Three Letters Re: Acquiring Pre-1965 Silver Coinage

Jim:
One of the easiest ways to quickly go through a roll of quarters, dimes, or halves, is to look at the coins edge on. If any do not have the copper color on the edge then it is probably silver. When you look at a clad coin, you’ll notice a bit of copper on the edge. Then take a look at a silver coin and you’ll see that it doesn’t have the copper color on the edge. This is how I quickly go through rolls of coins.
Enjoy, – KJ

JWR Replies: Thanks for reminding SurvivalBlog readers–especially those of the younger generation–who might not be familiar with that indicator. OBTW, many readers might also not be familiar with the 40% silver half dollars that were minted between 1965 and 1970. These coins are often still found in circulation. It is worth the time to ask for rolls of 50 cent pieces at banks, particularly in small towns. You can also occasionally find “War Nickels” minted between 1942 and 1945–back when there was strategic shortage of nickel. So the US Mint substituted 35% silver!

Dear JWR,
Thank you for publishing the letter of 11 August 2009 regarding pre-1965 silver coinage at retail establishments and your following comments. Our family was the victim of a residential burglary one year ago, at which tie we lost several firearms of practical utility and $2,000 face value of pre-1965 silver coins. (We were visiting family out West, and our own tools were used to cut open a hidden, hardened room. It was divine providence that our house was not destroyed by fire due to the efforts of the thieves.)

We live on the periphery of a small town in central Pennsylvania and until this time, receiving “junk-silver” as change has been al but nonexistent. Since the burglary, I have not only found silver quarters along the road during my morning runs, I have received several silver dimes as change from local merchants. It has been a standing joke that we are receiving our sliver as change. Perhaps there is more truth and less humor to this assertion.

We continue to pray for you, your wife and family. – Michael X.

Mr. Rawles,
JK’s article on acquiring pre-1965 silver coins. Isn’t taking a silver dollar or 50 cent piece from someone uneducated in it’s value the same as stealing? That, and when I read about someone picking up a firearm for a song because their owner doesn’t know the value, Boston T. Party’s comments [in Boston’s Gun Bible] comes to mind. Same thing as cheating someone out of money.
Sincerely, – MK

JWR Replies: The real “cheating” and the original crime happened back in 1964, when the government unconscionably replaced our sound silver currency with debased copper tokens that are just flashed with silver, to make them look somewhat real. Having two types of currency in circulation–one genuine, and one debased–doesn’t last long. (See: Gresham’s Law.) I estimate that 98% of the silver coinage was promptly and righteously pulled from circulation by the outraged public before the end of 1968. (The debasement prompted the coinage shortage that lasted for three years. during which the various US mints produced a mix of the new “clad” coins and some 90% silver coins.) OBTW, a similar coin shortage just occurred in Argentina, when the citizenry realized that coins would retain some value, while the paper currency would not.

When some of the genuine silver coins are found in bank rolls these days, it is cause for celebration. See, for example, the forum run by coin collectors that obtain rolls of coins from banks to painstakingly sort: Treasurenet’s Coin Roll Hunting Forum. These folks call themselves Coin Roll Hunters (CRHs). It is a fun hobby for someone with time on their hands, and good eyes.

If an adult of normal intelligence hands you pre-’65 silver coins for a transaction at face value, then the odds are quite high that they stole them from someone. If a child (or an idiot, or a recent immigrant) does so, then it might be out of ignorance. They deserve a lecture, and need to be sent home to apologize for raiding their family’s silver coin hoard without permission. So at the retail level–outside of banking, which is a special case since coins have passed through several hands before being sold to you in rolls–then you are correct. A sale’s clerk’s role should be that of educator, not a coin gleaner. The individual offering the coin(s) needs to be shown the error of their ways. (Either of their ignorance or more likely their penchant for larceny.) And, for good measure, the lecture should include a bit of history about The Great Clad Coin Scam of 1964. Oh, and by the way, we would not be faced with the ethical dilemma of taking pre-1965 silver coins from anyone at face value and substituting debased coins if it were not for the grand larceny committed by our elected representatives 45 years ago.

