Episode-51 – Options and Reasons to Invest in Silver
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I got quite a few questions about my comments on several episodes about investing in silver. While I am not an investment adviser and can’t legally give specific recommendations I decided to do a show about some different options and the general advantages and disadvantages of each. I also went over just a few of the many economic signals that it may be a good idea to hold some hard assets like silver in the coming years.
Tune in today to hear…..
- The real value of silver and how it one time actually backed U.S. currency
- My personal opinion and view about silver coins and bullion
- The difficulty of finding a decent adviser that can help with metal investments
- The advantage of “physically possessing” hard silver
- Why you should keep individual increments small
- The risk of highly numismatics purchases
- The complete freedom of no minimums, no penalties of buying hard silver
- The ways to buy silver paper assets like stock and funds
- A bit on foreign silver coins
- How to calculate “melt value” of silver coins
- Investing as little as 5 bucks a month
- The ability to sell off small quantities as needed
- The huge advantage of “no paper trail” with small consumer purchases of silver
- The inheritance value of handing down silver from one generation to the next
Special Announcement – Apple just announced a new iPod Nano and I am happy to announce that when we give away the nano for the listener appreciation contest we will be sending out this new model. If you haven’t joined yet, do so now and spread the word about The Survival Podcast.
Resources for Today’s Show
- Coinflation – Calculate Coin Melt Values
- Historical Silver Prices
- Value of a Dollar Calculator – (from today’s show 100 dollars in silver coins in 1964 is worth over 880 dollars today, a paper dollar of today has only 15 CENTS compared to what it bought in 1964)
- Bill Gross on how the U.S. Government will buy private assets to prevent a “financial tsunami”
- David Walker on our 53 Trillion Dollar Hole
- More from David Walker – (Chilling Facts)
- Our Highest Deficit in History 407 Billion
- Freddi and Fannie may Cost Trillions not Billions
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show.
Thanks for adding the Episode #!
Yea this weekend I may go back and add them to all the titles. From now on I will do it with the files but renaming the files isn’t an option. As they say in “Patriots”, hindsight is 20/20
Thanks! And Thanks for doing the podcasts!
Wow. What a timely show Jack, Silver is trading at $10.87 as of this post. Now is a VERY good time to buy.
Keep up the good work, we are counting on you!
-Matt
Another great show Jack. I only found out about your show and been listening for a week, but you’re a daily staple for me from now on. Thanks for the great information.
For some reason silver slipped but come SHTF it may very well be king.
Thanks for the timely information. I am curious about one thing. If I go to the goodwill web site & buy a hallmarked sterling silver tea service for $34,does that count as much as coinage? In a disaster, how hard would it be to melt down? The coins on that site are going for a lot more than you quoted on your show, so I have been buying sterling silver wherever I could buy it low. (also jewelry marked .999)
@Patrick,
On the tea set, silver is silver but it really depends on how pure it is. No I don’t consider it to be as good as coin because coin has three values. Metal Value, numismatic value and currency value. That said if you know the amount of silver in anything and can buy it well under spot price it is hard to argue with that as an investment.
True Sterling is usually 92% silver with that being the case if you have a full set made of true sterling it sounds like a deal. I would just confirm it before you buy.
As for coin prices you can indeed find dimes for about a buck in shops. Realize a lot of online sources are not dropping their prices because they bought during the recent all time high and won’t sell under it. The other thing is that coins have collector value you really need to find “junk” quality coin to be the lowest price. Go visit some local shops, ask for the cheapest silver US coins they have.
I had been researching this for a while and here’s a few cool products I’ve found:
Tube of 20 Silver Eagles – http://store.nwtmint.com/product_details/2117/Tube_of_20_Silver_Eagles/
$50 Face Value Bag of 90% silver U.S. Coins – http://store.nwtmint.com/product_details/2120/50_Face_Value_Bag_of_90_silver_U.S._Coins/
$100 Face Value Bag of 90% Silver Coins – http://store.nwtmint.com/product_details/2119/100_Face_Value_Bag_of_90_Silver_Coins/
Sheet of 10 NWTMint 1 oz Bars – http://store.nwtmint.com/product_details/2115/Sheet_of_10_NWTMint_1_oz_Bars/
Sheet of 10 Pan American Silver 1oz Bars – http://store.nwtmint.com/product_details/2116/Sheet_of_10_Pan_American_Silver_1oz_Bars/
Those last two are what I think I’m going to start with. It’s flat and can be packed like that. Or, it could probably be repacked more tightly via a vacuum sealer? This way you have them readily able to split. I’ll get those first and then start getting 2 or 3 silver dollars or a few junk coins every week. =-]
Also just found this site that lets you buy junk silver coins by the face value at your own increments. If you want to invest $30, you buy $2 of face value ($15 per $1 face). That way, you aren’t forced to buy huge chunks at once like on that other site.
