What’s The Best Way To Invest-Speculate In Silver Coins ?

[Refresher]

There telling us something

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

if it makes you happy do it

i own gold coins, it makes me happy, if im deluded and dead wrong i sleep better at night thinking its for a good cause. one of my brother in laws who i dislike immensely, said i should have sold them when gold was about 1800 an ounce. they are to me like an insurance policy , i didnt buy them to get rich. i wanted to point out to him he inherited in 1988 700k from his parents that died 6 weeks apart and they now have a portfolio of less than 600k. but he has a masters degree , worked one of those 40 hour but i only do 8 hours a week jobs, got paid mid 100's, left at 55 type guys, slim athletic and knows everything. i got a ged, finished college at night, fat, bald, had to have fist fights at work till my last day, spent tons of time in the emergency room for getting beat up and hurt, make run on sentences, use terrible grammar, have almost 4 million in the market have a 1.2 million home paid off,and have 100 ounces in gold coins, that i have had for over 17 years, i worked till i was 46 and my best pay check was 961 a week take home. they have a wonderful house in some 55 and over community in arizona because its cheap and has tennis. original poster u want to buy a few silver coins, do it , it makes u happy do it. enjoy them

 

[ownyourfuture]

i own gold coins, it makes me happy, if im deluded and dead wrong i sleep better at night thinking its for a good cause. one of my brother in laws who i dislike immensely, said i should have sold them when got was about 1800 an ounce. they are to me like an insurance policy , i didnt buy them to get rich. i wanted to point out to him he inherited in 1988 700k from his parents that died 6 weeks apart and they now have a portfolio of less than 600k. but he has a masters degree , worked one of those 40 hour but i only do 8 hours a week jobs, got paid mid 100's, left at 55 type guys, slim athletic and knows everything. i got a ged, finished college at night, fat, bald, had to have fist fights at work till my last day, spent tons of time in the emergency room for getting beat up and hurt, make run on sentences, use terrible grammar, have almost 4 million in the market have a 1.2 million home paid off,and have 100 ounces in gold coins, that i have had for over 17 years, i worked till i was 46 and my best pay check was 961 a week take home. they have a wonderful house in some 55 and over community in arizona because its cheap and has tennis. original poster u want to buy a few silver coins, do it , it makes u happy do it. enjoy them

Best reply yet

Thanks!

 

[aja8888]

i own gold coins, it makes me happy, if im deluded and dead wrong i sleep better at night thinking its for a good cause. one of my brother in laws who i dislike immensely, said i should have sold them when gold was about 1800 an ounce. they are to me like an insurance policy , i didnt buy them to get rich. i wanted to point out to him he inherited in 1988 700k from his parents that died 6 weeks apart and they now have a portfolio of less than 600k. but he has a masters degree , worked one of those 40 hour but i only do 8 hours a week jobs, got paid mid 100's, left at 55 type guys, slim athletic and knows everything. i got a ged, finished college at night, fat, bald, had to have fist fights at work till my last day, spent tons of time in the emergency room for getting beat up and hurt, make run on sentences, use terrible grammar, have almost 4 million in the market have a 1.2 million home paid off,and have 100 ounces in gold coins, that i have had for over 17 years, i worked till i was 46 and my best pay check was 961 a week take home. they have a wonderful house in some 55 and over community in arizona because its cheap and has tennis. original poster u want to buy a few silver coins, do it , it makes u happy do it. enjoy them

The above post is hard to read with no caps and all sentences and partial sentences running together. Not sure what the message is, though.

I have a few hundred Walking Liberty half dollars that are each worth $0.50 that my Dad left to me. I had to pay for his funeral, though.

 

[Al in Ohio]

Not being political with this post... but I had a boss who was always talking about silver and gold... and how it would protect him etc. etc....


So my question to you is.... how is $10K of silver going to change your life in any way if everything goes to heck

The thing folks here don't seem to understand that in a hyperinflation scenario when the value of currency plummets, at the same time the value of real gold or silver skyrockets. A small silver dime pre- hyper inflation worth a few dollars now, when HI occurs would be readily traded for a entire meal for a family of four.

