Gold & Silver Q & A

[Zynox]

Many people are interested in asking questions and receiving concise and detailed answers on gold, silver and precious metals. Michael's ECONOMIC ADVISORIES post has become over run with these legitimate and genuine attempts to gain answers, but it detracts from the intended content of Michael's thread.

Please feel free to ask any question and I will do my best to answer it directly or lead folks to readily available sources for further research.

Please be advised that I am not any form of a professional or paid investment adviser and each individual reading or posting questions or answers is responsible for their own investment decisions.

I believe as stated in many other posts that gold, silver and many other precious metals will serve as an important tool to transition from this day to tomorrow, from the current chaotic environment to a more harmonious future for all.

Welcome. I will gladly field questions at any level of understanding and respectfully request that all posters to this thread respond in compassion, everyone comes here with different levels of understanding and perceptions.

I do not speak for Michael, we speak in agreement.


Namaste!

Got Gold?

[GodLover]

I asked Michael this question, but I'll repost it here:

If the fed makes it illegal to hold physical gold, would they simply snatch it away from people or would they pay for it to the individuals in return?

Also, how would they how much gold someone holds?

As posted in an earlier thread, I had asked:

If the spot price is around 12 dollars, why are american eagle silver coins selling for $30? Should I buy silver/gold online or from local dealers?

Thank You

[Zynox]

Question most often asked - How do I buy it?

I may only inform based upon my observations in US, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica and Peru. I do not know all related laws and regulations of any of these countries, even the US.

My highest recommendation is that people become involved and engaged locally. All major and moderate population zones have both gold / coin / jewelry merchants and local coin clubs and shows.

Going to these sources provides human contact and establishes new network connections while supporting a local economy.


Other Sources:

Reference local phone book or internet search for Coin Shows, Coin Clubs, Gold Dealers, Jewelry Stores. For those that are not aware of the exact match feature in Google, try a search using the specific phrases required separated in quote marks to return more specific searches. An example like "Gold Show" "Nebraska" should limit the results to weed through.

Direct links to US coin show schedules include:

www.coinshows.com
www.coinresource.com/coinshows/index.asp


Online Dealers:

Be cautious and research each online retailer. There is very little control over how long a website retailer will require to ship the purchase after your funds are received. When dealing with these retailers I recommend a physical phone call be placed and specifically attempt to receive a delivery commitment. There are no guarantees, especially as inventories are depleted from high demand.

I will NOT provide specific recommendations to any websites. I will state I have successfully, and satisfactorily purchased metals online, but under different circumstances in the past.

Those with experience with eBay may find it the most competitive pricing available, second only to finding a good local metals dealer.

Many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia and others have Mint websites where gold, silver and sometimes platinum and palladium may be purchased directly. Use web search engines to locate these. Recently, the US Mint has suspended sale of silver and stated the cause as absence of sufficient coin "blanks" used to fabricate the final coins.

Namaste!

__________________________________________________ _______________________________
Please be advised that I am not any form of a professional or paid investment adviser and each individual reading or posting questions or answers is responsible for their own investment decisions.

[Rocky_Shorz]

Yesterday I took advice of a few on this forum, went down to a local coin shop and bought a few thousand $s worth of silver coins, poor condition so bought them at metal value... $10.42 an ounce.

it's up over $12. now in after market trading...

Does anyone know how long this rise will last?

[Rocky_Shorz]

Originally Posted by Contactee77

You haven't seen ANYTHING YET !!!!
The problem will be " where to get PHYSICAL BULLION "
Demand is skyrocketing and the supplies are very very limited right now.

It jumped 15.5 % in one day...

[TAXMASTER]

gold & silver are typically cyclical in nature. the price bottoms out in the summer and posts its lowest levels in the year in late august/early september. now is the best time to buy. it should be strong for the next 8-9 months, maybe more. you got to realize that it will jump up then pull back some before it jumps again. most people do not understand the markets and sell off when the price goes down and then the price jumps up again. i trade in gold and silver futures.

