Your 401k,403b, Roth, and whatever is in their hands. Start transitioning it to being in your control. A bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush.
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Interesting points. Thanks. By junk silver, you mean dimes and quarters? (of a certain age.) Does anything else fall into that category?
When you say that silver will increase in real value, would you please explain that to me like I'm 5? Lol. It's hard for me to decouple anything from it's dollar value. Thanks for the comments.
Silver is lost in things like wound dressings and such. Also, because the paper price is down, the mines aren't producing as much silver. So silver is scarcer than the paper price would make it appear. The ratio of gold to silver in dollars used to be 20 to 1, as an ounce of gold was a $20 gold piece, and a silver dollar was about an ounce of silver.
Coins used to be silver, and paper money used to be silver certificates, tradable for real silver. That all went away in 1965. That's when the cheap copper clad coins came out. Those of us who had sense stored away all the silver coins we could find. I worked in convenience stores in the 70s and would trade out of the cash register all that came in. Occasionally, someone would raid a piggy bank and spend a lot at one time.
The paper dollar used to be backed by gold. Now it's backed by the US military being able to beat the crap out of anyone who doesn't go along, such as Iraq and Libya.
Gold and silver, in relation to other goods, has kept about the same value, except for silver's growing scarcity. A hundred years ago, a $20 gold piece (1 oz.) could buy a really nice men's suit. Now, you can buy a really nice men's suit for what an ounce of gold sells for on the market. Back in the early 60s, while silver coins were still in circulation, I could take a silver dime to the corner store and buy a loaf of bread. Today, I can still buy a loaf of bread with the same money it would take to buy a silver dime from the silver companies.
Since 1913, when the Fed and IRS came in, the dollar has lost over 90% of its value compared to most goods.
Junk silver means any circulated US silver coins. This includes dimes, quarters, halves, and dollars. They are 90% silver. During WWII, nickels were part silver, so they're worth more now. Silver rounds are one ounce of pure silver. There are also silver bars or bullion that are even larger. In a collapse, junk silver would work better to buy ordinary goods. Gold would be better for large purchases, such as land. But this would mainly be well after a collapse when things start getting back to something resembling normal.
Thank you. I never knew silver had anything to do with wound dressings. That's interesting. And you say the mines aren't producing as much silver, so if someone bought some bullion or even coins, would that be wise? Because if they start producing more silver again, won't the price of that go down?
So the 'silver certificates' went away in 1965. That means it went under Johnson's administration. But I thought that our money was backed by gold at that time. So that's confusing. Can you explain the silver backed vs gold backed? (if you don't mind, and have time. I enjoy learning about these things.) Thanks.
Silver kills bacteria, and they can never form an immunity to it. I don't know if they're still on the market, but there used to be socks with "Bioguard" (sp.), which was silver impregnated into the socks to kill the bacteria that cause your feet to stink. There is a wound dressing you can buy on Amazon called calcium silver alginate. It's in small sheets that look like felt. If you have an open wound, cut a piece of this stuff the same size, place it on the wound, and put an absorbent dressing on top. If you have a supersized wound, rip the elastic off a Pamper, as it really absorbs well and is a lot cheaper than medical supplies. That's what a wound care nurse that I went to would use. I now have a stockpile of Pampers just in case. They say that silverware and silver goblets, etc. are the reason rich people didn't get as sick as the poor people years ago. Colloidal silver is big now for killing bacteria, just don't consume too much or you'll turn blue permanently.
The "price" of silver in dollars is irrelevant, except as to how much you can get. The "value" of silver in relation to goods is what's relevant. So it doesn't matter if the mines produce more silver and the "price" goes down. It just means that you will be able to buy more of it. All paper currencies collapse, so we all need to be ready, as the dollar is on its last legs.
Kennedy was trying to keep us on silver, and also promised to do away with the Fed and the CIA. He was shot just a few days after his CIA promise. Many of us still have a silver certificate or two in our collections.
We had gold for money until FDR issued his order to have people turn in their gold for receipts at $20 per ounce. Then after he thought he had most of the gold, he jacked up the exchange rate. The dollar was still technically backed by gold, but we couldn't take dollars to a bank and get gold in return. Foreign countries still could get gold from us. Then Nixon closed the gold window and totally ended the gold backing of the dollar. Inflation would have skyrocketed instantly, but in the same speech about gold, he put in a wage and price freeze. But the inflation busted loose under Jimmy Carter and made people think it was all his fault. And then we had the fake gas shortage.
Here's a good site to find what your various coins are worth, based on the metals in them. https://www.coinflation.com/