Another Metals Shop

Gainesville Coins, found via an LPC Survival contest on FB.  Will have to check their prices relative to APMEX.

Cast Iron

I've read many different ways to season cast iron pans, but this method using flaxseed oil sounds the most promising.

Turns out that highly acidic ingredients like vinegar or tomato sauce will strip the seasoning off pans.  The author of the article above also mentions that boiling water is a no-no, but then recommends boiling water to loosen baked-on gunk.

Other Silver Shops

Via a liberty-minded individual, I'm now aware of another couple shops selling silver: Amagi Metals and Agorist.

At Amagi, the Freedom Girl, Unite or Die, Ron Paul, and Minuteman rounds look neat.  The Silver Bullet "rounds" are cute, but I'd rather have cast projectiles that I can actually handload!  And what's up with the 1 gram coins?!  31.1 to the troy ounce....

There's also the HnH Coins store; someone gave me one of their copper rounds at an Appleseed last September.  HnH's prices on pre-'65 silver aren't bad, either.

The Case for Silver Outpacing Gold

Interestingly enough, this article claims that the gold-silver ratio isn't out of line with changes in utilization and production.  With regard to the latter, the article claims that silver production has increased 25% in the past decade, whereas gold only increased 6%.  Another article is referenced, which claims the price of each metal relative to production cost indicates that silver only has a 10% premium, whereas gold has a 20% premium, therefore silver has more upside.

Certified Scales

To weigh metals in trade and gunpowder for repackaging and resale, a certified scale is necessary.  That is, one with a pedigree traceable back to standardized weights, which is legal for business use.  Required accuracy and maximum load determine what kind of scale is needed.  For 1-gram accuracy, the CAS ED series looks good.  For 0.1-gram/0.005-ozt accuracy, there's the Citizen CZ1200.

Paper Metal Investments

So I'm looking for securities tied to gold/silver for two reasons: 1) for convenient trading to play gold vs. silver ratios, and 2) to invest in gold/silver with retirement dollars, since I have more cash there to invest.

There are a number of ETFs, including GLD, SGOL, AGOL, and SIVR.  The downsides include a large ratio of shares to physical holdings and gains taxable at the higher collectible rate rather than long-term capital gains.

In my reading online another option came up: Sprott's trusts PHYS and PSLV, which offer physical holdings in gold and silver with convertibility to metal and potential tax benefits.  I'll have to check out the prospectus.

Addition: Regarding how the IRS views ETFs in IRAs, apparently there are two private-letter rulings that state that gold/silver ETF shares in an IRA aren't collectibles for tax purposes.

Pricing in Gold

This showed up in my FB feed: charts showing the value of various commodities in terms of gold over time.  The one showing the value of the dollar is most telling.  For almost 200 yrs it was nearly constant, except when FDR devalued it in 1934, then from 1970-1980 it tanked, and declined greatly again from 2000-2010.  The 1934 devaluation was 41%—that should put the rest of the chart in perspective.

Silver

I don't even remember where I found this, but I came across an article claiming that in the afternoon on 2012.02.24, major dumping of silver contracts occurred.  I've not been able to verify this claim from a reputable source, however.  It's not clear where to get charts with that kind of detail.  Perhaps the silver ETFs' volumes would reflect this?

In trying to locate a source, I found a page noting gold-to-silver ratios (GSR).  The strategy noted is quite interesting: look at the average ratio, and when it's less than 1 sigma low convert silver to gold, and when greater than 1 sigma high convert gold to silver, with the idea to play the ratio to increase holdings.  Perhaps I should try this with paper holdings to make conversions easier.

Capitalist Pigs

A link from Mr. Vanderboegh points to Nazi silver bullion.  Not because we like Nazis (they were evil socialists!), but because it's a reminder where socialist collectivism leads.  The Zimbabwe 100 trillion dollar note is also of interest.

There are apparently sites that sell Nazi silver, such as "luckylukeonline".  I'd imagine that there are a few preppers into that stuff....

American Eagles

Searching for more info on American Eagles, I came across the US Mint's page that describes the requirements for becoming an "Authorized Purchaser" to order bullion directly from the mint.

The United States Mint charges a modest premium above the current market price of platinum, gold, and silver to cover minting, distribution and marketing costs.

• For the Silver Eagle, we charge the United States Mint's Authorized Purchasers the price of silver plus $2.00 per coin premium. Minimum ordering requirement is 25,000 coins.
• For the Gold Eagles, we charge 3%, 5%, 7% and 9% premiums for the one, one-half, one-quarter and one-tenth ounce coins respectively. Minimum ordering requirements are 1000 ounces.
• For the Platinum Eagles, we charge 4%, 6%, 10% and 15% premiums for the one, one-half, one-quarter and one-tenth ounces coins respectively. Minimum ordering requirements are 1000 ounces.

Ow.  25k coins times spot + $2 (currently about $42) is a lot more than I can afford....  At least I have a link to point people to whenever the overhead of bullion comes up.

American Precious Metals Exchange

I found APMEX when looking for alternate sources for gold/silver.  They have some backdated coins and accept credit cards.  They're located in OKC.

Metals Sites

Interesting gold/silver sites:
Freedom Mint for their Ron Paul coins
Boston Bullion as an alternative to Kitco