In retrospect, we should have had a revolt in this nation in 1964-1965, against the evildoers in Washington, DC who effectively robbed us, so thoroughly. They should have been tarred and feathered.

When inflation re-emerges in the next few years (as the FedGov monetizes its way out their current predicament), I expect commodities prices to start to gallop (in Dollar terms.) This will make some US coins–most notably nickels and pre-1982 pennies–worth far more than their face value. Once they get past four times their face value, the Generally Dumb Public (GDP) will catch on, and they will disappear from circulation. My advice to SurvivalBlog readers: Panic now, and beat the rush. See my static page: “Mass Inflation Ahead–Save Your Nickels!“, for details.

Economics and Investing:

Reader DD sent this piece about prospects for hyperinflation: A Pessimist or a Realist?

Also from DD: Why Ronald is Smiling

From A.W.: Billions in Bad Loans Still Threaten U.S. Banks

Items from The Economatrix:

BoE Pumps Another 50 Billion Pounds into Economy

BMW’s Profits Drop 76%

Clunkers Could Spark Auto Sales Crash Later On

Chrysler Schedules Factory Overtime on Clunkers Demand

Geithner Asks Congress to Boost Federal Debt Limit

Consumer, Celebrity Bankruptcies Skyrocket

Russian Economy Hitting “Dead End”

US Banks Still in Tight Straits Despite Profits

Japan Airlines Posts Net Loss of $1 Billion, Plans Cuts

The Future Made Simple (The Mogambo Guru)

Odds ‘n Sods:

Jim H. sent us this: Three-in-one oven could ease energy needs in developing world

   o o o

This thread over at the often-wacky Above Top Secret forum is a must read: An event at my grocery store. This describes the chaos caused by a minor power and data glitch that caused credit card and WIC payment terminals to go down. And then the store’s ATM (“cash machine”) went down… Keep in mind that this was just a brief interruption at one grocery store. Extrapolate from this small event for a more serious, widespread situation, where the power grids go down. “Katie, bar the door!”

   o o o

KAF forwarded this New York Times op-ed piece on the tomato blight: You Say Tomato, I Say Agricultural Disaster

   o o o

Doctors Say Hospital Surge Capacity has Worsened

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“When you’re safe at home you wish you were having an adventure;
when you’re having an adventure you wish you were safe at home.”
– Thornton Wilder

Note from JWR:

Don’t miss out on Safecastle’s current “Before the Fall” sale. At the core of the sale is a Mountain House three-case kit (18 of the big #10 size cans) that is a quick way to add a variety of high-quality freeze-dried foods to a food storage program. These cans have a shelf life of 30+ years. With a qualifying purchase of at least one of these kits, Safecastle offers four add-on packages at 33% off. As always, everything ships free to the lower 48 States. This offer is good for both Safecastle Royal buyer’s club members and non-members.

Letter Re: Surviving 90 Miles from the US — A Cuban-American Exile’s View

A brief background of myself. I am an Telecommunications Engineer, I served three years in the Cuban army as an Engineer in several units (it was mandatory unless you were integrated with the system, in which case you will get a better civilian job). After I served my time they did not want to release me (basically no one wants to stay unless you are willing to do their bidding) so they offered 2 years to a very harsh unit that stays in the mountains for months end ready to be sent anywhere, or stay for 20 years in very comfortable position as an Engineer, I sucked up the two years (30 months
actually) and then left and never again worked for the government, but I was walking a very fine line. I left the country illegally. They would never let me go, everybody needs permission to leave the country. This was more than 15 years ago and this is the first time that I have talked about it freely with someone outside my very close circle of family and friends. Please do not mention my surname.

The government controls everything, I mean everything, from health, to communications, from commerce to defense. When government controls everything there is absolutely nothing you can do. They determine what is legal and sometimes they let you get away with it, as long as you do not mess with the regime. They can take you to jail for anything because as I said everything is illegal. You cannot legally sell a house, only cars that were in the country before 1959 can be sold legally, [Owning a] DirecTV [satellite television receiver] is illegal. The list goes on and on.

