Monday, April 07, 2008

Why Silver and Gold are better than fiat money, a cautionary tale

While I feel bad for the fellow in this story, I still laughed when I found out that termites had eaten all his fiat money and investment papers. This is an extreme example of why Silver and Gold are much better stores of wealth than mere paper which can be destroyed in fire, flood, and apparently by infestation.

This is also an warning to know your bank, know the limit of safety deposit box liabilities and perhaps that tightly wrapping your documents in tin foil is a better use than wrapping your head.


P.S.
In a fire your metals may melt, may trickle away but they still have a hell of a lot better chance of surviving than paper.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anyone know anything about disputing bar charges with Scotia Bank. I was charged the $.65/ounce being told that this goes to the refinery, however the bullion I received was old and stamped Englehard. Englehard hasn't existed for two years since they were bought out by BASF. Any insight into this would be much appreciated. Thanks,
Tx

Carter Apps, dabbler of stuff said...

As far as I know bar charges are supposed to cover manufacturing and handling charges that increase as the bars get smaller. It is at least partly a scam because they charge the fee on each transaction even if they've handled the same bar 20 times. I'm sure when they originally purchased the bar from Englehard they paid them the premium up stream, since then however they've been collecting and pocketing it each time around.

.65 sound about normal for 20 oz or 50oz bars, not that it's right, but it is normal.

Someday it will be worth enough you'll laugh at yourself for worrying about .65 at least that's what I keep telling myself

Anonymous said...

It is not the lousy $.65/oz, it is the principle. If I did the same thing.... well, you know. Then again banks are just legalized fraudsters.
Just had to vent because now they want another $540.00 for transport costs three weeks after delivery. Not unusual but they could not give me a quote on the cost until now? When I picked up the silver I was told no transport charges would be levied. To me that made up for a bit of the bar charges (wishful thinking), but we all know that banks always get their lb of flesh.
Great blog, thanks for the input.
Tx

Anonymous said...

I believe the bubble has only max 10 years left. That said everyone should be looking into alternative sources to secure their financial futures like Gold and Silver. I understand not everyone has the ability to get Gold at its current price but Silver is very affordable (as of right now) because Silver is just starting a new long-term bull market. Based on facts and simple calculations *no guesswork involved* silver will rise to $208+ per ounce over the next few years.

There is a video from Rober Kiyosaki as he and his colleagues predict that silver will continue to rise against the declining U.S dollar on my website. (link below)

Over the course of the present bull market in silver and gold, probably another 10 years, silver should rise about four times as fast as gold. That forecast arises from silver’s historic performance, especially during the 20th century, as well as its present fundamentals.

The best way to profit from that trend is to swap back and forth from silver to gold with the rise and fall in the gold/silver ratio. That strategy will convert a sterile investment into one that pays dividends, and possibly double the ounces you own over the life of the bull market.

The fastest and easiest way I have seen to date to get into buying silver if don't have the capital or want to deal with financial advisers is The Silver Snowball and best thing if you want to market it you can accumulate silver eagle coins for free. Check out my website for all the details and Rober Kiyosaki predictions for 2008.

- Vincent Cameron
http://thesilversnowball.com

Anonymous said...

ScotiaBank charges $14 bar charge for each 1oz bar... apparently a manufacturing cost, even though they charge it on all bars, even the ones resold back to them... over and over and over.

What a hell is up with that?!

Anonymous said...

opportunism pure and simple. The premium for small bars lasts as long as the bars do,