I wouldn't. Last time we had this situation, the folks holding shares got taken. The shares are merely pieces of paper that say you "own" a certain amount of silver, but there is nothing guaranteeing you the right to take possession of your silver. Concurrently, there is no guarantee that Morgan most actually possesses the silver it has sold you. When the run happens, the industrial customers will be serviced first. The shareholders will be left with worthless paper. This same exact scenario happened just a few years ago in the London nickel market. The courts upheld it. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f645ff44-1528-11dc-b48a-000b5df10621.html#axzz1J3XuMyol Moreover, there are serious concerns about exactly how much silver Morgan actually has left in their vaults now. They had been systematically shorting silver since 1985, and the fact that they're unable to keep the price down anymore means that they're either out or are very nearly out. IOW, the silver shares you buy may not be backed by anything at all. http://lakshmi-capital.com/2010/12/the-silver-etf-slv-and-the-great-comex-silver-shortage/ My recommendation is to purchase bullion and/ or circulated currency on a cash and carry basis. There's no way to sell it out from under you when it's in your vault. 1980 was an attempt by Hunt Bros. to corner the market, and thus artificial. This time it's the result of a shortage. The simple law of supply and demand didn't support the price spike in 1980. It does now. I don't think we'll ever see silver under $40 an ounce ever again in our lives.
There are a lot of reasons why silver is going up. The biggest factor is the devaluation of the US dollar... it takes more dollars to buy the same amount of silver. I safely predict $50 silver... I don't see it hitting $100 an ounce but I don't rule that out down the road either.
Let's say that you had some 1946-64 silver coins that weigh the equivalent of 10 ounces in silver mass (i.e. let's just say $400 in metal content today for argument sake). 1. Would you sell the coins at a pawn shop (~50 % value?)? 2. Would you sell the coins at a coin shop (> 50 %?)? 3. Would you try to separate the silver from the copper via some type of heating or electrolytic process and then sell the pure silver (i.e. equipment costs, silver yield issues)? 4. Sell them on Ebay?
"Taken" ya say? By who the tooooooth fairy? That is a silly thing ta say.... If ya have creditors forclosin' on yer chit yer gonna have trouble buyin' anything..... Hmmmmmmm...... why store the worthless chit? If yer speculatin' (buyin' at this price is clearly speculatin'), most sane traders wanna take profits quickly when their technical analysis indicated the run was nearin' the end. "The run" yer sayin'........ ya got the runs? That's tooooooo bad. Seriously: if yer lookin' at a system collapse.... which is certainly possible..... although not probable at this juncture..... wouldn't ya rather have somethin' more practical n' usable then a metal that ya can't eat or shoot? Last time I stocked up on 22LR ammo.... (I like ammo fer me personal storage)...... ya could buy 550 rounds of either Remington or Federal or some such bullets fer $15.43 at Wally World. I have ta call three different stores on the delivery date as they sell out in about one hour. They were on the way ta where I was going. I already have me wheat, (in CO2 inside rodent proof corntainers). Powdered eggs/peanut butter/ n' all sorts of chit in a supply that can feed me luved ones fer at least two years. N' me fire power assures nobody will take it from me. If ya got a functional brain n' know what yer doin'....... ya trade the chit well before ya have that issue........ sheeeeeeesh..... Sounds like a speculation ta me..... silly me eh? If I'm speculatin'...... why would I care as long as it is liquid n' I can ride the trend and pull the trigger fer a large profit? I would not hold ta test the backing of the paper shares.... Does yer brain werk? You recommend silly folks load their trucks at nose bleed prices n' haul to their vaults all ya want. I'm not "recommendin' anything other then home werk.... n' caveat emptor.... Hope that is crystal clear. If ya do a weeeee bit of home werk you would find all commoditties were peakin' (happens every thirty years give or take a year or two).... yer kinda silly aren't ya? Horse poop.... similar situation..... do some home werk. You are a real piece o' werk. There is STILL a significant chance of deflation. Whatcha think yer worthless chit would do if deflation gets a breath of wind in the ol' sails: Einstein? Hmmmmmmmm? That is why we have gotten away with all the money printin' and rates remain fairly low. Hit the books before ya preach to the unwashed masses. THIS IS NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE. I only have one functional brain cell. I do like yer site, (BTW). Respectfully, JR
eBay is totally the way to go. You'll need a toothbrush and a box of baking soda. Wash the coins in the bathroom sink then brush them vigorously with baking soda powder and the wet toothbrush. This cleans the coins. You're selling them for melt value- you're selling slag basically. Once all cleaned, take nice shiny pics of them for the auction and sell it as a bullion auction... in other words you're looking to get melt value for your coins. Silver content of pre-64 coins are: Dime 0.07234 silver Quarters 0.18084 silver Half Dollar 0.36169 silver Dollar 0.77343 silver Make piles and start adding up with the calculator. (To make sure you're doing it right, it takes 13.82 dimes to have an ounce of silver.) List it as "10 Ounces of US Silver Coin". It'll sell at melt no problem.
Wouldn't vintage part silver, (not pure), coins have more value as coins, (in fair shape), then jus' the value of the silver corntent? Sorry if the question is stoooooooooopid. I have old silver dollars/ dimes/ quarters/ n' half dollars that I wouldn't melt and the local coin shop would give me more then jus' their silver corntent. Am I wrong here? Respectfully, JR
You're basically selling at spot price by budling, weighing and selling on eBay. And you'll find someone in Wisconson or Albequerque ready to pay spot for them- plus they pay shipping. You end up getting spot for your coins. Re: coins themselves- if the date is not readable, it's a slag coin; worthless. My silver hoard happens to be top quality, cleaned and polished almost BU silver... and I am happy to get melt for it- considering what I paid for it. If I had an extra $5,000 to spend, I would spend it on 90% silver coins and bullion from eBay. Sure you gotta pay to have it delivered but YOU PHYSICALLY OWN IT.
