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 Replies: 17 / Views: 3,418 |
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Valued Member
United States
68 Posts |
Hello, coin community! With silver hovering at a seemingly stable ~$20 per oz, I believe that at my age of 18, if there was ever a time to make this pivotal decision in my wealth-preservation strategy, now is it. I pointed my father towards some information on fiat currency and the inherent problems within the current financial paradigm such as quantitative easing, interest rate fixing, etc. I had expressed to him a desire to convert my cash savings into silver bullion in order to avoid perpetual deflation of my wealth, and he surprised me with a U.S. Mint 'Monster Box'! Now, I'm posed with a dilemma: Do I keep the box as is, never to really look at the vast majority of them? Or do I sell them off and invest in old 90% silver coinage instead. A few things that I have considered on the matter are:
- Numismatic potential value in these Eagles is virtually zero; it is strictly in my research a bullion coin
- 500 ounces of pure silver at this point is roughly $10,000, which could fund the purchase of a LARGE amount of pre-1964 90% U.S. coinage with fantastic opportunity to either purchase key-date coins outright or purchase enormous lots of searchable silver
- I love coin collecting - I want to be able to ponder a coin's history when I hold it in my hand more than I do its mint luster.
Now, I doubt many of you are qualified to give professional advice on investing; that's not what I came here for anyway. Rather, I'd like you good folks' thoughts on the matter. If you've been in a similar situation, I'd love to hear your story, and what influenced you to make your decision in one direction or another in order to broaden my own perspective on the matter. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4897 Posts |
You indicate that you want silver for, "Investment/Wealth preservation" purposes. Why then would you want to trade one perfectly good form of silver for another? You will take a loss on the exchange and common 90% has no more potential for numismatic gain than does the bullion. Now if you said you wanted to sell them and buy high grade key date coins, I could understand.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
648 Posts |
I've been that situation before and at the end of the day, I did all of the above. That is, diversifying Silver in .999 bullion, 90%, numismatic/key dates & low mintage bullion that has potential to carry a high premium in the future. How much % you want to divvy up within those sub-categories is up to you. I also say this because it's fun,(since you like collecting) and I wouldn't want to put all my eggs in one basket with Silver such as a Monster Box, or 90%. I would want all of it because I would appreciate it more, and I would then slowly add to it as time goes on - which I have done. As time goes on, it makes things interesting with investing and collecting. I myself found not to like a coin, series, or a bullion design, and then it just grew on me (sometimes because of this forum!) and I got it. I appreciate the variety within silver and some folks on this forum are die-hard 90%, or bullion, or numismatic only - and that's okay too.
That's just my perspective and best of luck with your Silver decision(s).
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1200 Posts |
If I was sitting on a box of ASE's, I'd remain seated. You can rest reassured that "searchable silver" has already been searched and you'd be losing ground for no good reason if you swap your box out for 90% junk. As said above, that would be senseless. Moving into key dates might very well be a good move, but there's no guarantee of that. I'd play it safe and sit on that box, but that's just my opinion. You can add whatever you want over time without swapping out your box to do so. You have an enviable stack of very liquid bullion that would take most people a long time to assemble. Don't blow it and good luck with whatever you do. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1391 Posts |
In my experience, I think you are over estimating what is going to be found in 'junk' silver. I've found a few key and semi key dimes, but they are pretty bad and it will be some time before they are worth much. The silver that is out there for bulk is picked pretty clean. I would keep what you have in the monster box and work from there.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
785 Posts |
For starters you have a very nice Dad, If it was me I would invest the money into key dates because they seem to hold steady on value. Plus you mentioned you enjoy collecting and history so that makes me think even more that investing in key dates would be best for you. Also remember that you don't have to totally chose one thing, you could always keep a few rolls of ASE's get a large amount of junk silver and buy a few nice keys. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2543 Posts |
Keep the box, who is going to select the " key dates " to invest in ? Everyone has a different opinion as to what is going to hold it,s value and what is going to gain value.