In order to survive you must depend on the government or go black market. There is something called the Comite de Defensa de la Revolucion (CDR), basically is an organization at community block level that monitors everything that happens and reports to the government, it is completely volunteer, but it tells you how low citizens will go.

Electrical Power is obviously controlled by the government, and they impose restrictions so you will have times that power will come on for only a few hours a day, people have converters because generators are hard to get and even harder to get gas for them (it is expensive, a gallon goes for about 8 dollars a gallon last time I heard), to use the converter you hide in a room to watch some TV, have a fan for the heat and that’s it. You must try to hide, as much as you can, the things that you have, because you might get robbed. Being robbed at home is nothing new, you try to be as modest
as you can–otherwise you will become a target, by thieves or the government if you are getting too out of control.

Water is also government controlled, it does the same as with the electrical power, you can go days without water, so every house has water tanks to store water, even in buildings people will have water tanks in the bathroom. Drinking water always needs to be boiled.

People will raise pigs in a bathtub in the bathroom or if you are lucky to have a small backyard and someone to watch over it because it will be stolen. Pig will give meat and the fat you need to cook.

People that live in the countryside can raise animals and food, they can sell it under government supervision, they cannot become wealthy because government will intervene and accuse them of “exploiting” others.

It is illegal to kill a cow or a horse, as the government has a strict control. [If you slaughter one without prior approval and are caught,] you will serve the same time as if you killed a human being. People will slaughter a cow and dispose of it in two hours and “disappear” the remains by burning it with car tires because it burns very hot. And then you have to be careful how to transport [the meat] because they will have checkpoints. They can stop you anywhere, anytime for any reason and ask to search your vehicle.

You have to be extremely careful on who you trust, because they could be a government informer. (Did you see how our government is asking [their allies] to report when they see something “fishy” about [opposition to socialized] healthcare? That scares the h*** out of me.)

Not everyone can move to the countryside because the government controls that, they control movement within the country, you just can’t pick up your stuff and decide to move, so you have to make a living where you are. In the countryside you’ll have more food but they will cut electrical power more often. I used to install alarms (on my own, I refused to work for the government) for farmers that had pigs, pigs are raised in jail-like cages to avoid thievery, so I would install an alarm with battery backup because they had so much power shortages.

It goes without saying that [privately-owned] guns are illegal.

I just wanted to give an idea about how people live under a [total] government-controlled country. They will slowly take away your liberties and you will find out one day that you have nothing. And your fellow citizens will go as low as they can to survive. Government would threaten their family and force you to do what they say. This is always under the [mantle of] “we are doing it for the benefit of the majority, and only because we are in a crisis”, but there is always a crisis.

They will say that you do not want to work for the improvement of the country, that you are against your people, they will make things up, and suddenly you will become a pariah. Does it sound familiar “… these mobs against health care are destroying the democratic process…” Next it will be “they are organized by the enemies of democracy” and suddenly “we need to eliminate this threats to our democracy”.

Never think it cannot happen [here in the United States]. Sincerely, – Ignacio

Letter Re: The Virtues of Fasting Experience for Well-Rounded Preparedness

Greetings!

I have an idea that I have been wanting the patriot survival community to consider. Here it is:

Basically we are able to go without food for much longer than most people know. This is not true with water to be sure. A normal, reasonably healthy human body is easily capable of going three to six weeks on very, very little nutrition and remain completely mentally alert and even physically active. During a prolonged fast you will not be able to pick up as much furniture as normal but you may easily be able to walk for 100 miles!

The biggest concern with fasting is that it not begin too abruptly. Most trouble comes from toxic reactions not lack of nutrients. Its better to reduce junk foods, sweets, red meat and unnecessary drugs & medications before embarking on a serious fast. A series of single-day or two and three day fasts are rejuvenating like nothing imaginable! Juice fasts and broth fasts and even solid, bland diet (rice & red lentils) are intermediate steps. Health food stores often have written material on fasting techniques.

Fasting is very healthy and has an unmistakable spiritual side to it as well. It increases mental health and will power. It is an excellent occasion to practice prayer, meditation and all sorts of mental work. Benjamin Franklin, for one, extolled the virtues of keeping the mind full and the bowels empty. This is all in the preparatory phase while you are teaching yourself how to fast, how your body reacts, how your mind reacts, what to make of any “hunger pains” and in general learning that you don’t need to consume all you are accustomed to. Watch your will power grow!