[Zynox]

Confiscation Questions

The exact histories and details of confiscation in Germany and the United States are available online.

http://mises.org/story/3056 ((The Great Gold Robbery of 1933 - US))

"It's been 75 years since the federal government, on the spurious grounds of fighting the Great Depression, ordered the confiscation of all monetary gold from Americans, permitting trivial amounts for ornamental or industrial use."

"A key piece of legislation in this story is the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, which Congress passed on March 9 without having read it and after only the most trivial debate. House Minority Leader Bertrand H. Snell (R-NY) generously conceded that it was "entirely out of the ordinary" to pass legislation that "is not even in print at the time it is offered." Sound like the UnPatriot Act?

I am not able to predict what might transpire in this meltdown, and we are in a fiscal meltdown, globally. Stories I have read about the past 1933 US confiscation was that it was much like with taxes, the program was intended to achieve voluntary compliance through law, threat and fear. I suspect many chose to decline to comply. Each holder of sovereign wealth would need to make their own sovereign decision should they be 'requested' to turn in their metals. Not everyone pays taxes in the US now, especially major corporations, or so I have read recently.

In 1933, the government traded paper dollars at the rate of approximately $21 per gold ounce and then rewrote the government fixed price shorty after to $35 per gold ounce. Sound like a wealth transfer?

"The day after the passage of the Act, President Roosevelt fixed the weight of the Dollar at 15.715 grains of Gold "nine-tenths fine". The Dollar was thereby devalued from $20.67 to one troy ounce of Gold to $35.00 to one troy ounce of Gold - or by 69.3 percent." from:

http://www.the-privateer.com/gold2.html

Namaste!

"Gold can be used in a way that restrains the growth of tyranny, and which thus dramatically improves human well-being."

Glen Allport, from: The Meaning and Value of Gold (( http://www.strike-the-root.com/82/allport/allport2.html ))

__________________________________________________ _______________________________
Please be advised that I am not any form of a professional or paid investment adviser and each individual reading or posting questions or answers is responsible for their own investment decisions.

[Rocky_Shorz]

TaxMaster,

How easy is it to buy large quantities of real silver, not paper?

Did you have an Epic Day today in Gold sales?

.

Gold, silver, dollars, yen, oil, land, water!!

It really shouldn't matter, what makes having more of one commodity than another make you more important!!

money is a big problem, in my eyes the biggest problem in todays society. We shouldnt go down the path of who has what

we should all be in htis together and dont feed into greed

[Rocky_Shorz]

FDIC passed the point today...

Those of us looking at Silver understand we can't walk around with buckets of oil to trade for food...

[Zynox]

Should I Trust Banks or Buy Gold Questions
(Originally posted elsewhere as: Practical Economic and Banking Considerations)

General philosophy for this post:

If you disagree with the agenda and intent of financial institutions, the source of funding for corporations, governments and associated military enforcers, then you have your individual power to limit your participation and culpability. Currently, the system is structured that an employer issues the individual credits, which generally get transfered to a fiscal institution. The fiscal institution is then authorized to loan or extend these credits to borrowers at a leveraged amount of approximately 900% or 9 to 1. The borrow repays the loan, which was vaporware credits to begin with, and for awhile, all seems well in delusion land. Eventually, every faux / fiat / paper currency known in avaialble history has failed, and we are front row center to further failures - NOW.

There are general rules that are followed within the structured game, which I believe, are mostly in place to keep lower echelon participants in the game from behaving anarchically, like their masters do. In other words, the game has rules to keep the enforcers of the game in line, as it wouldn't be profitable to the controllers to have their enforces get any ideas about climbing to the top of the pyramid. The rules get rewritten or suspended dynamically, as found convenient - this is happening right now, and since August 2007, related to the meltdown (whether the meltdown is being orchestrated or they have lost control, I am open on this point).

Practical Points for Sovereign Individuals

• Retain balances in checking accounts only, with enough to fund immediate payment of bills. This would be from 2 to 6 weeks worth of expenses, subject to the desire of the individual. By using only a checking account, the fiscal institution is usually unable to leverage the 900% rule, as they are generally defined as demand accounts. This is why fiscal institutions lead people towards savings accounts and CD accounts.

