SilverStorm

On 09/03/2022 at 15:43, Roy said:

Personally, I think it's too early to sell.

I know folk have a plethora of reasons for listing coins for sale, and none of them are my business, but I think gold has a longer run to go yet.

When you look around at the *prices of everything and the fact your cash is losing its value rapidly, it surely makes sense to preserve your wealth, what little or lot you have.

I like to talk about retirement a lot (it's me age, lad) but you really need to think about it. Sucks to be a poor old man.

Does anyone agree with me? As I said, I understand people sometimes need to cash out, but taking cash profits in this economic climate seems foolish? Keep stacking.

 

* gas is $4 a gal in socal! 😲

 

IMHO, stacking PM is for wealth preservation.  You can't preserve your wealth if you liquidate it.  However, there will come a time to sell your PM for a reason (fund your retirement, medical/health care, investment, etc).  In this type of scenario, sell only what you need to get by.   

Wow I’m surprised to hear this.  Whelp, looks like Lawrence will be implementing stricter security measures.  Like you can’t even take a shitter without a security camera checking the💩 in the sewer pipes as it gets flushed down the toilet! 👀😆

On 11/03/2022 at 20:39, Junior said:

If you don't hold it, then you don't own it.

Hmmm. That explains why my wife can't keep her hands off me.

That’s a good problem to have! 😆

And this is why I don’t have any inclination of buying old bullion coins, because of perfect replicas as mentioned above.  I just don’t have the head knowledge (or time for that matter) to determine if a coin is authentic or not.  Current year bullion coin is good enough for me.  

You should buy branded bars that is popular in your area.  If you try to unload an unfamiliar or unpopular bar, you will have difficulty selling it (let alone getting a decent return on it). 

Caitlin, check the link below for more info. 
 

link: https://www.cascaderefining.com/real-or-fake

On 10/03/2022 at 12:29, LawrenceChard said:

 

Just this week, a customer returned a number of 999 silver bars to us.

She had informed us that they were giving an unusual reading on her Sigma testing machine.

We tested all the bars on our Niton XRF machine, which recorded perfect 999 readings on every bar, and we also tested each bar on both main sides, and in various places.

We were not surprised by any of this.

Before we acquired our XRF machine, we had discussion with Sheffield Assay Office, who also use XRF technology for some of their metal analysis work.

The most accurate method of analysing metal alloys remains the time-honoured fire or cupelation assay, but this is destuctive as it requires samples to be removed from the bars.

While all testing methods are subject to tolerance, and we have observed a small number of quirky results from our machine, it is almost certain that XRF analysis is more reliable than the methods used by Sigma machines.

At some stage in the future, we will obtain a Sigma, and do some of our own testing with it, but this will be mainly so that we can understand why they produce some false readings.

There are other topics / threads here on TSF which record unusual or unexpected results using Sigma machines, or similar technology.

 

No one testing method can be relied upon 100%.  I believe you agree with me on this point.  Even the Niton XRF gun has its limitations.  This is why everyone should use various testing methodologies to confirm the accuracy of their PM.  Unfortunately, it costs a lot of money get testing equipment, which may be out of reach for most people.

On 10/03/2022 at 07:03, TommyTwoShots said:

Hi all,

just a quick question to knowledgable folk;

I have a couple of 1895 half sovereigns. They both read just right of the sigma analyser brackets but inside at 90% gold. Is this normal? Has anyone seen this? 
 

Cheers

What Sigma machine did you use to test your sovereigns?   

Correct me if I'm wrong, but 1895 half sovereign is composed of 0.9167 gold purity.   I got the info from the link below.

Link: Half Sovereign 1895, Coin from United Kingdom - Online Coin Club

If you are testing the half sovereigns using "pure" gold function, then of course the reading will be outside the brackets.  Because the half sovereign is not pure gold.   Pure gold function on the Sigma tests for 999 or 9999 fine gold, which the half sovereign is not.   

If the reading for 90% gold is inside the brackets, then that means your half sovereigns are reading correctly.  

I do believe gold will increase in price, but $100K gold is definitely "no way".   At $100K gold, we are looking at the end of civilization as we know it, global SHTF scenario.   I would hate to imagine what cost of food, commodities, inflation, etc would be that justifies $100K gold price.  You will have the elite few surviving, and the rest of the world dying of starvation.  Be careful of what you wish for, it may give you what you want and take a large bite of your ass at the same time.

This is a more plausible scenario: I recently watched a Kitco News interview with Rick Rule.  In the video, Rick Rule stated that India could sell their gold to North America/rest of the world.  In return, India buys Russian gold at a discount because of the sanctions on Russia.  This becomes a win-win situation for everyone (i.e. in terms of global gold supply) - Russia unloads gold for Indian fiat currency or whatever they want to trade it for; India gets Russian gold at a discount because they know Russia is desperate and turns the screws on them; India sells their own gold (or Russian gold) at market price and makes a profit; America/rest of world gets alternative gold supply that is lost from Russian trade sanctions.   I'm not saying this is the way it will play out, just a possible scenario.   If this scenario is plausible and doable, gold price should not skyrocket due to supply issues; it would only increase due to geo-political issues and inflation, just to name a few.  My 2 cents.