Once you are “hardened off” and experienced in “coming closer to your own inner nature” (you now know how to consume your own substance without cutting off an arm or leg to try to keep the stomach full) you should wax serene in circumstances where others may easily fall prey to panic. In cases of stand off, siege, emergency or just plain prolonged lean rations you can totally, effortlessly and fearlessly rise above the circumstances.

I can tell you of how it has worked for me, in Hurricane Andrew for example, where people rioted or scuffled needlessly over ice. But I had not intended to write so much. I just wanted to get the idea across. Best Regards, – WL

JWR Replies: Those unaccustomed to fasting should first consult their doctor for a checkup. Your tolerance for fasting will vary greatly, depending on your diet, your body type (fat reserves), your blood sugar chemistry, and your activity level. Rather than water fasting–which can be debilitating and precipitate some acute health problems–I recommend occasional juice fasting, to maintain your electrolyte and blood sugar balance. My general advice is to build up to fasting gradually, while very carefully watching for adverse reactions, such as dizziness, confusion, or hallucinations. Even someone with regular fasting experience should never fast more than 36 hours while living alone. There must be someone there to watch for signs of distress or incipient syncope (fainting). Fasting can be beneficial, but as with anything else, when done to excess, it can be harmful.

Letter Re: Acquiring Pre-1965 Silver Coinage

Hello James,

I’ve been an avid reader of Survivalblog for two years now. I have also read and passed along “Patriots” when I bought it on Amazon, during the Book Bomb event in April. I also purchased the“Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course a couple of years ago. I’m prepping even as I’m typing this.

During this economic downturn starting in the last year or so, the corporation I work for has demanded no more overtime, cut back on the company match for our 401k, and since no one is buying anything, my sales commissions have gone to almost $0.

To try to make up for lost income, I got a part time job (24 or so hours per week) working at a liquor store behind the counter. This store is located in a more or less seedy part of town. We are surrounded by Section 8 housing, with a 7-11 [convenience store] next door. This location makes for quite a mix of customers. The store owner is of foreign origin, and does not distinguish the difference between a silver coin and a paper dollar.

In these times of rising unemployment, higher gas, food, and general living prices, our customers have resorted to digging in the sofa, robbing their child’s piggy bank, and got into the family stash of money. Some of this money is spent at the store in the form of junk silver coins. For an example, a woman came in with a fine condition silver dollar (worth $17.00 at the time), and 29 pennies to buy a 24 oz. [bottle of] beer. I immediately put a paper dollar in the register, and pocketed the coin. Since then, I have found pre-1965 quarters, dimes, and several wheat pennies. Just yesterday, a man came in and paid with three pre-1965 half dollars.

I just wanted to make people aware that there is a lot of junk sliver out there, and that people are starting to spend it. They either do not know the value of what they have, or they just don’t care.

If you are in the retail trade, keep your eyes open for silver coins. They have become unmistakable to me in my short time of looking. They make a totally different sound when they hit the counter, and they also “look” different. Not so much the shiny “new” coin look, but almost a dull silver finish. I will continue to collect the junk silver for as long as I’m working there.

Keep up the good work, and the writing. My prayers are with you and the Memsahib.

Regards, – JK in Colorado

JWR Replies: Readers should be advised that a large percentage of the silver coinage found in high crime areas has re-entered circulation because it is being spent by drug addicts that have conducted residential burglaries. Unless they are stupid enough to “spend” a numismatic coin that is still encapsulated in a serialized slab, stolen coins are essentially untraceable. Needless to say, retail merchants should avoid “fencing” stolen items.

Economics and Investing:

From Theo M.: Deficit grew by $181 billion in July

Chris H. flagged this: No Longer Jobless, But Still Struggling

Frequent contributor Karen H. kindly sent several items:

Fed Focusing on Real-Estate Recession “The collapse in commercial real estate is preventing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke from declaring the economy and financial markets are healed.” (JWR has predicted this for quite some time.)

