Hfcomms
EN66iq
Who would of thought that copper wire could be an ‘investment’?
CORP/BIZ Silver and Gold...The General Precious Metals Thread
- Thread starter Wyominglarry
- Start date
Who would of thought that copper wire could be an ‘investment’?
Samuel Adams
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Doc1
Has No Life - Lives on TB
In a previous post on this thread I explained how one of my pawn shop dealer friends got taken in a deal for forty Silver Morgan Dollars, which proved to be counterfeit. Last year, he was taken on a deal for a (supposedly) 18k Gold belt buckle. I'm not sure what he paid for the Morgan Dollars, but I do know that he paid $1800 for the buckle.
I've offered to verify metals for him in the past, but pawn shop customers are usually not willing to wait for an expert to arrive, much less leave their metal overnight.
I've ordered him a micrometer, a caliper and an acid metal test, which I'll give to him as a present. Hopefully, he won't get burned again.
Best
Doc
I've offered to verify metals for him in the past, but pawn shop customers are usually not willing to wait for an expert to arrive, much less leave their metal overnight.
I've ordered him a micrometer, a caliper and an acid metal test, which I'll give to him as a present. Hopefully, he won't get burned again.
Best
Doc
Hfcomms
EN66iq
Very timely interview of Bill Holter discussing the recent price action on the metals as well as what is coming next.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzvUwvVIYFc
RT 41 minutes
Bill Holter returns to Liberty & Finance to explain why he believes the global financial system is facing an inevitable credit crisis and why investors should look beyond short-term gold and silver volatility. Holter argues that gold and silver are not rising in value, but rather revealing the declining purchasing power of fiat currencies around the world. He discusses the dangers hidden within the massive derivatives market, rising government debt, and the fragile foundation of a credit-based economy. Holter also explains why physical precious metals, real assets, and preparation may become increasingly important if confidence in financial institutions begins to break down. This wide-ranging conversation explores the future of the dollar, central bank gold accumulation, and what investors should understand before the next major financial disruption.
RT 41 minutes
Bill Holter returns to Liberty & Finance to explain why he believes the global financial system is facing an inevitable credit crisis and why investors should look beyond short-term gold and silver volatility. Holter argues that gold and silver are not rising in value, but rather revealing the declining purchasing power of fiat currencies around the world. He discusses the dangers hidden within the massive derivatives market, rising government debt, and the fragile foundation of a credit-based economy. Holter also explains why physical precious metals, real assets, and preparation may become increasingly important if confidence in financial institutions begins to break down. This wide-ranging conversation explores the future of the dollar, central bank gold accumulation, and what investors should understand before the next major financial disruption.
Hfcomms
EN66iq
Those who know their history understand where this is going. As long as the government keeps printing mouse click money physical gold and silver (all commodities really ergo price inflation in basic necessities of life) will continue to go up. The gold hasn’t changed, the silver hasn’t changed it’s the unbacked fiat dollar, yen, pound, yuan, etc. They don’t teach kids this stuff in school anymore,
bracketquant
Has No Life - Lives on TB
As I've said in the past, the local high school seniors do a one day trip to the local university, to learn about economic/monetary life in America. The entire program is about immediately going into debt, by taking out loans, boosting one's credit score, banking one's continually devalued Federal Reserve Bank debt notes. etc...becoming a good little slave to this system. They are continually brainwashed in the hopes that no one escapes.
I wonder what the program will consist of when CBDC begins.
Hfcomms
EN66iq
Connected.....
By 1781, a barrel of flour that once cost a few Continental dollars cost hundreds or thousands. The exchange rate against silver reached the point where it took five hundred to a thousand Continentals to buy a single hard dollar (meaning a silver or metal coin). Some states saw the writing on the wall and simply stopped accepting the notes altogether.
The British, who had plenty of practice in meddling in colonial internal affairs, helped the debasement process along. They knew that counterfeiting Continentals on an industrial scale was cheaper than fighting military battles, and more effective. The result, as intended, was hyperinflation. When the dust settled, the phrase “not worth a Continental” had entered the language as shorthand for worthless.
The Founders, having lived through the destruction of the Continental dollar, carried a deep suspicion of unbacked paper money into the constitutional debates. That suspicion helped produce a document that at least tried to constrain monetary experimentation. George Washington famously said, “Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open a door to every species of fraud and injustice.”
That was not the only such inflationary episode before the colonies became a republic. During and after the American Revolution, individual states issued their own notes with similarly dismal results—sharp depreciation, hyperinflationary spikes in the 1780s, and the general chaos that made a stronger federal hand on currency seem necessary.
