When was the last time you heard about a big Western bank investing in the future of the gold trade by building a massive new vault to house the loot? Answer: not lately.

More likely, you’ve heard about those same Western banks selling off those vaults to the new big player in the global gold market: China.

That’s the news that hit Monday when ICBC Standard Bank Plc, the worlds largest bank by assets, announced that it is buying one of the biggest gold vaults in Europe from Barclays Plc. ICBC, not incidentally, just won a role in determining prices as part of the London Bullion Market Association.

Bank to expand gold services: The London vault, which can hold up to 2,000 tons of precious metals, or about $90 billion worth of gold, was only just opened in 2012 in a secret location.

This enables us to better execute on our strategy to become one of the largest Chinese banks in the precious metals market, said ICBC commodities executive Mark Buncombe. The acquisition of a precious metals vault allows us to expand our services in clearing and processing.

The London Guardian described the vault in a report on the sale: Its security precautions reportedly include: a front door that can withstand a direct hit from a rocket-propelled grenade; an electrified roof; and plinths that have been sunk to keep out anyone ambitious enough to try to tunnel in.

ICBC had sought Deutsche Bank vault: ICBC had reportedly bought the lease to Deutsche Banks massive London gold vault back in January, but that deal is said to have fallen through. The purchase from Barclays now fills that slot.

ICBC’s vault purchase comes on the heels of its new collaboration with the Hong Kong Gold and Silver Exchange Society. The partners are reportedly planning to build the biggest gold vault in the world and establish a trading hub that would link Hong Kong, Macau, Qianhai, and Shenzhen.

The acquisition of the Barclays vault is more concrete evidence that China is aiming for a tighter grip on the West’s gold-trading epicenter of London while also expanding its domestic trade via ambitious new plans such as its yuan-denominated gold-pricing fix on the Shanghai Gold Exchange.

China dominates in terms of actual physical gold trading, CNN confirmed. Gold imports to China have surged over 700% since 2010, and the country overtook India to become the worlds biggest gold consumer in 2013.

With the West busy trading paper and electronic representations of gold (such as ETFs, futures, and options), China is busy working to corner the market on physical gold. Get your physical metal while you still can.

Gold expert and author Jim Rickards calls it one of the top reasons to invest in gold today: financial theft via computer hacking.

The nation of Bangladesh got a firsthand look at the costs of financial hacking back in February, when $81 million it was storing at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was stolen. The criminals used sophisticated techniques to transfer the cash via the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) network, and experts see similarities to the hacking of Sony Pictures in 2014.

The attackers clearly exhibit a deep and sophisticated knowledge of specific operational controls within the targeted banks knowledge that may have been gained from malicious insiders or cyber attacks, or a combination of both, SWIFT said, warning of a wider and highly adaptive campaign targeting banks.

Critical security gaps remain: And the hits keep on coming. News has surfaced that in late 2015, a Vietnamese commercial bank also was targeted by hackers. Tien Phong Bank of Hanoi issued a statement denying that it incurred any financial losses but admitting that hackers attempted to transfer $1.1 million in funds.

That attack and the $81 million heist from the Bangladesh central bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February are thought to be part of a broad assault on the global banking system by thieves whose operating methods and digital fingerprints are being studied carefully by analysts worldwide, The New York Times reported.

I remain concerned that there are critical security gaps in the international payment system, New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney said.

Digital wealth can disappear: These ongoing vulnerabilities now being exploited by hackers mean that investors need to consider storing at least part of their wealth in physical precious metals that are impervious to computer theft.

Rickards agrees, noting that financial hackers are busy all over the world, working individually as well as for sovereign entities. Russian President Vladimir Putin has a 6,000-member cyber brigade working night and day to destroy, disrupt and erase digital wealth, he recently told Bloomberg TV.

I run into billionaires and say, What do you have? And they say, I have stock and bonds, and I say, No, you dont. You have electrons, he noted. Its all digital wealth. This can all be wiped out by Putin and Syria and North Korea, Iran, other countries. The thing about gold, you cant hack it, you cant erase it, you cant delete it. Its tangible.

FDIC accused of lax security: Sure, you can depend on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to back you up if your account is hacked and looted. It pledges to guarantee bank deposits of up to $250,000 for a single account holder.

Of course, the FDICs dirty little secret is that it is wildly underfunded. And ironically, according to a recent report, the agencys own financial data have been subject to breaches, with departing employees leaving with depositors personal data on removable hard drives.