Treasurers’ Fear of Next Credit Freeze Shown in Cash Hoarding “Cash is king,” said Paul Kasriel, the chief economist at Northern Trust Corp. in Chicago. “Businesses are in survival mode right now.”

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Inflation Calculator (see the upper right hand corner of their web page)

States End Up Losers in Gambling Pullback (one more reason we will all be seeing a tax increase)

Vacancies Suppress Southern California Recovery

Unemployment Among Teenagers Remains Stubbornly High

U.S. banks to make $38 Billion from overdraft fees

Krugman says world avoided second Great Depression “Still, recovery was likely to be “disappointing” as government spending wasn’t sustainable in the long-run and unemployment rate still lagging behind, he told a two-day world capital markets conference here.”

Odds ‘n Sods:

I was doing some research on sunspot cycles (whilst pondering whether it would be worthwhile to buy some more ham radio gear to work the 40 and 80 meter bands), and I stumbled across this web page from Finland: Timo Niroma: One possible explanation for the cyclicity in the Sun. Part 5 talks about possible climate change. It would be incredibly ironic if this new century were to be a Little Ice Age rather than the much-heralded Global Warming that Al Gore et al have been shouting about. Needless to say, the climate change jury is still out, and there are still huge unresolved differences of opinion. I believe that it is prudent to be ready for all eventualities, regardless. One contingency plan would be to develop the readiness and willingness to move thousands of miles, if there is a pronounced climate change in your lifetime.

   o o o

William C. sent me the link to this interesting page: Pedal Powered Generator.

   o o o

KAF spotted this in The Times Online: Food crisis could force wartime rations and vegetarian diet on Britons

   o o o

Our friend Tamara has some commentary on beneficent distribution of farm produce. For those who will be farming in the unfolding depression: Remember to grow an extra row for the gleaners. Charity is our duty!

Notes from JWR:

We’ve reached the milestone of 10 million unique visits for SurvivalBlog. When I first set up the blog visits counter in 2005, I thought that it would take a decade or two before we’d ever fill up all the places in an eight digit counter. My, was I wrong! Thanks for making this the world’s most popular blog on survival and preparedness topics. We get more traffic than all the smaller survival and preparedness blogs, combined. Please keep spreading the word. A link to SurvivalBlog in your blog or web page would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Today we present another entry for Round 24 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest.

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) and C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $345 value.)

Second Prize: A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $350.

Third Prize: A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing.

Round 24 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

This article might at first glance appear to be of no interest to non-hunters or even a bit off-topic for the blog. But consider this: The same mammalian physiology principles apply to both four-legged and two-legged lead recipients. And remember: The two-legged ones shoot back, so you’ll want to incapacitate your target as quickly as possible.

Terminal Ballistics for Big Game, by Old Dog

The following is based on over 25 years making a living as a licensed guide in Alaska and as a professional hunter in Africa. Between clients shooting game and cull hunts I have personally seen over 7,000 big game (250 lbs or more) animals die from gunshots. I have formed my opinions on terminal ballistics from this experience

The Biggest Myth that I hear is faster projectiles (Velocity) kills better than slow ones. As long as the projectile stays above supersonic it will kill big game effectively with a properly constructed bullet.

Second Biggest Myth is that more foot-pounds of energy = better killing/stopping power. Foot pounds of energy is just a mathematical figure and has very little to do with stopping or killing power.

Bullet diameters and bullet design has more to do with killing/stopping power than speed. The best hunting bullets are the ones that perform over the widest range of velocities, leave the largest permanent wound channel, will not brake apart when they hit heavy bone and will consistently exit the animal on a broadside shot.

On big game larger heavier bullets kill better than smaller faster ones.
At close range, a flat-nosed 540 grain bullet fired from a .45-70 at 1,550 FPS has far more stopping/ killing power than any of the .30, .338 or .375 magnum. But at the same time a projectile with a flat trajectories is easer to make good hits at longer ranges than the slow moving 540 grain slug from the .45-70.

Faster bullets do give better trajectory and extend the range we can make good hits at. A good hit with a smaller caliber is always better than a poor hit with a larger caliber

For consistent kills on big game, the larger caliber bullet the better and the heaviest bullet for a given caliber will have the best knock down power.

