Stacking, Is That What I Am Trying To Do?

I'd probably go for pre-1965 US half-dollars, quarters, and dimes, also known as junk silver or constitutional silver. You get some variety, can cherry pick nicer examples at the local coin shop, can buy large amounts easily or can make small purchases when you don't have a ton of money but just want to buy some. Also, they are very liquid and simple for your niece to sell when the time comes. I think you are doing a very nice thing for her!

cuzzx, So sorry you got hit by the stock market. That was what I was saying in an earlier post. So many small investors, and your investment is small as compared to the big boys and girls who play the market, got hit hard, or totally KO'd. My thought is that gold, silver and gems are always going to have a certain amount of stability. Yes, the values can go up and down, but for the most part, they stay within a certain range, so that is why I like these investments, especially since I don't have thousands of dollars or more to invest. I am limited to a few hundred every once in a while, which puts me down in the very small investor range.

hcuzzx: Don't "invest" in jewellery. You are not buying gold. You are buying karat gold. You are also paying a high margin to have someone turn a gold bar into a diluted round sheet or wire. Jewellery is not something you want to dump savings into. Jewellery is about showing off, it's about fashion, it's about looking and feeling good. Buy it if you appreciate art or want to be flashy, not to hold your wealth. Even with chains, possibly the lowest margin gold item is not going to hold up when you sell it. A wholesaler pays a premium, so think about that when you, the retail consumer, consider buying. Your best option is to go to an Indian jeweler who makes 22 karat gold, or just buying the most generic 24 karat bar. Karat gold is like sugar water compared to drinking water. You're paying for the alloy, the labor and tools, the marketing, wastage, the jeweler's insurance and rent, possibly the name-brand too... On the flip side, if you want to give a jeweler "old" gold to make a new piece you will receive a lousy product because the gold is "dirty" therefore risking porosity and most certainly lots of wastage, the alloys are different for each jeweler, so the melted karat gold doesn't metallurgically mix properly. I've dealt with this firsthand and have had to tell clients that it's entirely THEIR fault. A proper product will require a savvy manufacturer to first refine the old gold into 24 karat so that proper alloys can be used. If you want a cast product (ie, not made by hand, and cast pieces are what 99% of modern pieces are today thanks to 3d printing) you will be required to give the jeweler approximately 50 percent more gold than is required to get the gold to flow into the mold without porosity issues - you want the gold to shine, right? And if you want a fabricated piece (ie, made by hand) using old gold, there's a huge possibility that the karat gold will crack while rolling it to shape, and no sane jeweler will do this. The whole point of karat gold is its luster, since 24 karat and 22 karat don't shine the same way as 18 karat and lower, and it's a MAJOR waste of gold to polish high karats. Anyways, don't dump your savings into jewellery. Buy it because it's shiny and it looks good on you - no other reason.

Regarding silver jewellery, a simple ".925" stamp is not enough these days. I run into lots of imported garbage that even when brand new, although they look pretty spiffy, are a pain to resize, hence pricy. Most of them are silver plated, or have an unusually high copper content that make them turn pink when heated. They also don't even set the stones with proper bearings and will fall out with the lightest of taps on the mandrel. You cannot (!) trust the stamps. Ever.

I got into the stock market 27 years ago though my job. When the market crashed I bought more. Fast forward I will retire 11-1-17. Money will not be a problem. I now have over a million. Thanks stocks

I have to agree with the OP, my grandfather had millions in the stock market by the mid 2000's.
He lost almost 60% of his money during the bailouts, and then still had the stock brokers hounding him to reinvest.

My dad lost his entire 401k overnight, around $100k. My family is stock paranoid at this point.

Chip Jones is a perfect example of how the stock market gives better returns, glad someone spoke up. Kudos and a hat tip to him.

Also, one of the reasons WHY we keep going higher in this market is because there are many skeptics out there versus those truly in the market.


this applies to both market professionals and your average mom and pop investor, sadly, BOTH have missed this entire run since 2008 and are about to miss as it really ramps up here.

Unfortunately what will happen, once again, is as this market ramps up towards the end, THEN the late comers will jump on aboard and about then is where things will fall apart.

Buying silver and gold as a main investment yields horrible returns. Banking on the end of the world, fiat currency, depressions and other disasters is a fools game. The market has come back each and every single time and will continue to do so.

but hey, whats that saying about leading a horse to water....

do yourself a favor and do NOT put all your money into gold and silver.

My dad's entire estate was $7 million. The gold only amounted to 0.2% of the total.

However the gold was much more stable in value than his royalty trusts, which I also liquidated at close to the peak of the market. Within 6 months the trusts dropped 70-80% in value because of drops in the oil and natural gas prices that underpin their high yields. The conventional equities - including energy stocks - in his portfolio were much steadier than the trusts.

There was also a fair amount of real estate. As with the trusts, the value was fairly unstable, especially for raw land out in the boondocks. Land is valuable where people live, not where they don't.

After another week of researching, and watching videos on the internet, I've come to the conclusion that silver is not something I wish to accumulate a large amount of. So silver is out, and I will have to think about some other form of precious metal investment, something that I can convert easily, if for some reason, the bottom falls out of the economy.