I’m not sure what this all means, but it sure took me a while to figure it out!

I called a friend who has coin books. He said “What’s this all about?” I told him, straight up: “I have no idea!”

He said the 1809 $5 Capped Bust, if graded PCGS Unc. 60 is listed @ $14,500 in his PCGS May, 08 “Rare Coin Market Report”. In PCGS BU 63: $29,000. MS 64: $62,500. MS 65: $160,000.

What about ungraded, I asked. He said 2007 Redbook shows AU 50 @ $5,750. MS 60 @ $8,500.

I asked: “Are the older coin books worth more?”

He hung up.

Not knowing what Palladium was good for was what stopped me. I just “knew” that at $242 it really said “Buy!” to me. I would have been out of it at least a month ago if I had. The silver you averaged down on so you didn’t take a loss–and you were dealing with paper, not about physical silver. You’ve really done your homework on where to purchase! A 3% premium is quite reasonable, but for those who wander into the nearest coin shop the whack can be twenty times that much. For years I bought each of the kids a commemorative ounce to go in their Christmas stockings, and the price ran about two and a half times spot. However, think percentages. If silver is $15.50 (which it was yesterday) and you paid our local sales tax of 8.25% plus a 13% premium (the two bucks), now you’re looking at 21%+; if you aren’t paying sales tax, you’re paying S&H.

The only problem with gold held in Zurich (not counting what Congress is doing) is…what good will gold in Switzerland do you if very bad things happen? They are a clear comfort and I wish I had a bunch, which I don’t. Spurt of laughter…yes, indeed, where to store large amounts of physical silver? Not having an alpine lake handy…a safe merely screams “Here’s where the good stuff is!”…the first places “they” will look are buried in the back yard and in the pig stye…the best answer may well be to have the bulk of an investment in the country of the red cross and hope that in time you are allowed out of the country, and to keep sensible amounts on hand for emergencies. During the worst of what MAY occur, silver will be your back up money; sensible people will only swap their production/excess for things they can eat or protect themselves with. Jeff, you were one of those I had in mind yesterday when I urged regulars to write articles. You ALWAYS have something interesting to add to the conversation, so please go write me a nice editorial on your last paragraph or any other subject you would like to hold forth on, and send it over to the Texas Ring. Amen on your last sentence. Cordially, Linda

Silver is indeed a tricky one. I bought silver (actually thru the ETF SLV) as high as $18.00 and as low as $14.00 a year ago. Sold all I had at $16.50 back in October. But palladium? Way too rich for me! An industrial metal I thought that could be substituted by some smart metallurgists for platinum in catalytic converters. Who’s buying cars? Rhodium is another. Who buys this stuff?

Silver & more so gold I understand, at least I have a basic instinct on what drives pricing. Gold is money as James Turk and others profess & I agree. Silver too, but silver is more volatile and somewhat subject to industrial forces. You are right about the gold/silver ratios too but don’t put much stock in them returning to historical norms. I am convinced Wall street stocks are controlled by insiders and owning them is a sucker’s bet. Just look at the performance of the Dow over the past 10 years.

And speaking of storage; I can buy silver eagles for $2.00 over spot. But where does one store physical silver? Let’s say you want to buy $100,000 worth. About 6000 ounces is 12 BGM (big green monsters of 500 eagles each). Now you got a lot of silver on your hands lady! Close to 500 lbs worth! Where you going to put it? Buy a safe? Word gets out you have one in your house is asking for trouble in your world of TEOT-WAWKI. Having been fortunate enough to get a Swiss bank account before the IRS started threatening; I can buy gold bars quite reasonably in Zurich and held by a quite reputable bank. 0.2% per annum storage charge for gold. One final word, I have a broker in Colorado that sells for 3% above spot (for the Eagle price not the silver price) and will buy back for spot. 3% vig aint bad!

Mining stocks are a crap shoot too. All I can do is speak of the oil business but I have worked for little ma & pa oil companies and it’s a lot of show and a little go. Reserves are the name of the game and they are quite illusive. Operating costs, royalty burdens, environmental impacts, political unrest, all affect the bottom line. Unless I know the company and the people running them personally, I stay away.

Jeff

The date is 1807, eagle on one side (no, we’re not getting into “obverse” and “reverse.” I need to save a bit of my scanty numismatic terminology for another day) and the old Liberty head on the other.

My apologies for repeating myself, even though some things are worth repeating. Regards, Linda