http://www.ccsilver.com/silver/silver_coins.html
@Dan
1. Cool find and it looks like the bigger quantities there are a good deal, that said the one off stuff is quite expensive. At 15 dollars to the dollar you are about 2X of spot price melt value. eBay or a local shop will do better for small purchases. For instance last night I got a roll of 40 pre 64 quarters for 90 bucks + 7 shipping on eBay. The spot price (meaning what you can sell the raw silver for n demand) of 40 silver quarters is 75.88. So I only paid 22 over spot and there is some “collector value” there. Not much but a little. That is about 30% over spot, a decent deal. Local shop would have been better but I figured I would see what eBay brings in this niche.
2. SEND ME YOUR SHIPPING address, I have tried everything. I even PM’d you on ZS Forum. I think may be my emails are being blocked, may be you will see this.
Just replied on ZS, but I’ll use contact form as well JIC.
Not sure if my first comment went through or not. Found a site that has many options. Among them is this one, offering 10 1oz bars in a sheet of plastic. It’ll pack flat and you can simply remove them as you need. Or, you can just take them out of the plastic. I think I’m going to get one of these first and then junk silver coins. Eventually, I want some silver dollars as well, but it’s not a priority at this point.
http://store.nwtmint.com/product_details/2115/Sheet_of_10_NWTMint_1_oz_Bars/
Also found a page here that actually mentions using silver for survival purposes. And this is a site that sells it…
“Coin silver for the worst-case scenario
Investors who buy silver and gold for survival purposes fear the worst. Those fears include the Federal Reserve printing so many dollars that the dollar will become worthless, which is the history of all paper currencies not redeemable in gold or silver. Fear of a financial meltdown, which would close banks as in Argentina and Paraguay in 2002, is another.
Argentineans and Paraguayans who had to foresight to bail out of the banking systems and convert their assets to gold or coin silver were protected. Not only did banks close, but also when they reopened depositors were limited in the amount of money they could withdraw. Meanwhile, the Argentinean peso and the Paraguayan guarani sank in value. Shortly after those crises, Brazil defaulted on its international debt and its paper currency, the real, sank.
Those are the kinds of situations that investors who buy coin silver and small gold coins for survival purposes want to protect against. In doing so, these investors buy silver and gold in forms that can be used for money or to barter for goods and services.”
http://www.cmi-gold-silver.com/small-survival-gold-silver-coins.html
Ended up going by a local shop on Friday afternoon. Picked up 10 Mercury head dimes, 10 Roosevelt Dimes, 4 quarters, 2 Franklin half dollars, 2 Liberty dollars. Paid $75 plus tax.
Being able to hand pick the coins helps out alot. I was able to get the best quality ones out of the bin by hand. =-]
Hi Guys, I did some research for the UK. up until 1919/20, UK silver coins were approx 95% silver, so when you go looking most people are talking about pre 1919 stuff. From 1920 the mix was 50:50. Prices are higher than the silver spot price but not hugely.
I found a very informative UK site 24carat.co.uk/silvercontentofcoins.htm
Also from eBay:
Overview
From the perspective of a silver coin buyer on eBay, there have been four distinct eras of British coins since 1800:
* Prior to 1920, British silver coins contained high purity, 92.5% (Sterling) silver.
* From 1920 to 1946, British silver coins contained 50% silver.
* From 1947 to 1971, some denominations of British pre-decimal coins issued for circulation were “silver-colored,” however these coins were made of copper-nickel, and contained no silver.
* From 1971-on, some denominations of British decimal coins issued for circulation were “silver-colored,” however these coins were made of copper-nickel, and contained no silver. In addition, there have been some silver decimal coins minted in limited quantities as commemorative or bullion issues, typically in Proof condition; these coins were not intended for circulation.
The standard circulating denominations of pre-decimal British coins from 1800 to 1946 which contained 92.5% or 50% silver, included threepences, sixpences, shillings, florins, two shillings, halfcrowns, double florins, and crowns.
Some rules of thumb for stacking silver:
1oz = 1 USA Eagle, Silver maple leaf, Kook, etc.
1/4oz = 1 USA Quarter + 1 dime (pre1965 coins)
1/2oz = 3 Canada quarters + 1 dime (pre1967 coins)
3oz = 1 roll of 50 pre1967 Canada dimes
6oz = 1 roll of 40 pre1967 Canada quarters
Other denominations are for coin collectors
These are rough approximations.
Check http://www.coinflation.com for more accurate info.
NO MORE MONOPOLY MONEY.