SilverStorm

👆 lol good luck with that. Trade in gold for fiat currency? Those guys are smoking some pretty good weed! 🤣

Unlike precious metals, you can’t independently verify the authenticity of a Goldback. You can’t use a XRF gun, Sigma or GVS machine to test. You literally have to trust the manufacturer that the amount of gold in the product is imbedded in the Goldback. You could do a fire assay, but then that defeats the purpose of getting the Goldback. Because I can’t independently verify the gold content, I would never stack Goldbacks. I might buy one just for the novelty, but I doubt anytime soon. Better to put limited cash resources to better use by buying physical gold that I can test and verify.

Are you able to copy and paste the article for us to see? It’s asking for a subscription, and I’m not exactly keen about doing that.

Whenever I buy bullion from my local online dealer, I always request BU condition, as well as specifying no scratches, dings, dents, or marks. It’s been good so far. It helps when I only buy current year mintage.

Nice pickup. With regards to the finger print smudges, have you tried baking sofa/hot water or acetone to remove it?

For those that don’t know, “The Bigger Picture” Bluenose is coin #1 of 6 in a subscription series. Mintage is capped at 1,300. Coins in the series cannot be purchased separately, subscription to the entire series is required. However you may cancel at any time. I’ve subscribed to the series, hoping to share actual pics of the Bluenose in mid-February as well as all of the subsequent coins when they are released. 😆

When you carry too much PMs through customs, you are just asking for trouble, regardless of whether the items in question was obtained legitimately or not. IMHO, the best way to transit gold through customs is via jewelry. Ring, necklace, or bracelet. Jewelry on a woman will not attract as much attention as the equivalent amount in coins or bars. Alternatively, be a rapper wannabe and dress like a thug with gold bling. If you get pulled over, tell the customs agent you’re an aspiring rapper and you’re trying to look the part. Then show them your YouTube rap videos. Should get you through customs (I think). 😝😆

Congrats on your purchase, @Oddjob. Yeah I saw the BN video going up on YouTube a couple of days ago. How’s the SML quality? Any issue with milk spotting?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the only two slabbed coin graders that should not be opened are slabs from NGC and PCGS (there may be others that I'm unaware of). Coins slabbed by these 2 companies "usually" keep their value or more if kept long enough. I'm not familiar with "UK Grade Evaluation Company" as shown in the picture. Personally if the coin came slabbed, I would just leave it as is. Why potentially risk scratching or damaging the coin if you don't need to physically hold it.

@theman73 to answer your question, the only way to know if your coins are real silver is if you test for it. The cheapest (and fairly accurate) way to test is to use The Pocket Pinger. It’s fairly cheap, and there’s lots of info on YouTube. I did a review on this, you can look it up if you’re interested. Note disclaimer: not to be used on numismatic coins as it may leave marks on the coins. If keeping your coin in pristine condition is important to you, this tool is not for you. Hope this helps.

I would also consider looking at the GVS Bullion Tester as another option over the Sigma. Nothing wrong with Sigma, it’s a good tool to use. I have the Mini Pro, works well. But I find the GVS magnetic scale to be a tad more reliable; I did a review on the GVS Bullion Tester, you can look it up and decide which is the better option for you.

I certainly hope gold does NOT double in price! If it did, I would be priced out of the market. Still need gold prices to be semi-affordable, as I haven't finished stacking yet! 🤪

Perhaps the next time you need to travel into NY City for shopping (or the nearest suburban area with a LCS), you could kill 2 birds with one stone. Good luck!

@Mattaphysics, I see you are located in NY. There must be lots of local coin shops or bullion dealers in NY who could help you verify your coins. You mentioned earlier that there are no LCS near you. Unfortunately, in order to determine if your coin set is genuine, you'll need to make the time and effort and go to a LCS. I understand if work, time commitments, etc. doesn't allow you to travel. But if finding the truth is important to you, you need to make the effort.

So what you're saying is that there is 10-20% possibility of being wrong and it could be fake. IMHO, I certainty don't like those odds if it was me!

You can only tell if something is real silver if you use testing methodologies to confirm authenticity.

Thx for posting this, exactly what I wanted to know. 👍

Nice of you to do this. I'm thinking of following in your footsteps. But in all honesty, a 1 oz silver coin may be too big of a tip for a haircut if my barber cuts my hair for $15 + $2-$3 tip lol.

I have a question that is slightly off topic, but sort of belongs in this thread. IF we get a SHTF scenario where the economy collapses, will bullion dealers and local coin shops (lcs) still operate? Let's consider a hypothetical situation where you need to liquidate 1 oz of gold to get fiat currency in order to buy food and pay your bills. Let's assume 1 oz of of gold = $1 million dollars (we have hyper inflation, similar to what Venezuela is undergoing). Would the bullion dealer or lcs be able to buy from you? Would they have sufficient fiat currency to complete the transaction? And what happens if the bullion dealer or lcs go out of business? How do you liquidate your gold then? I don't recall coming across an answer to any these questions. 🤨

It's interesting that this topic was posted, as I was looking to buy a 1 oz palladium maple leaf last week. Spoke with my bullion dealer and he told me that the Royal Canadian Mint doesn't make them anymore due to low demand. Demand for palladium has been more of a bandwagon type of thing (at least here in Canada), everybody piles on when someone pumps it and everyone gets the FOMO mentality.

I'm not buying PM to hedge against inflation, I believe there are better asset classes for that. If you buy PM, make sure you buy for the right reasons. For me, PM represents a diversification of investment risk. If my asset portfolio drops in value, I may be able to rely on PM to even out the losses. Also, having some physical PM helps me to prevent the debasement of fiat currency; as well, knowing that one day my PM can and will be able to put food on the table for my family or escape from my home country if the SHTF scenario (re: Lebanon, Turkey, Afghanistan, etc). I'm definitely not buying PM to get rich, and therefore I don't care whether or not it hedges against inflation. I buy PM to preserve my standard of living and/or pass it to the next generation when I pass away.

Thanks for posting this, quite amazing to see lost and forgotten gold treasures re-discovered! Certainly would be worthwhile to visit a museum (where ever it lands) to see this in person. Quick question if you know the answer, was the gold pelican pure gold, or was it gold plated? Just curious.

So I was browsing Kitco and I came across their 100 oz silver round poker set. So it seems you can indeed buy something like this, see link below. Buy 100 oz Silver Round Poker Set | Buy Silver Rounds | KITCO

Had a strange thought earlier today. Was thinking about playing poker and using silver bullion coins as poker chips lol. Wondering how many of you guys have actually thought or have done this. 😱😂

I posted awhile back where Britain shipped their gold to Canada for safekeeping. Possibly some of those sovereigns ended up there.