Altogether, more than 160,000 people were affected, Congress discovered at a hearing covering the breaches. To date, FDIC has failed to notify any of those individuals that their private information may have been compromised, Georgia Congressman Barry Loudermilk lamented.

Regrettably, the American people have good reason to question whether their private banking information is secured by the FDIC, hesaid. The agency is failing to safeguard private banking information.

So the very agency charged with guaranteeing Americans deposits is itself allegedly failing on the information-security front. That shocking news, along with the growing list of financial-hacking victims, means its more important than ever to protect yourself with hard assets and precious metals.

Add the Bank of Montreal to the list of major financial institutions that have become bullish on precious metals.

One of its subsidiaries, BMO Capital Markets, has issued a positive medium-term forecast for both gold and silver.

Its projecting that gold will hit $1,400 by the end of first-quarter 2017, up from its previous forecast of $1,200, while it sees silver reaching $22.50 by the same time.

Fed policy key to golds movement: The BMO analysts hedged their optimism by insisting that their forecasts hinge on the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates lower for longer. Maybe the Fed does decide to hike rates in July which would be the biggest downside shock for gold prices, in our view, they said.

They also conceded that gold could see another traditional summertime dip that might damage sentiment.

Gold prices nearly always decline between May and July, Canadas Globe and Mail newspaper noted. If that pattern, which has held true in 36 of the past 40 years, continues, it could deflate the enthusiasm around precious metals.

We are not advocating an extreme doom-and-gloom and $10,000-an-ounce gold price argument, they said.

Big funds load up on bullion exposure: BOM is bullish, and so are some major hedge funds, recent federal filings show. Jana Partners now owns gold for the first time since December 2014, according to Reuters. Barry Rosensteins fund bought 50,000 shares, worth almost $6 million, of the worlds largest gold-linked ETF.

Meanwhile, CI Investments Inc., an investment manager of Toronto-based CI Financial Corp., almost quadrupled their stake in the ETF, becoming the sixth-largest shareholder, Reuters noted.

CI purchased 2.81 million ETF shares to bring the total values of its bullion holdings to $441 million. It also has interest in various gold mining companies.

The buying by some of the largest gold investors highlights how funds rushed back into bullion ETFs, which are backed by physical gold, as expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would continue to raise interest rates fade, Reuters added.

The rising tide of bullishness has raised gold ETF holdings to their highest levels in years. The great gold rush of 2016 is gathering pace, Bloomberg reported. Holdings in exchange-traded funds have now surged by a quarter,with investors taking advantage of lower prices over the past two weeks to enlarge stakes on rising concern about central bank policy making worldwide. The holdingshave increased to 1,822.3 metric tons, the most since December 2013.

By Bruce Smith, Senior Portfolio Director and Numismatic Writer at Blanchard and Company

One of the first symbolic, political, and critical economic actions to announce the independence of the newly forming American Colonies was the coining of monies. Investors should embrace these historically significant symbols of the American story when investing in rare coins. More than paper or a certificate, and more than just money to be handed down to the next of kin, these are investments with meaning, virtue, history and passion.

This begs the important question: How do I go about investing money, hard-earned money, in this market?

After two decades of handling portfolios both large and small, I am convinced that several critical principles must be embraced to achieve success.

From coins that cost as little as several hundred dollars apiece to those into the millions, the clients who have prospered the most are those that have implemented the principles shared in following paragraphs. Regardless of ones budget, applying these principles can help deliver handsome rewards.

Investors should always focus on quality over quantity. Many investors come to the rare arena thinking they need to acquire as much bulk as possible that owning many lower priced gold coins is better than placing the same amount of capital into a smaller number of truly rare coins. This is not the case, and the principle is true in any collector market. The rarest art, cars, watches, and historical artifacts are always the ones that are most coveted and the ones that appreciate most substantially. Translate this over into the rare coin arena, and investors should focus on the quality coins that will be sought after by the entire market.

Invest in the rarest coin a budget will allow, and acquire the coins with the lowest populations, the greatest allure, and the biggest story. Acquire the coins that others will compete for when it is time for you to sell.

