[OutOfGas]

I have read that the 1988 Olympic 20$ Canadian coins are only worth the value of the silver or whatever nusmatic value. Although they have a face value of 20$, they were not ment for circulation and Canadian banks will not take them. Any one else read this ?

[some_math_guy]

If you examine these coins, they look identical to Canadian coins currently in circulation - nickels, dimes, quarters, etc. The only thing different is that the value stamped on the front is much larger (20$) than the highest-denomination Canadian coin (2$) in general circulation.

These coins were not meant for general circulation as they were issued in a protective plastic capsule. That being said, why wouldn't they be accepted by any bank or individual as legal tender?

[jasonraymondson]

I know nothing about buying silver, but I am looking on ebay and I was wondering, do I buy silver bars, coins, bullion and what exactly is the difference between getting one over the other?


Since Dan doesn't want to sell peakoil, I am thinking about investing the money into physical goods, and well, I figure what better than 25,000 worth of silver.

[mattduke]

Silver atoms are money. The form merely serves as evidence to another as to the quantity and purity of the silver contained. For $25k, you'll primarily want 100oz bars for the lower overhead. Englehard and JM are standard. Throw in some 1oz silver eagles or maples. Consider "junk" silver for bargain prices.

[alpha480v]

Me, I buy silver coins. They are 90% silver, and are recognized by most people as being old coins that have silver in them. If the economic system totally collapeses, silver and gold coins might be used for bartering.

Whatever you buy, get it from a dealer like apmex. Don't over pay by going the ebay route.

[patience]

I went for "junk" US silver coins. Unfortunately, I bought them from Northwest Territorial Mint. It took FAR longer than I wanted to get the stuff. They DID abide by their published contract, that says they will deliver the goods but it could take up to 10 to 12 weeks. Then, if they still are in short supply, they can take up to another 30 days! They beat the max date by around a week or so, and I received the coins yesterday--July 8, after ordering them on February 11. Just shy of 5 months. I would never have believed they would take that long. But they DID say up front that it could take that long.

Well, no matter to ME that they lived by their contract, in this case, I BOUGHT INTO IT. I won't be so stupid again, nor will I ever do business with that company ever again.

Oh. And the price wasn't that great, either. Problem was, in February, NOBODY had silver to sell. I had also just barely escaped with my money intact from a $6,000 online auction deal that went sour every way possible. That cured me of buying anything online as long as I shall live. Far too much fraud out there. Stupid me. Dirty dogs them, IMHO.

In the future I won't buy any PM's unless it is face-to-face, and I have legal backup to make sure the deal goes down nice and smooth. There's a reliable shop in Louisville, not too far from me, I found out later.

I'm not pleased with this, can you tell?

[smallpoxgirl]

Rule number one. Don't buy bullion from a company that is currently being sued by the state attorney general for stiffing customers. link AFAIK Northwest Territorial Mint is the only bullion supplier of any consequence that matches that description. I've had very good experiences with Bullion Direct both buying and selling. A lot of people really like APMEX also.

$25,000 would buy you a LOT of 90% silver coins. Should be just shy of $3000 face or around 135 pounds of silver.

[TheDude]

"Bag of junk" is literally the term used for these heaps of old silver coins, too. So you can invite the honeys over to check out your "bag of junk." Which will impress them no end I bet.

[Jotapay]

Remember, you have to carry it.

Silver coins/bullion from AMEX.com (as much as you can carry) and then gold.

You have at least one safe and another layer of security, I suppose. I have at least three layers of security at my house.

[eastbay]

Find a local bullion dealer, walk in, pay cash for gold bullion coins such as K's, ML's, Eagles, Panda's or the small bars such as Phil's. Stash 'em somewhere that no one, not even your dog, knows about.

Forget silver. The buy/sell spread is too high. 20% or more! They weigh too much. Take up too much space.

With gold the spread is around 3 to 4%. It's nicer to look at. Compact. Easier to move. Better.

[hardtootell-2]

If any of you live in a location distant from your "bugout" or doomstead location consider the logistics of transporting PMs. There is no way I'd want to cross a border or board a plane with a lot of PM on my person or in my luggage. The minimum wage baggage/security screeners would loose their minds. I think you'd get tazed, as a minimum and most likely get it all confiscated as "evidence"

[Cloud9]

On the high end, gold is creeping towards $1000 an ounce and silver is creeping toward $25 an ounce. Who knows where it will wind up in the scheme of things? Gold and silver could go up or down. If you are thinking about using it as a hedge for personal wealth, I would lean towards gold. If you are thinking about using it as a medium of exchange, I would lean towards silver. Most of what we barter for will involve small transactions. I would hate to be limited to $1000 increments. Imagine being forced to pay $1000 for five pounds of sugar or one bag of fertilizer.