The War of 1812 brought another suspension of convertibility and the circulation of Treasury notes at discounts. The so-called Free Banking Era that followed (1837–63) is not unlike today’s cryptocurrency industry. It produced thousands of state-chartered banknotes, many of which traded at steep discounts or became worthless when the issuing (“wildcat”) banks, beset by fraud and panics, collapsed.
The Confederate currency of 1861–65 offers perhaps the cleanest parallel to the Continental story. Once again, massive overprinting to finance a war without adequate taxation was followed by hyperinflation so severe that prices rose thousands of percent before the notes became essentially worthless by the end of the Civil War.
In every case, the pattern resurfaces predictably. Governments (or would-be governments) facing extraordinary expenses turn to the printing press when taxation and borrowing prove inadequate or inconvenient. It’s as if politicians and policy makers either never read a history book or had their memories magically erased. Without a credible anchor in hard assets or ironclad fiscal discipline, public confidence erodes, money velocity rises, and the currency loses purchasing power—sometimes gradually, sometimes in a sudden rush.
The modern version of this story began in earnest with the end of dollar convertibility into gold. Domestically this occurred in 1933, when FDR confiscated privately held gold. Internationally, the break came in 1971, when Nixon closed the gold window.
Ever since, the dollar has functioned as a pure fiat currency. The cumulative effect on purchasing power has been substantial. What $1 bought in 1971 is what about 15 cents buys today. In other words, you need $6.50 to $7 to purchase what a single dollar bought in 1971. That’s a loss of roughly 85 percent of purchasing power over half a century—an outcome entirely consistent with the long-run behavior of unbacked paper currencies. It’s not hyperinflation in the dramatic sense we saw in 1920s Weimar Germany, or in 2000s Zimbabwe, but it’s a steady, grinding, quasi-invisible debasement that compounds across generations.
The usual excuses, “This time is different”, assume that American institutions are uniquely resilient or exceptional, that the dollar’s reserve status grants permanent immunity, and that the U.S. can abuse its currency without serious consequences. These sound like the rationalizations heard at the late stages of any long monetary experiment.
The historical record is not kind to such beliefs. Empires from the Spanish to the British to the French have discovered that the ability to print unlimited currency eventually encourages the very behaviors that undermine the currency. Countless wars have been financed by debt and debasement. Political fragmentation prevents corrective action, confidence bleeds away, and alternative stores of value gain traction. De-dollarization today, whether measured in central-bank gold purchases or shifting trade-settlement patterns, reflects a repeat of that loss of confidence.
The Founders understood something that today’s generation, lacking direct experience of currency collapse, finds easy to overlook. Paper money untethered from hard assets removes the shackles that keep politicians from doing what politicians would always rather do—abandon fiscal responsibility.
The Founders had seen the Continental experiment up close. They knew that once the printing press becomes the path of least resistance, the incentive structure for politicians and central bankers alike encourages more spending, more debt, and more monetary accommodation. The result, over time, is the gradual erosion of purchasing power we’ve seen since 1971, punctuated by sharper episodes when political or geopolitical pressures intensify.
None of this is to predict imminent hyperinflation or the sudden disappearance of the dollar as a medium of exchange. Fiat currencies can limp along for decades, sustained by network effects, institutional inertia, and the absence of a clearly superior alternative. But the long-run arithmetic is unforgiving and requires only elementary school math to foresee. Every historical example of sustained, unbacked issuance ends the same way. The currency loses most of its value, new arrangements eventually emerge, and those who held real assets, particularly gold, preserve wealth while others do not.
The lesson is not complicated, just inconvenient. When a great power abandons any credible link to hard money, the currency loses purchasing power over time, and the temptation to finance geopolitical ambitions through debt and debasement grows ever stronger.
The phrase “not worth a Continental” was once popular in the U.S. It wasn’t part of a Cadillac marketing campaign. It came about after the Continental Congress decided that printing its way out of a war was preferable to the messy and difficult business of collecting taxes.
As we’ve seen, the United States has lived through several episodes of this series. The only novelty today is the scale at which the experiment is being run and the amnesia with which it’s being conducted. Those who imagine the outcome will be any different this time around might usefully recall that the Continental Congress also believed its circumstances were unique—until the notes stopped buying anything at all.
Is it too far-fetched to imagine that our descendants will one day adopt the expression “Not worth a US dollar”?
from-cash-to-trash-rinse-and-repeat
From Cash to Trash, Rinse and Repeat
July 07, 2026- The Continental dollar, born in 1775, was meant to finance the colonies’ fight against Britain—the American Revolution. What it actually financed was a masterclass in how quickly a currency can evaporate when it has no anchor, no credible backing, and no one willing to stop the printing presses. Hundreds of millions of Continental notes were issued with nothing but the promise of future redemption in gold or silver—which the colonies did not possess in sufficient quantity.
