrop Auto Rallye" return in this year already for the 34th Time takes place - a beautiful car parade, the "antique" (before 1940) and "classical" (1940-1970) cars and trucks are excellent. But even if the festivities are over, they say sometimes in old times back, because today there are those in Winthrop wooden pavements, which everyone knows from Western movies, and the inhabitants wear - of course - cowboy boots.

There are quite different, however, Winthrop in the winter: Then come, above all, the cross-country skiers here and have fun at the more than 200 km of prepared cross country tracks. The white beauty has chosen the location as proved at least as lucrative as they used the gold.

From cowboys, artists and college students

It has not always gold: even darker "gold" in the form of coal was for the Washington State a long time a lucrative business. The mining industry is mainly in the central northern part of the state left its mark, for example, in the quiet town of Roslyn, the roughly 150 miles south of Winthrop can be found. More than twenty years - and even today - Fans of the popular pilgrimage to the TV series Northern Exposure (Ironically, Alaska) in this community, because a side street of the town for the shooting regularly in the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska, transformed. Today, the more visitors to the Bay Hotel of the new Suncadia Resort adjacent to spend their holidays. But "The Brick", which over a hundred years old Eckkneipe from the television series, is still at the old place, and where television doctor Joel Fleischman Rob Morrow aka once practiced, will be busy selling souvenirs.

In the series felt like the New York doctor to get a little strange in the far north, but in reality made are cowboys and intellectuals quite well in this part of the country. In the next major city, Ellen Castle, is even a university at home, the Central Washington University. Nevertheless, we held here at the holiday weekend before Labor Day, the first Monday in September each year a great rodeo. And that, many artists in the small town of 16,000 inhabitants counted with its clear mountain air feel, show the many galleries. So everybody finds his own treasure in Washington ... (Washington State Tourism)

Investors, with the gold price deposited securities investing, perhaps to go ice tax. The reason: unresolved issues of compensation tax.

Basically: who invests in gold, you can profit from the sale after the expiry of the one-year speculation period tax-free once wealthy. This is true even for purchases made after 1 January 2009. The reason: the compensation picks for property tax, such as coins, gold, jewelry or art objects are not.

Whether these tax-free but also for gold deposited with a securities case, the tax is not yet conclusively settled. A 100-percent gold cover, there are currently only available in products such as foreign funds from Switzerland. In Germany, however, no funds authorized to be 100 percent in physical gold investing. Episode: For non-authorized foreign funds are more stringent tax rules in this country. Then investors have about 70 percent of the annual capital gains with the personal tax rate.

Providers advertise tax-free

Even investors who have in domestic or overseas launched Certificates (Xetra Gold Certificate), or ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) physical gold sign, must be based on tax problems. Actually, these securities are investments for which the compensation tax rules. Nevertheless attract issuers that by buying a "right delivery of gold" and thus justifying the sale after the expiry of the one-year speculation period is exempt from tax. Whether the Treasury's what this is, however, still stands in the stars.

A similar problem could ETCs (open structured securities) appear. Again, it is unclear what tax investors take when they buy structured securities, which is physically deposited gold collateral. For redemption of the bond the investor gets no money back, but gold bars for his locker. Whether this settlement gold supply is exempt, and the profits from the subsequent sale after the expiry of the one-year holding period will remain exempt, the tax must also be clear. Cautious investors are waiting, or they will be able to direct investments in gold.