What's Your Silver Story?

[Junior]

What's Your Silver Story?

 

By: Jordan Graveline

 

Everyone who has a fascination with silver and gold (or any other precious metal), has a story of how that fascination came about. Maybe your father or grandfather had an old coin collection that you stumbled across as a child. Perhaps you grew up liking pirates and were obsessed with tales of buried treasure. Maybe your fascination began because of an attraction to some shiny family heirloom tucked away in an old dusty attic. Regardless of how your fascination materialized, we all have a story to share. My story comes in two parts that were separated by years and then came together like land and the edge of the sea.

The first part to my story takes place as a child of 9 or 10. I enjoyed going for walks to the convenience store with my grandmother after church. She would give me a dollar and tell me I could get a candy bar or two. I was always excited for our walks, not just because of the candy, but because I got to keep any change leftover. I would rummage through the change and try to find the oldest pennies or nickels in the bunch. My grandmother was born in 1920 and I was determined at my young age to find something that was older than her. It was like a game for me, but it was also history in the palm of my hand. Looking for the existence of something that had been around the longest and changed many hands over the years. One day, the game got very exciting when I found a dime in my change that was from the year 1940. I was very happy and I showed my grandmother that I was getting close to finding something older than her in my change. She smile at me and said I was only off by 20 years, but that was indeed as close as I had ever gotten at the time. This went on for years and I would typically keep the oldest pennies, nickels, and dimes. Little did I know at the time, but that 1940 dime was made of silver.

The second part to my story takes place when I was 24 years old. It's not as reminiscent as part one, but it's the connection between the two that sparked my interests. In my twenties, I enjoyed picking up friends in my car and heading out to our local coffee shop. There we would share in stories of how our week went, some political topics, or just funny things we thought the group would laugh at. On one particular day, I paid for my coffee and received 30 cents change which I promptly placed into my pocket without looking at it. A bit later when I got home, I pulled the changed from my pocket and realized the queen's head was not on the back of one of the coins. As I examined the coin, I found it had the same head as the old 1940 dime I had from my childhood. Curious, I went online to see what the value of the coin could be worth and I came across a few different responses. The first was in relation to the condition of the coin (numismatics). An uncirculated coin was worth $XXX.XX (I can't remember). That didn't matter though because the coin I had was clearly circulated and pretty heavily at that. So I looked at the melt value of my coin and found it's value to be worth approximately $1.80 Canadian at the time. I laughed to myself because the coffee I had bought that day was $1.70 CAD. I found it amusing to think that I had bought something valued at $1.70 and then I get back my change valued more than the product I had just paid for. 

The connection between the dime from my childhood and the quarter from my twenties is that these two coins were both made of silver. That connection sparked an interest which ignited a fire into the realm of silver. The rest, as they say, is history. So what's your silver story?

 

 

My grandmother on her 100th birthday

[CANV]

Nowhere near as glam as yours. .  Retired a while back but only just reached 55 so,in the uk I can access my pension. Lucky enough at the moment I don’t need it but obviously want to extract as much tax efficient cash out of it when I can.   What to do with it?   
Well I guess if you are into PM then gold. But I just love silver. 
sure physical PM is usually a terrible investment but I just like owning the stuff..  really developing an interest in the space of 2 months !

[Junior]

@CANV I sense a cliche coming so I might as well say it first, “If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it.”

That can be said of anything of course, but never has anyone ever said I own bread because I have a piece of paper that says I do. And yet, so many say the same about silver and gold. ETFs are paper. You don’t hold it, you don’t own it.

[Rashka]

Nothing too interesting for me, but I do come from a family where saving or investing is enouraged. It would mainly take the form of land in my culture or gold, but a pleb like me can't afford much of either xD so silver and crypto are main investments. Entering the work force a few years before I realised I cannot let my money sit in a bank and depreciate, especially with the economic instability around the world. People like me in the 18-30 age bracket can't look forward to a steady employment and pay until retirement so I will have to do what I can so I don't find myself 65 with barely anything to my name.

So bullion is a excellent way for me to hedge against inflation

[Richiesilver]

My parents were well travelled left over coin hoarders back in the day but just left them in a huge box for decades. Found them all as a teenager and made it a project to sort them. Ended up finding some silver 5/2/1 swiss francs, silver Austrian Schillings and some UK 50% silver bits. That was the start of my stack which then developed into bulk stacking silver, then gold, then full circle back to numismatics!

[Junior]

Stories can be the same for many, different for many. All that matters when it comes to precious metals is that you have some. Keep the silver stories coming. I love them all!