• Convert all remaining funds / wealth into whatever mechanism or vehicle you believe will be of worth in the future. This might be gold, silver, cash, alcohol, cigarettes, chocolate, ammunition, land, food, materials, tools, art, etc. I am not supporting any of these particular items beyond gold, silver and a limited amount of physical cash currency. I do not support armed conflict in any fashion but respect every individual's sovereign right to choose any path.

• Where possible, based on employment, savings and opportunity, retain physical possession of enough resource (gold / silver / cash or the other items) to ensure flexibility and mobility. In times of change, appreciable peace of mind may be found in having options, such as paying a neighbor to drive you out of a major city (insane asylum) or to exchange some of your alcohol for some of their food. No one will be much interested in taking a check or credit card when systems seize up.

• Finally, it seems that few understand that nearly any stock, bond, treasury, 401k, title to a home, title to property or other paper based certificate of ownership has NO genuine assured value, AT ALL. I believe the 401k programs were promoted to absorb the 'excess' worker's and middle level investor's wealth and provide the mentioned leveraging by fiscal institutions. It wasn't in the controller's interests to allow any savvy investors to physically extract any of the gains realized from jackpot plays in tech stock or real estate bubbles. Thus, due to the tax penalties for removing money (credits) from the accounts, few folks extracted any wealth (but many 'borrowed' against it). Few also seem to be aware that (this is FACT) banks have been opening folks safe deposit boxes, most 401k plans have limitations on withdraw now (some require three years for 100% extraction) and the delay to remove funds from 401k plans are frequently 4, 6, 8 or more weeks.

Namaste!

__________________________________________________ _______________________________
Please be advised that I am not any form of a professional or paid investment adviser and each individual reading or posting questions or answers is responsible for their own investment decisions.

[GregorArturo]

My parents have a half mil in the stock and bond market right now. They're pretty confident it's safe and secure. I've been trying to convince to at least invest in $10k worth of gold and silver and store it at our house. How should I go about actually convincing them in my rational? Any valuable resources that my do the trick? I've basically been lecturing them, printing out news articles, and reminding them daily about the economy and what exactly happened today; like how the DOW has crashed over a 1000 points this week, and financial companies are doing bad, and gold/silver/mining companies are doing good, along with gold is going up.

[Zynox]

Originally Posted by abe22

Gold, silver, dollars, yen, oil, land, water!!

It really shouldn't matter, what makes having more of one commodity than another make you more important!!

money is a big problem, in my eyes the biggest problem in todays society. We shouldnt go down the path of who has what

we should all be in htis together and dont feed into greed

Abe22,

My preference would be to coexist and co-create among folks that had prudently, and responsibly, taken care of their economic considerations. This way, instead of long sour faces of folks that had just experienced their life savings being transfered to a fiscal beast feeding the greed, folks could move forward to, well, coexisting and co-creating.

From another post I wrote (Would it make sense to avoid using a bank?)

Gold, Silver and other storage and exchange formats of 'wealth' will not, by themselves, taste good, keep one warm or provide basic survival sustenance.

That stated, a review of history reveals that since time recorded, or at least the recordings we have access to, precious metals have been the vehicle that stored wealth was mutually agreed upon, and it is also the mechanism of juice that was used in exchange as communities (and kingdoms) re-established after upheaval transitions. I haven't found any evidence that this has not always been the case, but, sure, it could be different this time, though I doubt it.

Look at modest and distributed precious metals as one of the tools and resources to get from here, to there ... also, if only the elite held precious metals, whom do you think would be 'in charge' after a transitory upheaval, and what sort of society do you feel they would want to (Re)implement?

I don't fear the powers will outlaw precious metal ownership again, like prohibition, I think some lessons were learned, but, the sheer fact that they did once outlaw it (except for their internal and banking uses) leads me to feel they understand the undifferentiated power of precious metals. By undifferentiated, I mean, the metal is neither good nor evil, simply a tool, like a guitar, a hammer or a fact.

Namaste!

__________________________________________________ _______________________________
Please be advised that I am not any form of a professional or paid investment adviser and each individual reading or posting questions or answers is responsible for their own investment decisions.

