Venezuelans Turn to Gold Nuggets as the Local Currency Implodes

mises.org ^

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

What “Guerrillas” are the govt troops fighting? Can’t be communists because Maduro is a communist. Maybe they misspelled the word “gorilla”.

[Lisbon1940]

A loaf of bread costs $1.75. That’s not outrageous to cover the farmer and the baker and their suppliers.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Obviously staged. Who would throw away a perfectly good milk crate?

[VRW Conspirator]

Vote yourself some Socialism. Shoot yourself out of it. Oh...wait...they took your gun away.

[marktwain]

Can’t be communists because Maduro is a communist. Maybe they misspelled the word “gorilla”.

Communist have often fought other communists.

The only ones who have anything worth while are those who win the struggle for power.

[Pollard]

They have their own crypto, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_(cryptocurrency)

[Vaduz]

But Moe they said socialism was a good thing.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Most of the time, what you say is exactly true. But we just went through a period of something like two years where premiums on Silver products have ranged from $3 to $6. And I am talking generic, not Eagles nor Maples. I actually sold some junk coins & some 10 oz bars because I was able to get significant premiums over normal.

In “normal” times/ circumstances, one is able to buy generic forms of silver for a buck over spot. Sometimes a dollar fifty, sometimes $0.39. And despite every dealer claiming that buying hundred ounce bars and 1000 Oz bars can be done at lower premiums than 1 oz rounds, I find that not to be especially true. Speaking about those more normal times.

So the question arises, could you make a living buying Comex 1000 ounce bars, or 100 ounce from any one of perhaps 20 mfrs and slicing them up and selling them in 5 oz and 10 oz sniglets. I have never seen the feasibility. If you are smart enough to buy the big bars when premiums are low, what do you do, wait seven years until the premiums are high? Suppose you are successful. Now, the premiums on the big bars has risen as much as the premiums on the smaller bars. So how do you replace your inventory favorably? The first thought is okay well I want to buy silver for the long-term anyway so I will just buy up the big bars, and wait till the premiums are high to slice them up into smaller bars. My conclusion was that this would be working for minimum wage. And of course, the more the price rise is the less you want to sell it. That is just human nature. So I never saw the feasibility of this business. But maybe that’s just short-sightedness on my part.

[31R1O]

My dealer has sales from time to time with the premium cut in half. If it really came down to collapse the shot siver would be best because you could weigh out what you needed.

https://www.apmex.com/category/25785/industrial-silver-grain-bars-more

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Yes, but is shot transactable? If you are going to weigh out some random amount, now you don't have the authenticity factor of the sealed apmex bag...which isn't even a "class A" COA item, in my book. And opening the bag disqualifies both the weighed-out amount AND the remainder amount. It's not whether YOU will accept it as .999, it's whether the NEXT guy will accept it.

Indeed, shot has serious DISadvantages, as far as I am concerned. Shot, you can never perform a paramagnetic (neodymium magnet) test. I do not know if you can perform a specific gravity test on shot, but even SG can be defeated with certain alloys of pewter. I really like the Sigma Metalytics machines they have now, but you know GD well there will be fake machines of that sort produced given enough time and monetary stress.

Forget not that in this theoretical "collapse" scenario, the motivation to counterfeit will octuple.

I would cheerfully buy shot from an APMEX or any other trusted source IF I was melting the shot into objects that commanded a significant premium. But shot premium is definitely not zero.

Over several years, starting 2005ish, I accumulated over 300# sterling flatware at between $7 and $15/oz. I've sold most of it off, but even then, there are frictions you frickin cannot avoid. First, nobody has EVER gotten 92.5% Ag from sterling. On actual chemical refinement, sterling is 90-91% silver, best case, I don't care how good your lab technique is. If it isn't the actual alloy composition, it will be in "pot loss". And then the refiner takes 10%, which you cannot object to if it means you are not handling nitric acid and NO2. Net net net, sterling is 80% * .999 silver.