For the first third of my guiding career I thought that perfect bullet performance was to find the bullet in the hide on the far side. That way all the energy has been absorb by the animal. . Over the years I changed my opinion for the following reasons

1. Exit wounds leave a lot better blood trail.

2. Granted, most shots taken are broadside but if a bullet cannot punch through an animal with a broadside shot and exit the animal then it does not have enough penetration to go end to end on an animal. You do not always get broadside shots while hunting and rarely get a broadside shot on a charging or fleeing critter.

3. I want my bullets to be able to break heavy bone and continue to penetrate deeply afterwards.

4. I no longer believe that it is the energy that kills but the size of the wound channel.

There is no best bullet (or caliber) for hunting. Even the best designed bullet will occasionally fail to do the job it is intended to do, Poorly made or poorly designed bullets will conversely give spectacular killing results from time to time.

It is the trend that is important in bullets. From my point of view a half dozen cases of good or poor bullet performance is not much of a trend. Around a hundred is what I want to see. I once witnessed a Kudu (elk-sized African Antelope) shot at 40 yards with a .416 using a 400 grain swift a frame. The well placed bullet hit the Kudu broadside. It ran off and we had to track it for two days. The shot placement was good the cartridge and bullet excellent but it still failed. The same client shot a cape buff with all the same conditions/shot placement and the buff fell over dead with the one shot. The bullet exited after breaking the shoulder. Neither of these isolated cases proves anything.

All bullets are a compromise: No Spire point bullet will ever have as good of terminal ballistics as a flat meplat bullet and no flat nosed bullet has as good of arrow dynamics as a spire point.

The best killing and the best knock down bullets have a large flat nose with a sharp edge (large meplat). Elmer Keith and J.D. Jones have both promoted this concept with handgun bullets. The best example for a rifle is Randy Garrett’s 540 Grain .45-caliber bullet loaded in his .45-70+P ammo. Up close this round has more stopping power than conventional hunting bullets shot from the .458 Winchester Magnum. Now the Garrett 540 grain bullet is fantastic at close range but not what I would recommend for long range situations and it will not feed reliably in most bolt actions. Check out the Garrett ammo web site, read the data how his .45-70 ammo out-penetrates the .458 Winchester.

I have had clients make clean kills on big game using every thing from .223 to .50 but the best consistency for clean kills was with large [diameter] heavy projectiles. Most of my career I used one of three calibers: 308 Winchester, .375 H&H and .470 [Nitro Express]. For cull hunts and wolf hunting I used .308. Every 7.62mm diameter bullet can kill. Military ball [aka full metal jacket (FMJ)] was supplied for most cull hunts. Ball is the worst, but it works in a pinch. The best killing bullets I found in .308 caliber was the [Nosler] Fail Safe and Barnes X bullet. There other very good bullets but the Barnes and Fail Safe stand out in my mind.

For guiding in Alaska and for African plains game I used 375 H&H. The .375 diameter 300-grain Sierra is a wonderfully accurate bullet but at close range it comes apart and sheds it’s jacket fairly often so I do not recommend it for big Bear, Cape Buffalo, Hippo or Rhino. The Barnes, Nosler partition, Swift A-frame and Trophy Bonded are all wonderful .375 projectiles and usually hold together at close range. I would use any of the 4 and pick the one that shoots the best in your particular rifle.

I am not a fan of the .375 for Cape Buffalo, Hippo or Rhino. The .416 or .458 with the Barnes X or trophy bonded seems to be the most consistent killer at all ranges on the thick skinned game. A good .470 or .500 double rifle is best for the big stuff but not many can justify spending $10,000+ for a double rifle and at least $10 per round of ammo.

Enough of my rambling this is the bottom line. Shot Placement is the Single Most Important Factor.
For big game use the largest caliber with the heaviest bullet that you can shoot accurately. I would rather a client show up on a Grizzly hunt with a 30-06 that he can shoot well than a have him bring a .375 that he does not shoot accurately. Use premium hunting bullets–not target bullets–for big game. – Old Dog in Alaska