Gold and silver, in case you didnt notice, took a bit of a dip. Is it “The Dip”? Who knows? I just know that I picked these up:
Interestingly, my local ‘guy’ was selling generic silver at $.50 over spot, which is pretty much an all time low for him. These Eagles were a little more than that ($2 over), but I always wanted to flesh out my silver holdings with some minted stuff rather than just generics. However….buy the generics first. Get the most silver for your money.
Why the slump in metals? Profit taking, I am told. The story I hear, from someone who is well positioned to know, is that a large holder decided it was time to cash in their chips. As a result..prices drop. They might have another little dip here, but theyre definitely on their way up.
Regardless, I had a few bucks sitting around and its never a bad idea to convert a little cash into metals every so often. Got plenty of guns, plenty of ammo, plenty of food….but there’s always room for precious metals.
When the war finally kicks off…with Russia, China, or both….I expect things will get rather unstable quickly and some hard currency is never a bad thing to have in a time of wild uncertainty.
Invest as your wisdom directs but I’ve recently come to think that US pre 1965 dimes, quarters and half-dollars are the way to go. If the sh!t hits the fan, coins like these have instant recognition and never lose their face value. During the Great Depression silver actually hit a low of 29 cents per ounce.
I’m not sure I see any difference between the Eagles and the pre65 coins. Both have face value that are independent of their silver value, and both are minted.
Pre 65 silver coins will always have a seat at the table. A few yrs ago a silver quarter bought a gallon of gas, now a silver dime does about the same. I’ve been in the industry for 20 yrs and at this point I’m a believer that uncirculated pre 65 silver coins will have a premium someday.
Mother in law left a large stack of 1964 Kennedy halves at our house years ago. She called from Finland the other day saying she has no money for food (possible; she has a lot of investments and may not have a lot of liquid cash) so I bought her coins from her. Paid spot. I avoid dealer fee on the purchase, she avoids dealer fee on the sell. Happy to get a few thousand bucks to her while increasing our PM holdings here!
Given the silver content, the 1 troy ounce Silver Eagle should be considered as $1.16 in terms of the “junk silver” dollar. Or the junk silver dollars should be considered 86 cents worth of a Silver Eagle. The confusion comes from calling both “dollars.”
I ponder the way money and credit flows and how silver and gold fits in If Shit does Hit the Fan and banking-paper money-credit freezes up or is degraded like Weimar Germany. At least in Weimar gold and silver was still thought of as money and accepted at stores.
My grocery store doesn’t take my Eagles in trade for my grocery shopping. If I happened to offer a pair of Peace Dollar Coins, I suspect the clerk would have to call in the manager.
Why is that a problem? Well although the manager knows its valuable, aside from HIM effectively buying it from me and SPENDING that paper money at the store he cannot help me.
The grocery store (gas station, and so on) mostly uses electronic credit to buy resupply in anticipation of you and I buying their products. They cannot send off bags of silver (pre-65 or .999) to their suppliers who would have to do much the same in order to pay their truck drivers and suppliers.
At one time gold and silver WERE MONEY, but being bulky and sometimes had to make change for a dozen eggs when I am offering an ounce of Gold, paper money redeemable for gold or silver upon demand came to service.
Sometimes ammo is valuable, sometimes PM’s are valuable but having safe water, decent food supply and ability to repair your home seems always valuable.
Gold and silver ARE MONEY by law. Our Constitution and the several Coinage Acts define money in America as a measurement of gold & silver. These laws haven’t changed and gold & silver are still the only lawful money in America.
Technically you are correct.
Now PLEASE take a dozen peace dollars to Walmart and do some shopping.
Then give us a report on how well that worked.
Almost half of “our Politicians” think the Constitution is irrelevant in today’s day to day grift operations.
The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe. The axe was clever and convinced the trees that since his handle was made of wood, he was one of them.
In the supply and demand arena apparently metals are in high demand and low supply. Platinum supply is said to be near zero. Comex and the London (LBMA) holding agencies are being cleaned out by central banks, sovereign nations and other large purchasers because paper contracts are no longer trusted. When the Fed and LBMA refuse to give a country their property because they disagree with their politics, other governments think ‘…maybe we shouldn’t trust them to hold our stuff…’ China and India are the main countries taking delivery instead of trusting paper contracts.
Refineries have been reported to temporarily stop buying anything other than .999 silver but that should change soon.
I agree with you, but I have to add this… the smelting/refinery industry is backed up, they aren’t catching up any time soon. The biggest operations told us 2 weeks ago they aren’t taking in any silver related products until next year with a few exceptions on specific 999 silver products.
You go right ahead, CZ. PMs are an investment, and you can liquidate them for land if the right plot becomes available.
Since I have my land, what extra income I have is going into building materials. Outbuildings, fencing, raised bed gardens, greenhouse. There’s a lot to do, and not enough time to make it all happen.
Physical PMs are an asset, not investment. Investments by definition generate income while metals just sit there doing what they do best – insurance and protection from reckless governments and banksters.
Mining stocks have been a very good investment lately and are very easy to liquidate and trade.
“Physical PMs are an asset, not an investment”.
??????? You are wrong, that’s a dumb statement.
Big difference between Investments and Assets. Please educate yourself.
Lol. So you’re advocating “paper” precious metal as an investment in today’s world?
Best of luck.
My ‘paper precious metals’ (mining stocks) are up 200% to 500% just this year and have provided a nice return. So yes, they are an investment. My physical metals just sit there providing insurance and protection as an asset because they generate no income like an investment.
This.
Gold currently is being paid to “lease” or shore up vault reserves with no counterparts risk. So that moves PM to the Investment ledger as it can make a return. Silver may well join shortly.
I’m a little abashed to admit that I don’t even know where to buy coins/metals; a pawn shop? A jewelry dealer? Shady Izzie’s We Buy Anything Mart?
I suppose I could ask a search engine. Anybody know of a ‘Buying Metals for Dummies’ website or such?
Here’s one https://v.fastcdn.co/u/9ee0afb9/36629366-0-GTIIGS-MikeMaloney.pdf.
Clever name! Do you happen to have an Asian cousin named I Pan Au?
As a recreational gold prospector, I both dig and pan Au.
Depends on your region, but online you can use Kitco. They seem legit!!
Thank you both very much!