[Rocky_Shorz]

I heard a great quote today...

my 401K plan is now a 201K...

I told my dad to grab some silver yesterday while the Market was down, with it jumping from 10.40 to 12 he did make a move earlier today.

That was just good timing on my part, crude is on its way back down again even after a facility was knocked out in Nigeria.

carrying 4 coins around versus a barrel of oil.. no brainer...

Point them to the article that the FDIC can no longer cover obligations...

that alone will get them rethinking where they are keeping their money...

[Zynox]

Originally Posted by GregorArturo

My parents have a half mil in the stock and bond market right now. They're pretty confident it's safe and secure. I've been trying to convince to at least invest in $10k worth of gold and silver and store it at our house. How should I go about actually convincing them in my rational? Any valuable resources that my do the trick?

GregorArturo,

Welcome ... to my world ... I had this very conversation today with my mother. She lived through the depression and realizes this is a different economic event, even that it is more severe, but we are talking about conditioned serious issues. How long have we all been blitzed with the meme to trust the system, prosper with the system, feed the system? I have not found any answer beyond gently encourage and move forward, as all folks come around to their decisions from within their perceived inner universes.

Funny thing was, while I was there, she gave me several updates on the gold price surge today, I hadn't checked, so, perhaps she might exit some before the rush.

Here is one imaginative idea, borrow some of their funds, and convert it to metal for them, and then all share some smiles later!

Namaste!

__________________________________________________ _______________________________
Please be advised that I am not any form of a professional or paid investment adviser and each individual reading or posting questions or answers is responsible for their own investment decisions.

[TAXMASTER]

Originally Posted by Rocky_Shorz

TaxMaster,

How easy is it to buy large quantities of real silver, not paper?

Did you have an Epic Day today in Gold sales?

.

rocky,

what do you call large quantity? you mean a semi....truckload....bucket of.. etc.

right now you can buy from local coin dealers. i just bought 1000 silver dollars from blue moon coins on the internet. you can find plenty on ebay. there are numerous precious metal dealers on the internet ie kitco, goldmine etc.

i day trade so that i am out of my positions at the end of the day. today was a good day. however i will be looking at a pull back maybe tomorrow. nothing usually goes straight up or down. since today was a tremendous increase in metals, i will look for a correction tomorrow. i will not know until the morning which way i will go. sometimes i am wrong. nothing is perfect.

Namaste'

ps i do not consider making making sound economic decisions that will take care of your family a sellout to the establishment. i consider it a necessity.

[Rocky_Shorz]

silver has jumped another 25 cents since I last look, I think teh buy in is starting

[TAXMASTER]

rocky,

as a futures trader let me give you some advice. the price will rise, then might fall for a day-week, then might rise for 2 weeks and inbetween might fall intermitantly. nothing goes straight up or down. tomorrow the price might pull back to $11.25. this would be natural. you almost have to look at the closing price at the end of each week to determine an up trend or down trend.

Namaste'

[GregorArturo]

Thanks Zynox! I wish they'd loan me money but at the moment they're supporting me through school and my art projects, and so ya, they aren't gonna give me anymore haha. I know that for a fact. They aren't big spenders in the least bit. I really appreciate your response.

[THE PEACEFUL WARRIOR]

Hi Zynox,

Can you tell me where and how to buy Gold and Silver securely in Hong Kong?

Also do you know what the restricions are on travelling with Gold via international flights?

Thanks very much for any advice you can give...

P. W.

[skyking]

Precious Metals are not for investment - those who would be day traders will get burned very quickly. Physical metals are for preservation of wealth in the long term. I suggest you check out the following forum and read the Silver and Gold threads back at least a month or two to get a feeling for what has been going on.

http://silverbullionaires.com/simple...um/index.php#8

Because of physical shortage, the premium you will pay over the current asking price will be increasing. I DO NOT recommend buying from eBay. Find a local coin dealer to establish a relationship with, and if you can't find someone locally then I suggest using one of the online retailers like Bullion Direct, Kitco, APMEX, or my preferred dealer Tulving.

http://tulving.com/goldbull.html#silver

Be advised that most retailers have been out of stock for almost a month now and are getting stock in dribs and drabs. Keep checking back daily to find any offerings. Be prepared to keep your physical bullion at a safe location but do NOT put it in a Safe Deposit Box at the bank.