For the next year, it is a safe bet to own silver. My only question is what will happen when it hits $50. I think it'll hover there a while. But silver at $50 is money in the bank.
someone said that dollars are worthless, silver salesmen wouldn't be accepting dollars in exchange for silver if the dollar is worthless
Rather own ammo n' guns, free n' clear dirt.... or food mesef. Own a few gold n' silver coins fer keepsakes... Trade stocks. JR
Not at all. The pre-64 coins are referred to in the market as "junk silver". Some coin dealer has already looked at it and decided it's not in collectible condition. I moved out of bullion last year and focused exclusively on junk silver. It's easier to collect and store and there's no markup for minting because the government already did that part of the job. Most dealers will sell at spot and purchase about 4% under. That's how they turn their profit. Not true. Dealers are in business to turn a profit. They accept dollars for silver because they need dollars to purchase silver. The dollars themselves *are* worthless, but they're still the medium of exchange.
Understood.... it's how I made me livin' in stocks n' bonds fer many years as well. Thanks fer the explanation. Commods speculation never fit me "investment philosophy", (or that of me clients when I was in the bidness). Hard ta predict the price direction n' duration of the trend, n' the leverage was tooooooo high fer me comfort zone. I always prefered good ol' fashoned stocks, or ETF's (of stocks), if I didn't have time ta devote ta me home werk, n' chartin' volume n' price every hour of the tradin' day. 10-4 Respectfully, JR
Commodities are generally simple to work with. The money is made in the longer term simply by figuring out whether the supply/demand is expected to go up or down. You can generally make a decent return simply by paying attention to the news. I usually look at precious metals as a hedge rather than an investment. Particularly silver and platinum because the reserves are so low. You might not make a lot of money on those, but they're sure to out-perform the interest on a savings account in the long haul. But in this particular case it's different. The market fundamentals have been out-of-whack in the silver market for the last 20 years because it was tampered with. But the mechanism through which the tampering was accomplished has come to an end and the correction that had to happen is now underway. That makes silver a pretty good investment in the short-term. Once the correction is finished, silver will revert to being a simple hedge.
The fundamentals are "relatively" straight forward on most commods. Not hardly... buy n' hold only gives ya inflation, n' the opportunity cost, storage costs, spoilage n' risks of theft et al... never make a good bet (buy n' hold), long term. Real money in commods is made readin' charts n' tradin' price n' volume. Readin' yer crystal ball about "fundamentals" doesn't make ya money speculatin' in commods, (as can be the case with stocks). Sorry facts are facts. Nope... buy the time somethin' is in the main stream news it is time ta go the opposite direction, (one aspect of the "odd lot theory" ya need ta learn about), before ya talk people into followin' ya n' loosin all their money. Ya REALLY don't know what yer talkin' about. That is the tradtional horse poop the "wire houses" preached ta generate commisions on storage et al. I used managed commod accts ta do the deal much better fer me truely wealthy clients. Fact is yer not preachin' a "hedge" at all here. Yer preachin' loadin' up trucks at very high prices. Not smart at all: IMHO. Horse poop. Clowns said that in 1980 in metals, 1987 in high risk stocks, 1999 in the dot bombs. When ya here the phrase "it's different this time" grab yer wallet. What a joke. Horse poop. Are you smokin' somethin' real strong? Do ya think I could get some? Is it sooooo strong whacky tabaceeeeee that it would kill my one reamaining functional brain cell? Yer cracked. Folks this is pure hooooooooey NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE. Please keep yer wallets n' do yer homewerk BEFORE speculating. Me vastly overpriced $02. JR
Horse poop. Do you understand that JP Morgan is short more silver contracts than there is physical silver in existence and that the only reason this sharade is allowed to go on is because the CFTC refuses to enforce position limits? Look it up. You are just being silly. Yes...any advice from you appears to be WAY overpriced.
*WAY* reduced. When we stopped making change out of silver (a tacit admission that our currency was thoroughly debased) back in '64, a dollar bill would buy (duh) 10 silver dimes. Today it would take $30 to purchase the same amount of silver. Even Keynesians can do the math on that one. Incidentally, the price of silver has climbed another buck and a half since Merc informed me that I "don't know what I'm talkin' about".
He's been trying to play the literal game, clinging to the word "worthless". He sure is a slick one. Nobody even noticed.
Ohhhhhhhh yer soooooooooooooooo smart aren't ya? Commodity prices of speculative metals always make wild moves prior to a parabolic peak. If ya say "silver is goin' up; load yer truck" yer gonna be part right 'til the peak is reached then people who followed yer cracked advice get porked with lots of spendy n' worthless chit they don't need that they bought near the peak price. N' commodity peaks are thirty year affairs..... so be for warned....... yikes..... Speculation is much better executed in a paper security that ya can unload real quick and very cheaply, (like fer $7.00 or some such) when the primary trend direction changes (as well happen at some point): Einstein. Speculation is dangerous, no matter how ya do it, butt: it is real dangerous if ya take physical delivery at near peak prices. Carry on GURU...... caveat emptor: THIS IS NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE. Jus' the musins' of a feller with only one functional brain cell. JR