In the stock market, blue chips are those stocks that have been around for a long time and have historically given strong returns to investors. The rare coin market has its blue chips as well. Blue chip rarities are those sectors of coins that have been very strong producers of investment return over the long-term. These are the various segments of the blue chip market where collectors and investors should put their focus:

Key Date Gold/Key Date Coins
These coins have smaller populations, strong investor sentiment, are important parts of set-building strategies and have great history behind them. Mintages for key dates vary from year to year depending upon certain political, economic, or historical realities, but their demand rarely wanes. Coins become key date through time and circumstance, becoming rare and desirable by comparison to other more common coins.

Early Date Gold: Coins Minted Prior to 1838
These coins are magic. They are full of the history of Americas founding, its patriarchs, and the American ideal. As such, and because they are exceedingly rare especially those dated prior to 1800 these coins are sought after by all savvy investors. Early date gold coins also are very tough to acquire, and when they do appear, they can trade in the moment regardless of the price. Early date silver is also very desirable and extraordinary. Many of these remarkable early silver coins, aesthetically speaking, capture the imagination and hearken back to the early American period unlike any other coins.

Proof Gold
These coins were minted for collectors and have mirror-like finishes that are absolutely breathtaking. Japanese investors have been in the states in recent years acquiring these coins rabidly. Many seasoned investors build entire portfolios of proof coinage. They are truly mesmerizing to view, and the populations are minuscule. In many cases only handfuls were minted. Struck by highly polished dies with precise requirements in place, many were only given to dignitaries. The famous $4.00 Stella coin is one great example.

The Civil War
Talk about history! Has there been another moment in American history that has captivated authors, storytellers, and movie makers more? Because of their history, low survivability, and collector fervor, these coins are a very sought after segment of the market. A rare and exceptional niche would be Civil War proof coinage, which is one of the more coveted sectors of all coinage.

Gold Rush Gold
One could be argued that the American West and the American economy really got their starts on the back of this epic American saga. From the fields of the Gold Rush grew the American spirit of adventure, enterprise, and entrepreneurship. Due to the relatively small number of coins, the history, and the ability to build sets from this period, this is another very strong arena for collectors and investors to explore. Territorial pieces from important sanctioned assay offices make up one of the more interesting sectors for many investors, and some collectors have focused exclusively on this segment.

Branch Mint Gold
Coins minted at mints other than Philadelphia and Denver. The coins to pursue in this category were minted in Dahlonega, Ga., Charlotte, N.C., San Francisco, Calif., and New Orleans, La. These mints generally produced fewer coins and operated for shorter periods of time. Consequently, the rarity factor really favors these specimens, and collectors cannot get enough of them. Typically, the scarcest of these coins are from Charlotte and Dahlonega, but again, it depends on the date, type, and variety. In recent years the New Orleans mint has become a hot market as investors and collectors have gained greater knowledge of coins like the 1838-O half dollar and other rarities.

Pedigree Coins
These are coins with a historically important lineage or story. To own a coin that was previously owned by a famous collector is important to many investors because they realize this history lends itself to a greater potential value. A coin once owned by a king, for example, will have more appeal than the same coin without that pedigree. Some of the pedigrees to look for are: King Farouk, King of Siam, Eliasberg, Trompeter, Norweb, Garrett, Elrod, Reed, Pittman, and Bass. Further, pedigrees can help establish the authenticity of big-dollar coins.

An investor considering a major six- or seven-figure purchase will find great assurance from the evaluation of a coins trading history and important lineage.

Marquis Coins
This is the really exciting stuff. These are the coins that get most of the press. These are the most aggressive of the blue chips. This is where the big boys play. This sector is not for the average investor, and the returns historically havent been average either. These are the Picasso coins, the Rembrandts. In the rare coin market, this is where the big thrills exist.

James F. Byrnes wrote, Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death. To really live in the rare coin market, this is the sector to pursue. In fact, many of these coins were owned by the infamous King of Egypt, King Farouk (1933 St. Gaudens Gold Double Eagle, 1913 Liberty Nickel, and the 1804 Silver Dollar), and others by the King of Siam.

The blue chip coins do not wait for the timid investor. They are rare, they are sought after, and they trade quickly. Moreover, in an environment in which the market is doing well and values are climbing, the fever is greater for the real rarities. Do not assume the rest of the market will wait for a collector to make a decision on a truly rare coin. With coins of great rarity its a matter of availability. If the coin you need comes available, have the confidence in your strategy to make the move. Otherwise, you will in all likelihood have to pay more when and if the next opportunity for the same coin arises.