[StackemHigh]

Less VAT silver more VAT free GOLD

[Rashka]

4 hours ago, StackemHigh said:

Less VAT silver more VAT free GOLD

Yeah silver was a good entry point for me to start stacking, but it is way too costly with VAT and everything. Atleast we got Sovereigns for well priced fractional gold 😁

[DarkChameleon]

On 27/10/2021 at 08:01, Rashka said:

Nothing too interesting for me, but I do come from a family where saving or investing is enouraged. It would mainly take the form of land in my culture or gold, but a pleb like me can't afford much of either xD so silver and crypto are main investments. Entering the work force a few years before I realised I cannot let my money sit in a bank and depreciate, especially with the economic instability around the world. People like me in the 18-30 age bracket can't look forward to a steady employment and pay until retirement so I will have to do what I can so I don't find myself 65 with barely anything to my name.

So bullion is a excellent way for me to hedge against inflation

I started with gold for that same reason, working in the building trade you could work yourself silly 8 months of tge year then zero for the other four so feast and famine...I would save money but found I dint use it all so saved a chunk in gold and the rest in cash...it seemed to work,moving to silver in the states after emigrating...silver performed better for the last 15 years with highs and lows but it's that used to feast and famine that forced me to save in one form or the other.

[716metalmama]

New here, so this seemed like a good place to start! My dad always considered himself a numismatist, and showed me pieces from his collection starting at an early age. My first coin was the Colombian half dollar, 1892, which was the first US Commemorative coin. He’d always have me hold and spin on a table pieces of silver to “hear” and learn what silver sounds and feels like. In 1992, age 11, holding a 100 year old piece of history made of 90% silver sparked an interest that would go on forever. For the first 7 years, it was mostly collecting half dollars, dollar coins, silver pieces, silver Canadian pieces, bicentennial items and random world coins - all of which would be found in daily change. No actual cash spent. Those all occupied a velvet jewelry box. Then in 1999, at 18, he started my formal collection with the silver proof sets yearly until he passed away. He also helped to find the first of four first spouse gold liberty subset items. I bought it, was expensive, but absolutely love it. I’ve since purchased those silver sets every year since, and also completed the gold liberty subset, all OGP. The state quarters & then parks have such variety, love admiring them! The 2009 set in particular has so many trays, it’s like out of hand, love it. My son carries the metal spark that my dad and I had or have. His start was going through a tin full of loose change looking for the special items my dad would put in it. If found, he got to keep them. Special items would be mercury dime, silver quarter, steel penny, buffalo nickel, etc. At under 18, he already has a formal collection, focusing on classic proof sets prior to 1970, and new silver 1oz coins. We both love anything by the Perth Mint! I could go on for days about what our collections consist of, but this post is about origin, and covers a couple of generations. Looking forward to reading about more of your metal villain origin stories! 

[Centauri167]

No fancy story, I started buying it as a diversification of my portfolio ...

Because of the so high premiums, even on BU coins, I don't see silver as a hedge for inflation but that task is for gold.

I see silver as an investment and the joy of having the coins. At the end it is still a terrible investment but maybe one day ...

[Junior]

Just revisiting this post and the whole reason I wrote it in the first place. Happy birthday to the woman who indirectly lead me to my present day admiration of silver. My grandma is 101 (Dec24) and still going strong!

[Centauri167]

39 minutes ago, Junior said:

Just revisiting this post and the whole reason I wrote it in the first place. Happy birthday to the woman who indirectly lead me to my present day admiration of silver. My grandma is 101 (Dec24) and still going strong!

May she has many years to go, strong and healthy ! 

[CANV]

2 hours ago, Junior said:

Just revisiting this post and the whole reason I wrote it in the first place. Happy birthday to the woman who indirectly lead me to my present day admiration of silver. My grandma is 101 (Dec24) and still going strong!

well played.. but if your Grandmother is 101 ! then I don't think you can call yourself junior anymore. 😉  

[Junior]

On 01/01/2022 at 19:39, CANV said:

well played.. but if your Grandmother is 101 ! then I don't think you can call yourself junior anymore. 😉  

Grand Junior it is!

[saynow]

my story, 

actually i know about gold and silver from long time ago 

but dont have money to buy gold or silver !!!!!

recently i had some money so i buy silver bar

thats amazing i always greet myself on making this choice

i loved what i did so much 

even if silver didnt rise in price i will never regret doing this !!!

becoz it is old dream to me to get silver bar! but i couldnt do that!

they are so cute indeed!!!

 

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by saynow