By 1781, a barrel of flour that once cost a few Continental dollars cost hundreds or thousands. The exchange rate against silver reached the point where it took five hundred to a thousand Continentals to buy a single hard dollar (meaning a silver or metal coin). Some states saw the writing on the wall and simply stopped accepting the notes altogether.
The British, who had plenty of practice in meddling in colonial internal affairs, helped the debasement process along. They knew that counterfeiting Continentals on an industrial scale was cheaper than fighting military battles, and more effective. The result, as intended, was hyperinflation. When the dust settled, the phrase “not worth a Continental” had entered the language as shorthand for worthless.
The Founders, having lived through the destruction of the Continental dollar, carried a deep suspicion of unbacked paper money into the constitutional debates. That suspicion helped produce a document that at least tried to constrain monetary experimentation. George Washington famously said, “Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open a door to every species of fraud and injustice.”
That was not the only such inflationary episode before the colonies became a republic. During and after the American Revolution, individual states issued their own notes with similarly dismal results—sharp depreciation, hyperinflationary spikes in the 1780s, and the general chaos that made a stronger federal hand on currency seem necessary.
The War of 1812 brought another suspension of convertibility and the circulation of Treasury notes at discounts. The so-called Free Banking Era that followed (1837–63) is not unlike today’s cryptocurrency industry. It produced thousands of state-chartered banknotes, many of which traded at steep discounts or became worthless when the issuing (“wildcat”) banks, beset by fraud and panics, collapsed.
The Confederate currency of 1861–65 offers perhaps the cleanest parallel to the Continental story. Once again, massive overprinting to finance a war without adequate taxation was followed by hyperinflation so severe that prices rose thousands of percent before the notes became essentially worthless by the end of the Civil War.
In every case, the pattern resurfaces predictably. Governments (or would-be governments) facing extraordinary expenses turn to the printing press when taxation and borrowing prove inadequate or inconvenient. It’s as if politicians and policy makers either never read a history book or had their memories magically erased. Without a credible anchor in hard assets or ironclad fiscal discipline, public confidence erodes, money velocity rises, and the currency loses purchasing power—sometimes gradually, sometimes in a sudden rush.
The modern version of this story began in earnest with the end of dollar convertibility into gold. Domestically this occurred in 1933, when FDR confiscated privately held gold. Internationally, the break came in 1971, when Nixon closed the gold window.
Ever since, the dollar has functioned as a pure fiat currency. The cumulative effect on purchasing power has been substantial. What $1 bought in 1971 is what about 15 cents buys today. In other words, you need $6.50 to $7 to purchase what a single dollar bought in 1971. That’s a loss of roughly 85 percent of purchasing power over half a century—an outcome entirely consistent with the long-run behavior of unbacked paper currencies. It’s not hyperinflation in the dramatic sense we saw in 1920s Weimar Germany, or in 2000s Zimbabwe, but it’s a steady, grinding, quasi-invisible debasement that compounds across generations.
The usual excuses, “This time is different”, assume that American institutions are uniquely resilient or exceptional, that the dollar’s reserve status grants permanent immunity, and that the U.S. can abuse its currency without serious consequences. These sound like the rationalizations heard at the late stages of any long monetary experiment.
The historical record is not kind to such beliefs. Empires from the Spanish to the British to the French have discovered that the ability to print unlimited currency eventually encourages the very behaviors that undermine the currency. Countless wars have been financed by debt and debasement. Political fragmentation prevents corrective action, confidence bleeds away, and alternative stores of value gain traction. De-dollarization today, whether measured in central-bank gold purchases or shifting trade-settlement patterns, reflects a repeat of that loss of confidence.
The Founders understood something that today’s generation, lacking direct experience of currency collapse, finds easy to overlook. Paper money untethered from hard assets removes the shackles that keep politicians from doing what politicians would always rather do—abandon fiscal responsibility.
The Founders had seen the Continental experiment up close. They knew that once the printing press becomes the path of least resistance, the incentive structure for politicians and central bankers alike encourages more spending, more debt, and more monetary accommodation. The result, over time, is the gradual erosion of purchasing power we’ve seen since 1971, punctuated by sharper episodes when political or geopolitical pressures intensify.
None of this is to predict imminent hyperinflation or the sudden disappearance of the dollar as a medium of exchange. Fiat currencies can limp along for decades, sustained by network effects, institutional inertia, and the absence of a clearly superior alternative. But the long-run arithmetic is unforgiving and requires only elementary school math to foresee. Every historical example of sustained, unbacked issuance ends the same way. The currency loses most of its value, new arrangements eventually emerge, and those who held real assets, particularly gold, preserve wealth while others do not.
The lesson is not complicated, just inconvenient. When a great power abandons any credible link to hard money, the currency loses purchasing power over time, and the temptation to finance geopolitical ambitions through debt and debasement grows ever stronger.
