talk about silver coins and silver bullion.

[rockriver]

folks,
I'm looking for help for those that are interested in Precious Metals (pm) and in particular silver.
we can include gold if you'd like. but I feel inadequate to talk about silver, and extremely inadequate to talk about gold!!
--
let's discuss anything and everything...
why folks should obtain precious metals and why not... make your case both ways!
what kind of precious metals: coins, rounds, bars, collectibles, 90%, 40%, .999
what form of ownership: paper silver or real items in your hand.
how and where to buy.
how and where to sell.
present and future valuations.
goofs you made or a friend made selling and/or buying
where good deals can be found.
how do you store your stash - recommendations? I'm probably not going to disclose where my 10 silver coins are buried exactly!
a dealer you'd recommend or a dealer to run from!!
checking the items being sold!! for quantity and accuracy of sellers claim.
deals you've made or heard of where silver was used in transactions.

share what a friend told you. let's all keep each others privacy in mind.
let's assume none of us know anything and starting from scratch!

[rockriver]

why buy silver

just a suggestion which I never use... but if we "go advanced" you can use a different title. this may make it easier for someone to find
the portion of thread that they are interested in... for instance, in this post... I'm going to try to make a case for "why"

my wife and I are on fixed incomes..
the goods at the grocery stores and everything we buy are ticking up in price. what can I buy that will appreciate with inflation.
silver has gone up over time.
there are concerns on the evening news about the US $ going down in purchasing power.. if this continues that means my savings
will have lower purchasing power in the future. silver is about $20/ounce now. if I trade us dollars for silver and silver goes up then I've bought something that will give me added purchasing power in the future.
silver is used in manufacturing, helping hold up the demand for silver.
until the end of 1964 silver was the primary metal used in u.s. coins.. dimes, quarters, half dollars, silver dollars.
then the u.s. mints made big changes in what they made coins out of..
silver is a world wide recognized coin of value.
lots of folks have recognition that old us. coins with little copper in them were 90% silver (the copper band can be seen on the outside edges now)

bottom line for me... is I think we may have a financial collapse. and lowering purchasing power is happening before our eyes, so what medium of exchange will folks use if it takes a wheelbarrow full of federal reserve notes (FRN) to buy a loaf of bread?
I make the case that old u.s. coins will be sought after.
also, the us now produces a one ounce silver coin, the American Silver Eagle (ASE)
easily recognized. known widely.

a helpful website for me has been www.coinflation.com
this website will give you the value of a coin in todays dollars based strictly on the value of the metals in the coin.

[jimmycthemd]

One thing to note is that most of the coin shops that are in my AO use Kitco.com as their source of reference for the spot price for both silver and gold. Check with your dealer.

Coinflation uses a difference source (not sure where) that is about 10 cents lower than Kitco so take that into account. Coinflation has some really good information on how to figure out exactly how much silver (weight) is in each coin. If you take the formula that Coinflation uses and plug in the spot price (plus whatever markup) you can predict how much you'll pay for how many coins. I usually do that before I go to the dealer so I know how much I can afford.

[610Alpha]

just a suggestion which I never use... but if we "go advanced" you can use a different title. this may make it easier for someone to find
the portion of thread that they are interested in... for instance, in this post... I'm going to try to make a case for "why"

When you first create a post you can put in Tag's...below the text box below the Icons section (smiley faces) is a text box that you can put in tags...so you could've put silver in the tag line and if someone searched on silver this post would come up...you can put up to 5 tags using a comma to separate them.

[rockriver]

why not to buy silver

we live in the greatest country on earth... ain't nothing going down around here...
the stock market has been great...
if you need something just buy it... you don't need silver...
if there is a problem, I'm going to my friends house. they have a freezer full of food. he's got 2 .22's and 3 shotguns and one of those military rifles too.
besides, where could I cash in the silver coins... who'd want an old worn dime? you can't even buy a coke for a dime anymore.
are you trying to tell me that a 50 cent piece will get you $7.50 in good green money... that's crazy... I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday.
hey, my fren has got 2 o' them peach cards.. my fren. he's got 2 names! can get all the food he wan to git. wha do I wan spen my good money for a piece of old silver coin for? i'll just protest and scare those senators and congresscritters to give me and mine more money...

silver is going down in price... If I decide to be all fearful and scared, i'll buy some when it goes way down... maybe about $5.00/ounce..
hey, they are mining that stuff all the time.