Here is what happened to Germany post WW1:

"In January of 1919, one ounce of silver was worth approximately 12 Deutsche Marks. By the end of 1923, one ounce of silver was worth 543,750,000,000 Deutsche marks"


So the OP is not banking on 500 ounces of silver still be worth what $10k WAS before hyperinflation when he was buying it up, but the fact that 500 ounces of silver could probably safely keep a family readily buying all essential staples on the black market for many years ( which is how some families holding precious metals or diamonds did in fact survive much more comfortably than their peers).

 

[ownyourfuture]

I have a few hundred Walking Liberty half dollars that are each worth $0.50 that my Dad left to me. I had to pay for his funeral, though.

Even in poor condition, you could sell the Walking L's for around $7.00 each.

Sorry about your Dad

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

i explained the grammar in the body of my rant

The above post is hard to read with no caps and all sentences and partial sentences running together. Not sure what the message is, though.

I have a few hundred Walking Liberty half dollars that are each worth $0.50 that my Dad left to me. I had to pay for his funeral, though.

.

 

[ERD50]

The above post is hard to read with no caps and all sentences and partial sentences running together. Not sure what the message is, though.

.

And typing your reply in the Title line makes it impossible to quote you.

 

[Koolau]

Back to OP's question for a moment, I prefer US coins to own silver. The premium to hold in this fashion IS higher than rounds or bars. However, under "normal" circumstances, US coinage will most likely retain its premium and repay that premium upon liquidation. Also, if the economy gets into serious trouble, US coins are known throughout the world. Hard to guess what they might be worth, but they almost certainly would maintain a significant premium to any paper currency (though that is speculation on my part - based on previous history.) By the way, I like having a mix of dimes, quarters and halves as that makes the problem of "change" less of an issue if the time comes we begin to buy in silver coins again. (I just threw that in for free.:cool smiley

Okay, now for the Koolau philosophy of PMs. Said before, someone with more time than I'm willing to spend should be able to find documentation which shows PMs modulating the ups and downs of portfolios when held in the 3 to 5% range. I've seen these often enough to know they exist. This appears to be due to the typical near complete lack of correlation between PMs and equities/bonds.

During the recent "unpleasantness" of the late double aughts, my personal portfolio lost nothing for two reasons. My allocation to equites was in the 30% range AND my commitment to PMs made up all (more) than the losses. Not suggesting that will always be true, but it was (for me) validation of the "hold 3-5% PMs" suggestion of many. True enough, my portfolio would have higher value NOW if I committed more to equities all along. BUT I would have slept less and I have enough - assuming the lack of black swans.

The two extremes always mentioned in conjunction with PMs are, of course: 1) PMs don't earn interest/dividends (and cost storage or have possible loss due to fire/theft etc.) and 2) ITSHTF only lead will be valuable. I don't dispute either of these. Still, I consider them straw man arguments because there are so many other (more likely) situations. 1) I don't hold PMs to make money. I hold them as "insurance" against loss (insurance cost money!) 2) Most down-turn situations are NOT TSHTF. I consider high inflation or near hyper-inflation more likely. Another 9/11 or worse could happen. A 20 trillion (or more) US debt "comes due" due to circumstances we do not now know of. Many more. In most of these cases (and just about anything else between "normal" and TSHTF) PMs will "likely" have a real advantage over paper. At least in my thinking, the "insurance" value for these potential situations makes owning a small amount of PMs makes sense. Naturally, it won't make sense to everyone as YMMV.

 

[Texas Proud]

Koolau,

I had asked about showing where silver was the PM of choice... I have read where gold is a good hedge and there are a number of portfolio choices out there that use it.... some up to 25%.... I have seen none where they suggest holding silver...

So, do not confuse a study of gold to mean all PM... heck, platinum is another PM... but not much talk about it...


I know OP has said he is not doing it for prepper needs... but a number of people keep talking about using it for that... but if things go so bad that the US dollar is not going to be taken as currency then the likelyhood of someone actually taking silver is going to be slim.... IOW, if it were really bad and I had food and water or fuel and you wanted it... my commodity is now worth MUCH more than you little bit of silver... why would I want to trade

 

[Koolau]

Koolau,

I had asked about showing where silver was the PM of choice... I have read where gold is a good hedge and there are a number of portfolio choices out there that use it.... some up to 25%.... I have seen none where they suggest holding silver...

So, do not confuse a study of gold to mean all PM... heck, platinum is another PM... but not much talk about it...


I know OP has said he is not doing it for prepper needs... but a number of people keep talking about using it for that... but if things go so bad that the US dollar is not going to be taken as currency then the likelyhood of someone actually taking silver is going to be slim.... IOW, if it were really bad and I had food and water or fuel and you wanted it... my commodity is now worth MUCH more than you little bit of silver... why would I want to trade

I agree that gold is the more traditional PM for portfolio modulation, but silver - though more volatile, especially in "good" times - has shown the same modulating effect in MY portfolio. Full disclosure, my PM allocation is about 3 to 1 in favor of gold. I don't hold platinum although it is more "valuable" in that it's more difficult to go dig up more of it (and there is dramatically less of it stored.)

Again, I'm sure a situation you suggest (where PMs are not accepted even in lieu of a useless paper currency) could happen. I just think it's a lot less likely than a case where folks are frightened enough that paper becomes useless BUT PMs still hold value. This sort of thing has happened throughout history. Consider all the existing currencies (excluding "renamed" or totally revalued currencies such as the current Peso and what became known as "new franks" in France, etc. etc.) There are actually VERY few currencies still in existence that were around just a few hundred (or even a few decades) ago. BUT gold is still "money" by almost any definition you can find for that term. Always has been - most likely always will be - unless they find an economic way to extract all the gold from the oceans, heh, heh. So, could lead be the new currency. Yeah. Will it? I say "not likely" but YMMV.

 

[6miths]

I bought Silver Maple Leafs in mint wrapping via eBay from 1999-2001 probably about 500 ounces. Not for end of world just because they were pretty and I started buying them to give them as 'birth year' gifts to people who were having babies. My father had given us each one or two silver dollars each year on our birthdays. It was a very economical way to buy them.

 

[Texas Proud]

How is that silver investment now


At 15.60 and falling... lowest since 2009....


Gold isn't doing much better... but still a bit better...

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

Nice resurrect a half dead thread, rub some salt in the guys wounds and call it a day, hahahah.

 

[sengsational]

Not that I couldn't figure this out myself, but are the bags of old US silver coins dropping along with the commodity price? Does the ratio between the weight of one of those bags have a standard percent above the commodity price?

 

[Dash man]

Not that I couldn't figure this out myself, but are the bags of old US silver coins dropping along with the commodity price? Does the ratio between the weight of one of those bags have a standard percent above the commodity price?

Yes, they're dropping. They also have less silver than bullion coins do. If the price drops a little more I may buy some bullion.

 

[Starsky]

It looks like time to get in. Bought 1,000 Silver Eagles over the last couple of days. Started to dollar-cost-average some gold Pamps, but will switch to gold U.S. coins based on the advice of the more helpful members...(I just had to get used to the higher premium over spot [that is recouped on the back-end].) Their value also seems to go up with age as well. Older silver boxes are about 1.5-2% more expensive per year of age per coin.

My plan is to get to a 5% holding of physical PM - 90% in 1oz. coins and 10% in smaller denomination coins and interesting bullion.

Right now I'm focused on accumulating Silver quickly because it is well below the long-term trend line. Gold is lagging behind, but should follow Silver if history is a guide - hence the cost-averaging @ 3 oz./week through the Summer.

The price of the two PMs are very highly correlated over a very long period but have diverged recently to a historically high 70:1 Silver to Gold price ratio. Silver can rise, or Gold can drop to lower that ratio; and I expect a little of both will be happening over the short-term. I had planned to do an 80/20 allocation of Gold to Silver but will probably end up much closer to 60/40 due to Silver being below $16.

