Free Republic

A few weeks ago I went over some of the issues to consider when purchasing physical gold.  This week I’d like to look at the other end of the transaction:  What to do when it’s time to turn your gold into cash.  This is also where I need to remind my readers that I write for a company in the business of precious metals and while I hope you consider them when you’re shopping for a precious metals partner and to consult them for advice, I also encourage you shop around and compare. In a strange quirk of how the...

On July 25th, I provided a warning that gold and silver prices were NOT too expensive despite the propaganda of the commercial investment industry to the contrary, specifically for three reasons I outlined in the above linked article.  We have just witnessed gold's price move higher by $98 an ounce and silver's price move higher by $0.64 an ounce in about one week's time. With everyone mesmerized in the past week with the issue of whether or not the credit rating agencies would downgrade the US’s rating, I tweeted the following this past July 29th: “think that a deal to raise...

The old Cold War USA-USSR nuclear arms race has been replaced by the new East-West Central Bank battle to accumulate physical gold and physical silver reserves. While Western Central Banks and their puppet bullion banks have distracted and goaded private citizens with the invention of fraudulent bogus paper gold and paper silver derivative products, including ETFs more recently, and paper futures contracts for a much longer period of time, they themselves have been making sure to avoid the very fraudulent paper products they have invented and have been diving headfirst into real physical precious metals. As Central Banks continue to...

In the past few minutes both gold and silver have seen a dramatic rally of buying on seemingly no news. The reason for this rally are remarks from a Bloomberg TV interview with FX Concepts' John Taylor, who just predicted that Gold will extend its rally to $1,900 by October, or in three months, coupled with a rally in the Assuie and Loonie as the EU debt crisis eases. But not for long: this record price will be promptly followed by a plunge down to $1,100 following liquidations as the latest and greatest recession grips the world, which he believes...

When considering the purchase of gold and silver it’s important to understand why you’re buying it, because that will influence what you purchase. The most typical reasons people consider buying gold and silver fall into three basic categories. - Business uses: As a hedge against inflation and counter-weight to cash investments such as bonds and money market funds. - As a crisis currency:  So when things finally collapse you have something to trade for supplies.  - As an investment: This would be mainly collectible coins with numismatic value.  To help choose between those options, you have ask yourself whether in...

Wonder why Europe is pressing so hard for Greece (and soon the other PIIGS) to collateralize its pre-petition loans on a Debtor in Possession basis? Here is your answer: "Yesterday’s unanimous agreement by the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) to allow central counterparties to accept gold as collateral, under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), is further recognition of gold’s growing relevance as a high quality liquid asset. This vote reinforces market demand for a greater choice of assets that can be used as collateral to meet margin liabilities." Luckily for Greece, it has 111.5 tons...

.....And now we need to also remember to prepare.... GOLD & SILVER - Alert >> The Final Countdown - Get prepared don't hesitate. (bank collapse coming) These videos have to do with the banking holiday - the shorts in silver are going to cause banks to close. Suggestions on what to do now. Go to Google news and put in "currency wars" as a search term. GOLD & SILVER - The Final Countdown - Get prepared don't hesitate. PART 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do3kzXLfE4A GOLD & SILVER - The Final Countdown - Get prepared don't hesitate. PART 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctTtYBX_JSo Please, ensure...

(summary deck only) Silver futures contracts fall $3.19, or 7.5%, to $39.38 an ounce, their third consecutive decrease since hitting a record $48.58 on Friday. Most other commodities also retreat.

Brett Arends, writing at MarketWatch, refutes the notion that gold is in a speculative “bubble”. He does so by comparing the current spike in gold prices with other speculative run-ups in recent history. Gold is in a bubble. Anyone will tell you that. They’ve been saying it since gold was about, oh, $500 an ounce.But it’s a funny kind of a bubble. It’s the only one I’ve encountered where so few people seem to own the asset in question… During the dot-com bubble, you met lots of people with tech stocks. Taxi drivers told you what dot-coms they owned.During the...

Soros Has Begun Dumping Gold And Silver, While John Paulson Says Gold Will Go To $4,000 Joe Weisenthal May 4, 2011, 5:07 AM John Paulson told a UK news show on Tuesday that gold is going to $4,000, reports WSJ. Despite some recent gyrations in the precious metals arena -- more so on the silver side of things -- the prominent investor remains super-bullish for the next 3-5 years. On the other hand, according to reporters Gregory Zuckman and Caroline Cui, Soros has been a seller of gold and silver lately. What what's interesting is why: Soros no longer sees...