[Arsenal]

Silver has the opportunity for a better return than gold IMHO.

1. Silver is in smaller increments. SHTF and gold will only be used to buy big purchases.

2. The Gold/Silver ratio is about 72/1 which means it takes 72 oz of silver to buy 1 oz of gold. The historical ratio is 50/1 so I believe (and I am not alone) that either gold will come down or silver will go up. Since this ratio is always in flux, the time to buy silver is now.

LONDON -- Silver is set to outperform gold, argued Citigroup in a note published Thursday, with the broker saying investment flows into gold are moderating while the outlook for silver is improving. The ratio fo gold-to-silver prices should return to its historical norm between 55 and 60 from the current 72.375, it said. It upgraded Fresnillo and Peter Hambro Mining to buy from hold, downgraded Randgold Resources to hold from buy and upgraded Hochschild Mining to hold from sell on reduced balance sheet concerns and the silver outlook.

3. Not only is silver associated with money it is also an industrial metal for electronics. If the economy recovers then silver should also go up.

4. The dollar is "relatively" high on the USD index. IMHO the dollar will tank with all this printing/debt that is happening so silver/gold will hold the purchasing power.

5. There is a massive short holding on PMs and even more on silver. Paper silver is oversold with no backing so if the paper vs physical market ever disconnects the physical value will skyrocket.

Here are some links that should provide more info.

APMEX is a great online PM dealer. Never had an issue. Just ordered 100 oz of silver and it was delivered in three days.
https://www.apmex.com/Default.aspx

Great place for info.
http://www.kitcosilver.com/

Silverbug forums. Take with a grain of salt. Some of these silverbugs are rabid.
http://forums.silverseek.com/

Hope that helps.

[RonMN]

Some good rules:

1. Put 10% of your "liquid net worth" into PMs.
2. Buy an equal dollar amount of gold & silver.

I personally like bars/bullion that say 999 fine (or 9999 fine for gold).

Smaller bars if you want to use them like cash after an economic crash...Larger bars (100 oz.) if you're looking to store wealth for a huge purchase in the future.

Pay attention to the bug out factor...It would be easy to carry $25,000 in gold in your pocket...not the case with silver.

[JJ]

We've bought quite a bit of silver from Paul Sims. No matter when, it's been in the mailbox within a couple of days. Probably paid too many dollars for it, but we don't care. However, even though I've got it hidden everywhere, I'm not too sure about having it hidden everywhere.

[jasonraymondson]

thanks for all of the advice, I will take it all under consideration before I make my decision.

[pablonite]

Maybe you could diversify your portfolio and get a jump on some of these?
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... FVNYQpByU4

[some_math_guy]

This interesting excerpt from The Morgan Report talks about silver as the precious metals investment with the most upside potential over the next 10 years:

http://www.kitco.com/ind/morgan/aug072009.html

Morgan's article simply adds more fuel to the fire in the argument that silver will explode once society acknowledges how cheap, rare, and indispensible it really is.

As a government employee in my 30's, I can see no set of circumstances that will allow for the possibility that government pensions will exist when I retire in some 30 years. As Richard Heinberg expresses in his excellent peak oil treatise 'The Party's Over', even if by some miracle a new energy source was discovered and appropriate infrastructure developed to replace oil, we would still be stuck with the problem of increasing rates of resource drawdown and ultimately resource depletion. Many of the world's most important metals will be depleted within 20-30 years (which is well within the lifetimes of most people on this site) and have no practical substitutes. Silver leads the pack and is estimated to be mostly depleted by 2020. Silver is used in small amounts for the following:

Coinage
Photography
Silver Jewelry
Silverware and Table Settings
Batteries
Bearings
Brazing and Soldering
Catalysts
Electronics
Medical Applications
Mirrors & Coatings
Solar Energy
Water Purification

If you are looking to preserve wealth, buy gold. If you are looking to increase your wealth, buy silver. This is the cornerstone of my 'retirement' plan, assuming modern civilization makes it that far.

[vision-master]

As a government employee in my 30's, I can see no set of circumstances that will allow for the possibility that government pensions will exist when I retire in some 30 years.

How so?

[dunewalker]

As a government employee in my 30's, I can see no set of circumstances that will allow for the possibility that government pensions will exist when I retire in some 30 years.

I can see no set of circumstances that will allow for the possibility of you being a government employee for the next 30 years.

I agree that silver seems as good an investment as anything, once you have your essentials squared away.