I'm not against 1/10 oz size coins, but I do prefer the standard 1oz variety.   Currently I'm nearing my limit on buying the 1oz, due to the sharp increase in spot price.  If spot price continues to sky rocket, I will scale down my purchase to either half oz or 1/4 oz.  

I’ve only bought 24 carat, as the Canadian gold maple leaf only comes in four nines fine. Not against 22 carat, but given the choice between the two, it will be 24 carat all day, every day.  

On 19/06/2021 at 06:55, LawrenceChard said:

Hmmm!

As I expected once I started reading it, there was no total weight quoted, not any mention of the premium. Not very customer friendly.

Why obscure this important information? The usual reason is the seller does not want the buyer to know.

I put the figures into my scratchpad spreadsheet:

Qty	Each	Sub-Total
10	0.125	1.25
10	0.25	2.5
5	0.5	2.5
5	1	5
30	Total	11.25
	$p per gram	56.724
	Intrinsic	638.145
	Price	975
	Ratio	1.52786592
	Premium	52.7865923

So, total weight 11.25 grams (0.36169562 troy ounces).

...and a whopping great 52.79% premium! Now wonder Noble Mint kept quiet about it.

Thats a rip-off premium and price for suckers, IMO.

Sure it might make money, but it's not for us! 🙂

@ChardsCoinandBullionDealer

Here’s a thought…why not create a custom “Chards Prepper Pack,” that is ethically priced and sourced.  I think you’ll do quite well.  😆

52 minutes ago, Zhorro said:

But put yourself in their position, in an era when you didn't have banks, or safes, and your house was probably not very secure, how to you protect your gold/silver?  Burying your coins (maybe under your property) is one way of protecting them.  So, rather than prepping, or a sign of an emergency, burying one's wealth may have been a natural thing to do (for the rich). 

Yes that's definitely possible too.

I was browsing on MSN and came upon this article about ancient treasures and artifacts.   Here's one interesting fact...ancient people prepped for emergencies, just like we do today.   It's definitely interesting to see how ancient people view gold as a storage of wealth.

Link: Incredible treasures found during construction work (msn.com)

Pot of Gold
Workers demolishing the abandoned Cressoni Theatre in Como, near Milan in Italy, stumbled across a literal pot of gold when they found a soapstone amphora of 300 coins dating back to the Roman imperial era in 2018. The coins were stacked in rolls and coin expert Maria Grazia Facchinetti said that whoever placed the jar there had "buried it in such a way that in case of danger they could go and retrieve it". The coins date back to 474 AD.

For me, the most prized silver is the 1oz Asahi  silver bar.  It’s the very first precious metal I bought that got me started on the journey of PM acquisition.  So it’s mainly because of sentimental reason.

3 hours ago, Darr3nG said:

Dropped again, but I'm tempted to double-down... 

if you believe there will be a major correction in the stock market, might be best to wait for the stock to tank a bit more before buying.   It’s likely possible given the stock market’s jitteriness over the possible invasion of Ukraine by Russia. 

In a SHTF scenario, we can all crash at @HillWalkerDundee.      I'll bring the beer!   

IMHO...if you're low on cash, make sure you have all of your life expenses/necessities taken care of first, like rent or mortgage, health care premiums, utilities, etc.   Then save enough cash for minimum of 3 months living expenses before thinking of getting into precious metals.   The worst scenario is you buy silver/gold, but then are forced to sell it at a loss because you have cash flow problems and need to make ends meet.

Everyone who buys metals makes their choice based on their specific needs or circumstances.  Nothing wrong with that.  As for me, I'm stacking gold for SHTF scenario as well as wealth preservation.  It's easier to move and take with you when you have to bug out of your home/city/country to a safer place to live (assuming there is one).

4 hours ago, Bigmarc said:

It would have to be the old type of £20s, not sure you could even do that with the cash they supply now.

And when the central banks come out with CBDC, we can all digitally wipe our arse!    Oops, still got clinging poop!  roflmao! 

35 minutes ago, SilverPlatinum said:

This 2022 one is very beautiful, it sold out at the Royal Canadian Mint before it become available to the public! I wrote a complaint letter to the Mint director then I had to drive to the Mint to pick the 1 ounce and the 5 ounce versions.

Thanks @SilverPlatinum.  The ironic part is that I had order this from a US online dealer and have it shipped back up to Canada!   If it wasn't for the fact that it was NGC slabbed, I would have totally skipped it.

28 minutes ago, paulmerton said:

"a nominal metal weight of 30.76 grams" seems unusual for something that's labelled as a 1oz coin?

Unfortunately the left hand (mint) doesn't know what the right hand (printing dept) is doing.  Screw ups like this will happen. 

1 hour ago, daca said:

you.re missing the 1g coin, ran out of money? 

I decided to skip the 1 g as there wasn’t a capsule that fits it (at least that I know of).  And I also already have the Maplegram, which comes in 25 x 1 g coins.   

Recently picked up the entire 2022 fractional GML set.  From left to right: one tenth, one quarter, one half, and 1 oz 2022 Canadian GML.   Enjoy!

I buy from reputable online bullion dealers, so no issues with fakes.  Also I typically  purchase current year mintage bullion, so the likelihood of fakes is greatly reduced because they are BU straight from the bullion wholesaler or the Royal Canadian Mint.  And since I have testing equipment, I always independently verify all my purchases to confirm authenticity.