John Paulson told a UK news show on Tuesday that gold is going to $4,000, reports WSJ. Despite some recent gyrations in the precious metals arena -- more so on the silver side of things -- the prominent investor remains super-bullish for the next 3-5 years. On the other hand, according to reporters Gregory Zuckman and Caroline Cui, Soros has been a seller of gold and silver lately. What what's interesting is why: Soros no longer sees a big threat of deflation. Huh? Yes, while the average person may still think of gold as a bet to counter inflation, the...

HUGE quantities of antique silver and gold were scrapped last week as precious metal prices hit record highs. Silver dealers in particular clamoured to take advantage of a two-fold hike in the bullion market, the like of which has not been seen for 30 years. Driven by a weaker US dollar and continuing tensions in the Middle East and North Africa, the prices of gold and silver hit new record highs on Monday, April 25 (a bank holiday in the UK) and on the European markets the following day. Gold rose as high as $1518.30 (£918.70) an ounce, while silver...

Gold prices shot up to a new record of $1,512.50 an ounce in New York late on Friday, posting a record weekly gain and maintaining a six-week winning streak. While a lot of gold investors are laughing all the way to bank the world over, gold's super cycle rally could have ominous meanings for the US economy. Analysts have pointed out that gold's advance into what is termed as a super cycle does not bode well for the US economy. A sustained gold and oil boom indicates that the dollar is slipping into grave danger and the economy closer to...

In the United States, the media's interest has been focused on who won the game that was the potential government shutdown.  As usual the reporting is based on a sporting event and not the importance of the change of direction the shutdown represents.  At the moment there is no winner or loser; that will be decided if and only if spending is dramatically reduced and government begins to shrink appreciably.   Many of us have repeatedly called attention to the financial markets and international uncertainty precipitated by American monetary, fiscal and foreign policies by focusing on bell-weather commodity prices, particularly...

One word (well technically two) can describe what is going on in the electronic pre-market arena right now: inflationary hysteria. Gold is at a new record, wheat is surging, corn is at highest since 2008, crude at a new 30 month high, silver is at $41.10 - a new fresh post Hunt high, beans surging, etc, etc, etc. Essentially everything is bid, following news first reported on Zero Hedge that PIMCO is betting the farm that either inflation is about to go parabolic and force bondholders to dump everything, or that the Fed will have no choice but to pursue...

Pre-1965 90 percent silver U.S. coins are especially hot, while silver U.S. coins that aren’t so familiar to buyers — such as post-1992 Proof 90 percent silver coins from Silver Proof sets — are trading at discounts to melt value. For example, on March 28, one dealer advertised on a trading network a bag of 4,000 Proof 2010-S 90 percent silver Washington quarter dollars — $1,000 face value — for $26,300, lowering it later in the day to under melt value at $25,999. Another dealer was offering $1,000 in face value of modern Proof 90 percent silver coins for 99...

Speaking of changing the rules... Gold and silver are now down hard over the past two days, and the reason may have something to do with the fact that the CFTC utterly caved to JPM in their long-awaited decision on position limits in a 4-1 vote. While position limits will eventually be set, maybe, someday, the course of action taken by the CFTC grandfathers in JPM's (and HSBC, et al.) current outlandish positions. Here's the background (emphasis mine): On July 21, 2010, the Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Among other things, the Dodd-Frank Act...

Silver rises on spill-over effect from gold's run; gold ETF breaks asset record Gold ended higher Friday, resuming its march upward as investors continued to be spooked by a potential European debt crisis, with silver riding on its coattails and vaulting more than 5%. Gold for June delivery, the most active contract, settled $13.10 higher, or 1.1%, at $1,210.40 an ounce, a five-month high for the metal and closing in on its Dec. 3 all-time settlement record of $1,217.40 an ounce. "The only place traders feel comfortable parking their money for the weekend is gold," said Adam Klopfenstein, a trader...

Silver is often perceived to be subordinate to gold. But history clearly shows that during precious metal bull markets, silver outperforms gold. Just consider the precious metal bull market of the 1970s... Between 1970 and 1980, gold prices increased from the Brenton Woods fixed price of $35 an ounce to a high of $850. It was a 2,329% jump in the ten years. Meanwhile, silver went from about $1.50 in 1970 to over $50 an ounce in 1980 — a 3,233% increase. So far, gold has already crossed its nominal high of $850 an ounce. But silver has come nowhere...