The least expensive form of these products are the Silver Bullion Rounds in 1 oz. or bars in 10 oz. and Gold Bullion in 1 oz. bars from PAMP or Credit Suisse. Coins like Canadian Maples or American Eagles are numismatic (they have currency value) and you will pay an extra premium for these. For long term investment purposes the generic bars and rounds are just fine.

My advice is worth exactly what you paid for it!

[sky]

Hi Zynox,

Great idea! Thanks a lot for starting this thread and offering to answer questions. It indeed also relieves Michael St Clair well for this particular topic.

I am also a goldbug and following the developments closely since about a year. It's been an emotional rollercoaster also though with spot prices going up and down, althought rationally I know, one '"shouldn't" only look at it this way..
Yesterday I received Mahendra"s (financial astrologer) newsletter and he is predicting metals might loose up to 50% of their value from here! Hard to believe, but often he is been right in the long term. Do you know him?

I also want to keep some cash for now and am considering to exchange part of the euros in CHF, because I believe there might also come a meltdown of the euro. What is your opinion on the CHF, might that be a good choice also?

Namaste,
Sky

[Kris Riley]

Originally Posted by sky

Hi Zynox,

Great idea! Thanks a lot for starting this thread and offering to answer questions. It indeed also relieves Michael St Clair well for this particular topic.

I am also a goldbug and following the developments closely since about a year. It's been an emotional rollercoaster also though with spot prices going up and down, althought rationally I know, one '"shouldn't" only look at it this way..
Yesterday I received Mahendra"s (financial astrologer) newsletter and he is predicting metals might loose up to 50% of their value from here! Hard to believe, but often he is been right in the long term. Do you know him?

I also want to keep some cash for now and am considering to exchange part of the euros in CHF, because I believe there might also come a meltdown of the euro. What is your opinion on the CHF, might that be a good choice also?

Namaste,
Sky

Even though I'm no expert, I can see where the potential of such a scenario could happen. With everyone scooping up the gold and silver, everyone will be waiting to see when it will rise to such great heights in price and perhaps rush to sell and acquire cheap properties and such. That is if it were to reach the predicted market value. If for some reason there is a scene where things don't go as predicted. There will be a lot of sell back, because of course everyone that has bought will have bought to avoid short term losses instead of securing long term investment. At this point this may drive the value down. Any thoughts?

[Zynox]

Originally Posted by THE PEACEFUL WARRIOR

Hi Zynox,

Can you tell me where and how to buy Gold and Silver securely in Hong Kong?

Also do you know what the restricions are on travelling with Gold via international flights?

Thanks very much for any advice you can give...

P. W.

Greetings Peaceful Warrior,

I have no sources for metals outside the US, so hopefully someone with that information will visit and grace us on that topic. You might try the web for coin or jewelry stores in your area, I suspect they sell coins at most.

My experience is limited to international flights between the US and Costa Rica and Italy. I always travel with a few ounces of metal, both as a backup exit fund if I were ever to encounter weirdness and also because I give silver dollars as tips, to spread metal to those that may never have encountered it.

I always carry it in my carry on bag, and I have never been requested to open my bags or have them searched for the coins, and yet I have had them search for and find disposable lighters I forgot to remove. So there hasn't yet seemed to be any directed focus towards carrying coins. One consideration should always be to know the regulations of the countries one will be entering or passing through, as many have declaration limits for cash and other fiscal instruments, and I always assume these include precious metals.

Often declaration is requested if one is carrying more than $10,000 US. Interestingly, one could play a game with this, if so inclined, because the face value of a US Gold Dollar Coin is $50, versus a market value of around $900. I'm not suggesting this game be played, but I sure would like to get employers to pay in gold coins at face value!

Namaste!

__________________________________________________ _______________________________
Please be advised that I am not any form of a professional or paid investment adviser and each individual reading or posting questions or answers is responsible for their own investment decisions.