[Lowdown3]

http://www.apmex.com/product/72283?_campaign=01272014product72283

1 oz. Sunshine Minting rounds for $21.00 at APMEX $.99 over spot through midnight Tuesday night.

[Lowdown3]

Who should NOT buy silver-

1. Those that can feed their family for at least a year without outside support. Not there? Consider more LTS food before PM's.
2. Those who are in debt up the ying yang. Your "investment" in silver would be better spent getting out of debt. Debt free = freedom of motion= initiative
3. Those who are not up to speed on a minimal level with other preps.
4. Those that don't have six months living expenses in cash, i.e, FRN's saved up.

You can define this last one on your own. For me, it was a long long time before I made more than just small purchases of silver or trades at shows, etc.

I could have bought an ounce of gold a month back in 98 and 99 and probably not have hurt myself bad. I was still in "stockpile" phase before the move and I was also putting back things like solar panels, etc. to put in place once the move happened. Either way, I coulda/shoulda/woulda then based on my discretionary income at the time.

Got completely out of debt in 08. Start saving for a well needed new car. Bought one for cash a year later. Started upgrading and renovating things around the homestead- that took cash. It was 2011 and 12 before I really start buying any PM's again. My INVESTMENT in them at that time averaged $35-38. an ounce on silver. That's off by about half now....

[Lowdown3]

Something I posted on another forum in regards to gold taking the biggest drop in 30 years last year-

Down about 30% for 2013. First year in a long while I bought a full ounce and yep, I'm down about 20% on it.

An interesting thing happens with PM's and survivalists-

When they have risen over what people have paid for them, THEN they talk about them as an investment, using terms as "I'm up such and such percent."

However when they are DOWN, the talk turns to "I'm gonna hold this forever and besides, it's not an investment."

BS, it IS an investment. And yes, my investment in that ounce is DOWN a good bit in less than a year.

Will I sell it any time soon? Not likely, still though, my investment in it is DOWN.

If I was "holding it to keep up with inflation"- well the price dropping almost 30% for the year definitely did not accomplish that.

We play the It's an investment it's not an investment, it's a hedge against inflation isn't not a hedge against inflation game a lot in the survival movement.

The reality is that it is an investment and like all investments, it can lose money. Unlike most investments though, we can HOLD the investment in our hand. That gives it some intrinsic value.

Are my plans to "barter" in the PAW with PM's? No. People will have other needs.

For me, it is more of another way to save/stash something of value. I.e, INVESTMENT. That investment does LOSE value at times. As all investments can.

The bigger problem with PM's in the survival movement is most people get into them WAY TOO EARLY.

If you can't feed your family for a year, if you don't have your basic med needs taken care of, if you are in debt, if you don't have six months living expenses in cash, you don't really need to look at PM's.
27 years and 14 boots on the ground at our retreat, I've not bothered to do much investing in PM's during much of that time. Only in the last couple years have I started buying some, and even then, it never comes before things like upgrading our water system, finishing a couple of solar wells, etc. Those things are real and useful in daily life both now and in the PAW, they provide life and security.

We should always take care of priorities first. For most of us, that's going to be food, water, getting out of debt, etc.

[rockriver]

prices go up and prices go down!

ld3, thanks. well said.
there was a big coin show in the middle of my state. this past weekend.
a guy there was trying to sell me buffalo rounds. for 23.00 silver 19.80.. I had just paid 22.90 for some eagles.
I knew the guy. he has helped me a lot learning about silver...
finally he hung his head and said "I paid 40/each for the rounds"
he prides himself on getting good deals.. he constantly buys and sells.. he has a couple of small booths at an antique mall and a consignment shop... he'll place a shiny silver eagle in there that he paid 23 for.. he puts it in a small plastic container and put a price on it of 28 or 30....
but even my buddy goofs... he was selling a lot in the 40something range and buying up supply at the same time...
prices fell...

I've been buying at current prices as I can raise a few dollars... I realize that lots of prognosticators are predicting a 25% drop. but.... who knows.