~850 tons of it, maybe 900+ counting 2014, has been minted into coin and sold to the public.
I “back of the napkin’d” this a couple years back, and they had already minted enough gold and silver that we have the same or more than we had in general circulation prior to the great thefts of 1933 and 1964/69.
I’ve always personally thought the currency end game has this as an “out” for folks, between circulating coin and “redemption as lawful money” (which is supposed to opt money off the Federal Reserve system), the citizenry has their solution/new currency right in front of their faces. Most are going to dance to the music right up to when it stops, but the prudent will have already picked and sat in their “chair” when it does.
The solution to the national debt is going to be appropriating the IRA’s and 401K plans of the population and rolling the money into the Social Security system. Several countries have already done this and the IMF is encouraging this practice. The amount in these retirement accounts ($16 trillion) almost matches the national debt ($17 trillion). We will receive IOU’s for the money confiscated. No different than FDR confiscating gold in the 1930’s. This will all be done under the ruse of “safekeeping” and protecting citizens from volatility on Wall Street. The IOU’s will be “safe” US Treasury bonds yielding 2-3%.
Within a few years the government will have trouble meeting the demands for withdrawals from the retirement accounts and will make several changes:
1) The IRA/401K money in the “safe” accounts can no longer be passed down at death. The government will take it.
2) Limits on the amounts and timing of withdrawals even on the money the citizens once controlled.
3) Ultimately the money will be swept into regular social security accounts and means tested. After all it is only “fair”.
As to the currency I suspect the end game is a global currency or minimally a western hemisphere currency. The US dollar already circulates as the only currency or a secondary currency in some Central American countries. As far a precious metals in coinage, I don’t have an opinion. If the US $ totally collapsed I’m not sure how people will “value” gold and silver commemorative coins or the old silver coinage they have tucked away in piggy banks or drawers. In the initial stages of a currency meltdown it may be that useful items such as ammunition, medicine, canned and dehydrated food, and toilet paper have more value for barter than pieces of metal. Hopefully I won’t live to see it.