Outside of holding PM for diversification, I'd love to buy a wood crate of 10 oz. Scottsdale raw silver bars and some 25gr. Pamp sheets just for fun, and to motivate my brother's kids to invest. (It's only about $10K/box.)

 

[Lakewood90712]

Non collectible grade Morgan dollars are easy to buy and sell on E-bay. Just don't pay too much.

 

[meierlde]

It looks like time to get in. Bought 1,000 Silver Eagles over the last couple of days. Started to dollar-cost-average some gold Pamps, but will switch to gold U.S. coins based on the advice of the more helpful members...(I just had to get used to the higher premium over spot [that is recouped on the back-end].) Their value also seems to go up with age as well. Older silver boxes are about 1.5-2% more expensive per year of age per coin.

My plan is to get to a 5% holding of physical PM - 90% in 1oz. coins and 10% in smaller denomination coins and interesting bullion.

Right now I'm focused on accumulating Silver quickly because it is well below the long-term trend line. Gold is lagging behind, but should follow Silver if history is a guide - hence the cost-averaging @ 3 oz./week through the Summer.

The price of the two PMs are very highly correlated over a very long period but have diverged recently to a historically high 70:1 Silver to Gold price ratio. Silver can rise, or Gold can drop to lower that ratio; and I expect a little of both will be happening over the short-term. I had planned to do an 80/20 allocation of Gold to Silver but will probably end up much closer to 60/40 due to Silver being below $16.

Outside of holding PM for diversification, I'd love to buy a wood crate of 10 oz. Scottsdale raw silver bars and some 25gr. Pamp sheets just for fun, and to motivate my brother's kids to invest. (It's only about $10K/box.)

Just a very long term comment, from 1792 till the 1880s the silver gold ratio was 15 to 16 to one (back when the US used both gold and silver as the monetary reserve) Here is a link to a paper by Issac Newton (when he was master of the mint) giving a silver to gold ratio of 15.5 to one: Isaac Newton, On the Value of Gold and Silver in European Currencies and the Consequences on the World-wide Gold- and Silver-Trade (September 1717).
A big part of the change is the elimination of silver as any part of monetary reserves in the latter part of the 19th century to go on the pure gold standard.

 

[Starsky]

Just a very long term comment, from 1792 till the 1880s the silver gold ratio was 15 to 16 to one (back when the US used both gold and silver as the monetary reserve) Here is a link to a paper by Issac Newton (when he was master of the mint) giving a silver to gold ratio of 15.5 to one: Isaac Newton, On the Value of Gold and Silver in European Currencies and the Consequences on the World-wide Gold- and Silver-Trade (September 1717).
A big part of the change is the elimination of silver as any part of monetary reserves in the latter part of the 19th century to go on the pure gold standard.

Fascinating report by Sir Isaac. Very interesting to consider the arbitrage opportunities that existed in Europe and the barriers to carrying them out. Thanks!

 

[Koolau]

It looks like time to get in. Bought 1,000 Silver Eagles over the last couple of days. Started to dollar-cost-average some gold Pamps, but will switch to gold U.S. coins based on the advice of the more helpful members...(I just had to get used to the higher premium over spot [that is recouped on the back-end].) Their value also seems to go up with age as well. Older silver boxes are about 1.5-2% more expensive per year of age per coin.

My plan is to get to a 5% holding of physical PM - 90% in 1oz. coins and 10% in smaller denomination coins and interesting bullion.

Right now I'm focused on accumulating Silver quickly because it is well below the long-term trend line. Gold is lagging behind, but should follow Silver if history is a guide - hence the cost-averaging @ 3 oz./week through the Summer.

The price of the two PMs are very highly correlated over a very long period but have diverged recently to a historically high 70:1 Silver to Gold price ratio. Silver can rise, or Gold can drop to lower that ratio; and I expect a little of both will be happening over the short-term. I had planned to do an 80/20 allocation of Gold to Silver but will probably end up much closer to 60/40 due to Silver being below $16.

