Dear Jim,
I really enjoy your Blog. On Friday the 3rd of February you wrote: “I recommend that you first buy one $1,000 face value bag of circulated (“junk”) pre-1965 dimes or quarters for each family member as your designated “barter” silver.”
How do you go about acquiring the junk silver? My local coin store guy just talks about grading…I can’t seem to get him on a silver to trade concept.
Do any of your advertisers deal in that type of silver? Can you recommend any other types of trade goods? Beads and sea shells are probably out even when the SHTF. I won’t trade ammo to strangers but booze is an option.
A short sea story on an older lady that was preparing for the Y2K disaster. She was a wise old lady who knew that if Y2K was a big deal that as an old lady she needed to be able to survive. She was a good friend of my mother so my mother took me to see her. The old Lady was proud of her collection of silver and how she was READY. But she was crestfallen when I asked her what she was going to eat if the time came. I said that I would be happy to trade her some leftover food for a bucket of silver after the Time. We had a great discussion of the value of metal vs. meals. The results were interesting. After she passed away her daughter showed me her mom’s home. One entire bedroom was now a pantry. Every can was dated. And the old stuff was in the front. The daughter was laughing as she pointed out the case of bourbon and scotch…her mom didn’t drink. My Mom and the daughter both cried when I pointed out the can of silver that she had collected. It had not gotten any bigger. I sure hope that her mom went peacefully and not worried but prepared. I did get a bottle of bourbon for my advice and did you know even cheap booze is smooth after 5 years. Thanks for your ideas.- Jerry T
JWR Replies: To get your local dealer’s cooperation, simply ask him point blank whether or not he can order $1,000 face value “junk” bags from his dealer network–yea or nay. If not, then find another local dealer. If there are no local sources, then you can always mail order bags or 100 ounce serialized bullion bars from any reputable firm like Swiss America or Camino Coin Company (phone 800-982-707 or e-mail Burt Blumert at burtblumert@comcast.net.)
James:
Great job on the blog site. I find lots of information on buying and holding silver, but cannot get a handle on where to invest money that is in a qualified plan to take advantage of the run-up in silver. Thank you for your blogging about gold. I invested money within said plan in a small basket of gold stocks and yesterday I was up 38 %, as of a few minutes ago I am still up 37.1%.
I think the jump will be four or five times greater in the short term for Silver. If the ETF becomes available then… wow. Do you have any thoughts on Silver investment options within a qualified plan? My plan is in a brokerage account at a major house. I plan to send you a Texas Silver coin as my part of the 10 Cent Challenge. Keep up the great work, it is appreciated – Clifford
JWR Replies: Within a qualified plan, your best best is to buy silver mining stocks or a mutual fund that heavily invests in stocks such as Coeur ‘d Alene Mines.