Loki wrote:As a complete ignoramus on PMs, could someone inform me about off-paper gold and silver transactions? What is the minimum amount it's worth investing for any given transaction, on or off paper? Would you lose money if you only did $500?
As for Chris Martenson, it's a name I've heard quite a bit, I'll check him out.
I think the way to get into PM's is to check out the "cull" silver dollars in the local coin shop. They go for around the spot price of silver and are usually Peace Dollars, although you may get a few Morgans in there as well. They are too worn or too common to have any numismatic value, but are a little less than an ounce of metal. The other way to get into it is to buy half dollars, but be careful to get them from before 1964, because that's when they lost their metal content. Here's a great site to know how much they are worth in metal content:
http://www.coinflation.com/
I think if you can get them at around spot price you are doing well. The price of silver right now is around $33 an ounce, so if you can get silver dollars for $32 or so you are doing okay. I like them because the Peace Dollar is a real work of art as well. It was a commemorative that was pressed into service as the silver dollar in the 20's and 30's. Here's a pic of it: