[rogerhb]

Has nobody heard of hyperinflation to avoid paying debts?

Has nobody heard of barter?

[charperus]

Utopia,
KITCO (www.kitco.ca) has an office in Montreal,Quebec:
620 Cathcart,Suite 900
Montreal,Quebec H3B 1M1
Toll Free:1-800-363-7053
Fax:(514) 875-6484
KITCO's web-site does allow you to order ON-LINE also ; better call them up.

[dbarberic]

This is just a thought, take it how you wish.
I've read that for asset preservation purposes one should stay away from silver. The rational is, unlike gold, silver is heavily used in manufacturing. In an economic colapse, or deep recession/depression, the industrial demand for silver will fall significantly driving excess silver supply on the market thus lowering its value.
You might be better off with small pieces of gold (i.e. 1/10 Maple Leafs, etc.)

[gt1370a]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dbarberic', 'T')his is just a thought, take it how you wish.
I've read that for asset preservation purposes one should stay away from silver. The rational is, unlike gold, silver is heavily used in manufacturing. In an economic colapse, or deep recession/depression, the industrial demand for silver will fall significantly driving excess silver supply on the market thus lowering its value.
You might be better off with small pieces of gold (i.e. 1/10 Maple Leafs, etc.)

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rogerhb', 'H')as nobody heard of hyperinflation to avoid paying debts?

[Dukat_Reloaded]

Hi, I recommend you to buy 1Kg bars of silver. Silver is cheap and you don't want to waste your money on small coins, get big blocks. Different story with gold, I prefer them in coins, for example 1-2 gold coins = 1kg of silver.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zentric', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('marko', 'H')owever, Bob Cousins has made me reconsider my plan to buy junk silver. I had been thinking of these coins as a means of exchange after the dollar becomes worthless, but I think that Bob is probably right that we have mostly lost the culture of using precious metals as means of exchange.

[Zentric]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'D')o you think that gold and silver would be confiscated by govt. in the US, in an attempt to shore up the fiat currency, domestically?

[thuja]

Silver can be purchased in one ounce rounds/coins or in larger weight bars. The reason for buying the bars is that there is asmaller markup from the "spot" price. However, you need to assess what you are going to do with your silver. If you see this as an investment that you want to cash in as inflation takes over and precious metals go up in price over the next few years, you would do better to buy bars.
Silver undoubtedly will go up in the short term (the next five years). If however, you want to keep your money in something that will survive once the whole system crashes (5-15 years?), silver coins might be a better idea. People who buy in coins are generally buying for survival purposes. They believe that paper based currency will crash to next to zero and only people holding precious metals (and other reality based goods such as lands, lumber, food, etc.) will have something of worth. Survivalists belive that we will revert to a barter and precious metals based economy.
If this is the case, then it could be awfully difficult for you to go out and trade your 100 oz silver bar for something. (I'll take 400 loaves of bread, three hundred fish and that windmill over there please). Furthermore, silver bars can be counterfeited (lead in the middle) and some people may be wary of the true worth of your bar in this post-industrial collapse scenario. On the other hand, nice silver rounds with their troy ounce measurement printed in english (if you are from an english speaking country) may have measureable and useable value. Of course, you can still trade in your coins for cash pre-collapse but you will have to pay a percent decrease from the spot (up to 10 % for coins vs. up to 5% for bars) when you sell.
My recomendation is if you are buying in small amounts (up to 5,000 $), go for coins- its a good bet for post collapse and they will still be redeemable at quite a markup even if we have a soft landing. If you are spending large amounts, do a mixture of mostly bars with some coins. You can always trade in your bars for coins if you think the is really about to htf.
Furthermore, I disagree with others about the merits of gold vs. silver. I believe silver is highly undervalued as gold is worth about 60 times more than silver right now. Traditionally gold used to be worth only between 12 and 16 times the value of silver. Furthermore, silver has industrial uses in the short term and is actually more rare than gold. So good luck with your decision making.

[Jenab]

The government might confiscate precious metals again, so...

Hi' yo' silver...away!

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jenab', 'T')he government might confiscate precious metals again, so...
Hi' yo' silver...away!

[Dukat_Reloaded]

$5000 worth of silver coins? That is 20kg. Seriously use silver bars as a inflation hedge for now as silver supplies are almost out, they'll increase alot in the near short term in dollar value. Many industries will buy your silver bars and pay you a premium for them rather than old silver dimes that have to be re-smelted down and refined again because they are only 90% silver. I really think you'd be better off with small gold coins rather than silver if you believe you'll need them to barter with. If I was a seller of bread and there were 2 customers and 1 loaf of bread, I'd sell to the person who had gold before I would sell to the silver man.

[dbarberic]

If your looking for an inflation hedge, then check out EverBank: http://www.everbank.com
Look under the link "curriences". They have multi-currency CDs, savings, and checking accounts, etc. All of them have different minimum investment amounts. I'm strongly considering their Multi Currency Prudent Central Bank Index CD.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')rudent Central Bank CD—Looking for Central Banks that don't take inflation lightly? Take the diversified approach with the FDIC-insured^ Prudent Central Bank CD. This CD is designed to seek higher yields and potential capital gains from currencies that are backed by strong, inflation-fighting Central Banks. By maintaining inflation fighters, the currencies associated with these countries should remain in favor. Includes the Australian Dollar, the New Zealand Dollar, the Euro, and the British Pound.

[thuja]

One simple answer to silver coins over gold coins is that 1/10 of an ounce right now is worth a little less than 50 dollars. One silver coin is worth a little less than 8. Assuming that your coins keep up with possible hypereinflation (or hopefully beat it), you would want the smallest denomination possible for exchanging for goods.

[richardmmm]

small silver is a pain because it tarnishes, it is not like gold, it will go all black and oxidised after a while. of course that also means you are loosing small amounts of weight as the oxide forms.
100oz is only $750, so you want to buy large bars.
But really right now it not the time to be taking delivery.

If you want to protect against bad inflation and depression etc. then just by some from Kitco and have them hold it. You can buy from many different places and if you do the research right without storage fees.
Once you see things are getting a bit messy then you can always take physical delivery and if times improve then you can always sell it, without so many fees and costs of actually getting the metal delivered.

It could be that everything pans out smooth, you always have to remember that it is much better to lose your opinion not your money.
If silver crashes back to $4oz as a wave of nano tech and robotics takes hold of the stock market and a new boom insues, you'll be feeling pretty dumb, with your blackened silver coins that have halved in value.

I also believe that there might be a hyper inflation situation at some point and the paper money situation can fall apart, however it would be better at this stage of the game just to hold contracts, futures, EFTs, or physical with a broker. Getting it delivered is not going to be a problem once you already own it, provided you keep abreast of current affairs.

[GoIllini]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dukat', '$')5000 worth of silver coins? That is 20kg. Seriously use silver bars as a inflation hedge for now as silver supplies are almost out, they'll increase alot in the near short term in dollar value. Many industries will buy your silver bars and pay you a premium for them rather than old silver dimes that have to be re-smelted down and refined again because they are only 90% silver. I really think you'd be better off with small gold coins rather than silver if you believe you'll need them to barter with. If I was a seller of bread and there were 2 customers and 1 loaf of bread, I'd sell to the person who had gold before I would sell to the silver man.

[pattyflip]

What about silver jewellery. Is it just junk or is it also a good investment.
What is the intrinsic value or silver content of common silver jewellery.

[jdumars]

I have a nagging question that has yet to be satisfactorally answered. While it seems smart to invest one's current dollars into future commodities (gold, silver, firearms, salt, etc.), it doesn't address what I see as the most unavoidable future dollar expense -- property taxes. In about 6 months, our land will be completely paid off and ready to live on. We've built the treehouse, have all we need to live on there including ample seeds, firearms, ammunition, spare lumber, a large Alder lot, berry bushes, apple tree, etc. But what do we do in say 10 years when it comes time to pay the property taxes to the county? They are not going to accept silver coins, gold or .22LR ammo. They are going to demand US currency. This means we have to have a very large stash of potentially useless currency on hand indefinitely. Unlike some of my fellow doomers, I think the government will be one of the very last systems to fail. I am expecting taxation to be a lingering and potentially disasterous liability. How are others addressing this? Mind you, this is not a theoretical exercise; it is a very real world concern for my wife and I right now. Where we plan to live (wilderness), there aren't going to be places to exchange silver or gold for the "spot price" and I imagine this will be true for many other locales where peakers are choosing to ride out the oil/financial/political storm. I'd love to hear suggestions on this -- and not avoidance of the taxes either. I want to stay completely off the legal radar! My biggest fear isn't a bunch of torch-wielding looters... it's the county sherrif with a warrant collecting on back taxes.

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jdumars', 'B')ut what do we do in say 10 years when it comes time to pay the property taxes to the county? They are not going to accept silver coins, gold or .22LR ammo. They are going to demand US currency.

[TnAndy]

Actually, Roger, that isn't true.
What the Constitution says is a couple of things.....
First, Congress has the power to "coin money and determine the value thereof".......in theory, and in practice, CONgress could "coin" money out of paper....and has even BEFORE they turned over their constitutionally manadated responsibility to an unconstitutional private banking organization, the "Federal" ( it ain't ) Reserve.
The next thing the Constitution says is "No State shall make any Thing but gold or silver tender in payment of debt"......

That means the STATES cannot constitutionally pay THEIR debts in anything but gold or silver. I've often wondered WHY someone with a state debt ( such as a state job or retirement, or some vendor that sold something to a State ) doesn't press this quite clear constitutional issue and refuse to accept a paper check for Fed Reserve Notes.
But it doesn't say "I" can't pay the State ( or more properly, the county which is where property taxes generally orignate ) in paper IF they are so stupid as to take it.

But to the issue of property taxes......THAT is one reason I personally have a pile of US silver coins....junk silver.....
1. I think they will be quite exchangable for FRNs ( Fed Reserve Notes ) no matter WHERE you live as long as UPS or any such service is availiable. I bought mine from a place in California for mid 3k per bag ( $1000 face amount ) and the SAME PLACE is quite willing to buy them back right now for low 5k range......and when silver hits it's own in the not too distance future, I can see that bag being worth 20-50K FRN....THAT will pay a LOT of property taxes, man.
2. SHOULD the bottom fall plumb out of silver ( which as long as there is ANY industrial process going on, isn't going to happen...do some reading up on silver.....the above ground stocks are nearly GONE..... ), they are STILL US coin worth $1000......IF you want to play this both ways, buy 40% Kennedy halves......right now they are about 2k for a $1000 face.....you can still ride the silver rocket when it goes, and only have a 1000FRN downside if the world craps totally out.