Outside of holding PM for diversification, I'd love to buy a wood crate of 10 oz. Scottsdale raw silver bars and some 25gr. Pamp sheets just for fun, and to motivate my brother's kids to invest. (It's only about $10K/box.)

It's been a very long time since I've purchased any PMs. Have you found a reliable dealer that you feel comfortable with (that you are willing to share.)? I think it just might be time to buy a little silver - doesn't seem likely that you could dig it up and process it for $16. Besides, it has quite a number of uses (though photography has dropped off drastically.)

Thanks for the reference to PAMP sheets. I didn't know what that was until I looked it up. Way cool. Something very appealing about the presentation. Such small pieces of metal, yet so valuable. 1gm is about $40. Less weight to carry around than a couple of $20 bills (though I don't think I'll be carrying gold anytime soon - other than a couple of crowns.)

 

[Starsky]

It's been a very long time since I've purchased any PMs. Have you found a reliable dealer that you feel comfortable with (that you are willing to share.)? I think it just might be time to buy a little silver - doesn't seem likely that you could dig it up and process it for $16. Besides, it has quite a number of uses (though photography has dropped off drastically.)

Thanks for the reference to PAMP sheets. I didn't know what that was until I looked it up. Way cool. Something very appealing about the presentation. Such small pieces of metal, yet so valuable. 1gm is about $40. Less weight to carry around than a couple of $20 bills (though I don't think I'll be carrying gold anytime soon - other than a couple of crowns.)

I didn't know that Gold is highly recycled while silver is not, so the supply of silver is used up over time while gold is ever increasing.

I started with a local PM dealer and then made a couple of online silver purchases through APMEX. I'm still waiting to receive the orders - they were placed in the last couple of days. From my research, they seem to be the largest online PM dealer and it's a very convenient way to buy PM. Their prices are very good and they have a lot more options than my local shops (like the PAMP sheets). Shipping is free and no taxes to worry about. They offer a discount for cash/wire pricing and I get free wire transfers at my bank, so that's very convenient too.

I don't like to buy my gold online yet, but I'm totally comfortable buying silver. You can do it 24/7 and lock in your purchases at the best spot prices whenever you want. With gold, I want them to test it in front of me. I'm sure I'll get over it eventually.

 

[Dash man]

I use Texas Precious Metals. I've bought gold from them online and wired the money to them. Had the gold within 2-3 business days.

 

[athena53]

I don't hold platinum although it is more "valuable" in that it's more difficult to go dig up more of it (and there is dramatically less of it stored.)

My first husband worked for Engelhard and we used to have a giant poster charting the spot prices of gold, silver, platinum and palladium over time (with a different y-axis scale for silver since it was so much cheaper). I'm guessing that the chart ended around 1985 so this is ancient history but platinum was nearly always more expensive than gold. The few times they were close were aberrations.

Now every time I look, platinum is worth less than gold (currently $925 vs. $1,229). I've had 2 rings reset in platinum settings and bought one (very light) platinum chain and believe me, they ALWAYS charge more for platinum partly because it's harder to work.

Any idea why platinum has been cheaper than gold for so long? I know it used to be an important component of catalytic converters. A little OT but I thought this group might have an answer.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

My first husband worked for Engelhard and we used to have a giant poster charting the spot prices of gold, silver, platinum and palladium over time (with a different y-axis scale for silver since it was so much cheaper). I'm guessing that the chart ended around 1985 so this is ancient history but platinum was nearly always more expensive than gold. The few times they were close were aberrations.

Now every time I look, platinum is worth less than gold (currently $925 vs. $1,229). I've had 2 rings reset in platinum settings and bought one (very light) platinum chain and believe me, they ALWAYS charge more for platinum partly because it's harder to work.

Any idea why platinum has been cheaper than gold for so long? I know it used to be an important component of catalytic converters. A little OT but I thought this group might have an answer.

If i read the article correctly , all about supply and demand and the strong dollar hurt platinum. https://www.pressreader.com/india/the-hindu-business-line/20151026/282278139189227