Bottom line is that if buying up key coins was so profitable, everyone would be doing it and there would be no " key coins " left. Surely, if you buy a $1,000,000 today, in ten years it will probably be worth $1.3 mil..... but that is not what we are talking about.
Your box is worth $10,000 now, if per chance something happens in the PM market ( and as much as some claim to know, no one does ) goes to $40 oz, you " could " have $20,000. What $10,000 " key date " coin are you going to buy that has the real potential to double it's value by next Christmas.
Stick with the box.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4897 Posts |
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if per chance something happens in the PM market ( and as much as some claim to know, no one does ) goes to $40 oz, you " could " have $20,000 True enough, but by the same token it could be worth $5000. It is all about risk aversion. The difference between buying bullion or buying key dates is the difference between speculation and investing. imo |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
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Now, I doubt many of you are qualified to give professional advice on investing Neither are the people telling you that theres inherent problems with fiat currency. Or that silver somehow preserves your wealth just because its doing so for the first time in the last 30 years from a temporary run up thats falling hard. If you want to preserve your wealth get it out of bullion and into the stock market where youd be making real money. You dont have enough money to play the metals game making money with the small day to day price changes. Edited by basebal21
12/28/2013 5:58 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3789 Posts |
I second my friends comments, Basebal21. Listen to what he says.
I advise you to sell the box of eagles right away, before 10K turns into 5K. Holding that much silver at this period in time is a horrible thing. Either get yourself a great coin collection or put the money into the stock market.
However, holding silver and gold forward will not protect your wealth, if anything it will be a long time drag. I work the commodity, equity, currency and bond markets on a daily basis. The days of QE are over, interest rates are and HAVE been rising over a year now.... there is nothing supportive or in favor of silver and gold going forward.
Every single theory floated as to why owning silver and gold are important and must be done have been debunked by the price action of silver and gold.
At your age, ALL the money from selling the monster box should go into the stock market and sit there until you are ready to retire unless you plan on having a rather nice coin collection. Heck, the dividends ALONE, will over time, will allow you to buy expensive coins in the future.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5823 Posts |
I have to agree with Baseball also, PM should only be a part of the nest, and no more than 5-15% total assets. Unless you're a dealer and I wouldn't even think dealers have 100% in their nest also.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1653 Posts |
Keep your box. Nice present! Remember that PMs should only a part of an investment folio. Beware the end-of-timers who tell you paper money is worthless, so you should buy their gold and silver by sending them your paper money.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
Nice box, but don't buy more. If I was looking to put a bit of money in silver, I would buy one or two bullion coins from every nation every year - this way, you have a nice collection that would keep a bit more value in the event of a slow decline (since you are PRESERVING). On the other hand, I'm younger than you are and I'm not going to pretend to be Mr. Big Shot here.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3692 Posts |
I'd say invest in yourself. Start a business or go to college. Silver is just a media.
Ask yourself what you do best, or like to do the most, and find a way to survive from it.
And don't be greedy. If you can bank a profit, do it. Lots of people missed out on that top because they got greedy. At one point, at $20 I overheard a dealer saying that people are waiting for $25 to cash in some, while people who've been holding out longer (since $10) were slowly cashing their silver. It depends largely on your timeframe and reasons for wanting silver. I mean, frankly, it's a lump of metal if you're only buying it to have it. Look at silver as a tool or a media to achieve a different realistic and /attainable/ goal. Silver has hit the moon several times, it just matters on your point of view and your level of greed.
Edited by Libertad
12/30/2013 12:13 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1261 Posts |
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I'd say invest in yourself. Start a business or go to college. Silver is just a media.
Ask yourself what you do best, or like to do the most, and find a way to survive from it. Best advice yet! No investment, whether it be stocks or PM, will ever equal the investment potential of oneself. If you sold that silver to help further your education then you could buy many more boxes of that silvery stuff. Edited by chesterb
12/30/2013 12:08 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1554 Posts |
Keep the box for 40 years and see what happens. No one knows the true answer for your situation.
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Replies: 17 / Views: 3,418 |
Posted 12/28/2013 10:30 am