The phrase “not worth a Continental” was once popular in the U.S. It wasn’t part of a Cadillac marketing campaign. It came about after the Continental Congress decided that printing its way out of a war was preferable to the messy and difficult business of collecting taxes.
As we’ve seen, the United States has lived through several episodes of this series. The only novelty today is the scale at which the experiment is being run and the amnesia with which it’s being conducted. Those who imagine the outcome will be any different this time around might usefully recall that the Continental Congress also believed its circumstances were unique—until the notes stopped buying anything at all.
Is it too far-fetched to imagine that our descendants will one day adopt the expression “Not worth a US dollar”?
from-cash-to-trash-rinse-and-repeat
Hfcomms
EN66iq
While it's true that hard money doesn't repeal the business cycle (booms, recessions/depressions) it does put a limit on government overspending which is the prime reason we are in the financial mess we find ourselves in today. Returning to that meme I posted on the other thread if minimum wage was still five silver quarters an hour (or $1.25 an hour) and the melt value of that silver even with the pullback is over $50 I think most wage earners starting out would be content with that. While hard money won't fix all the ills of society it is the solid base which to build on materially speaking.
Hfcomms
EN66iq
The one I've used is 100 years ago you could walk into a bank with a $20 bill and exchange it for a $20 gold coin. Both the coin and the bill would have bought you a beef cow or top quality business suit. Fast forward a hundred years that $20 gold coin will still buy you that cow or business suit. The $20 FRN bill? Maybe a cheap takeout pizza without the tip.
The gold hasn't changed. Same coin and relatively the same amount of goods. It is the currency it is measured in which is a (rapidly) melting ice cube.
The gold hasn't changed. Same coin and relatively the same amount of goods. It is the currency it is measured in which is a (rapidly) melting ice cube.
Doc1
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Many years ago when my father passed my mother asked me to help her go through his (large) safety deposit box. Besides the usual paperwork, the box was filled with silver coins. On the very top were two old US $20 gold pieces (what people formerly and commonly called Double Eagles). A $10 gold piece was referred to as an Eagle. If you listen to some blues music, you might hear the phrase "The Eagle flies on Friday" or something similar. That's a reference to money being spent unwisely.
In any event, my two younger sisters had no interest in any of the metal. I gladly took it all and of course gave my sisters the cash equivalent for what would've been their share of the metal. I know for certain that one of them completely went through her inheritance and I suspect the other did too.
I still have those two Double Eagles and will never spend them. I plan to bequeath them to my grand daughter.
Best
Doc
Hfcomms
EN66iq
Besides..I like to think of the history behind all my coins. A good deal of my silver is pre-1900 (I love old Morgans) as well as a lot of the gold. I think of the pockets these coins passed through if only they could of talked. Civil war veterans carried and spent some of the coins we have. And then I think of the miners who back then used picks and hammers and maybe some air drills who in those pre-1900 days labored by candlelight.
The birth, zenith and death of a nation is seen in it’s money and coinage. Lots of similarities between us and ancient Rome although on an extremely compressed timescale.
The birth, zenith and death of a nation is seen in it’s money and coinage. Lots of similarities between us and ancient Rome although on an extremely compressed timescale.
Wyominglarry
Veteran Member
Everyone knows the government, business, and private debt cannot be paid back. Pretend and extend is the playbook for now. It will all end badly. The Great Taking lays it all out for the end game, but the people who think all of us will go along with the Great Taking are very wrong. I am not sure there is enough rope to hang everyone who approved of the Great Taking. Oh well, the Fourth Turning is moving along towards its violent end.
markshere2
Senior Member
You don't need rope. Chain works great and is re-usable.
And you can take him/her for a drag behind the truck for a few miles.
Strictly as a visual reminder to others that behaving is a good idea.
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
rather a boiling frog......
Rapidly is only when it is collapsing..... we are almost there....
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
I have a $5 Indian from 1908 (?), have to check the date to be sure. Was my grandfather's who gave it to my mother who gave it to me......
Sadly, my children will have no value for it.....
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
I contend you are ( myself also ) are part of the 5-10%
Sadly, too much of society will go along with anything as long as their food / fun is continued.
The old Roman bread and circus bit.
Samuel Adams
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Southside
Has No Timebombs, Lives on Life
I am fortunate.my son was not interested in my selling the old paper $$$ I have a note from the Colonial days, printed by Ben Franklin, and another, printed in the 1896, an "Education Note" The printing on the front of the note is the Constitution.
Samuel Adams
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Southside
Has No Timebombs, Lives on Life
If not, it will be soon.I’ll bet that’s illegal contraband…..
Wyominglarry
Veteran Member
The bond markets are going crazy with higher interest rates and this means no one trust anyone to pay back the loans. So where do you park your money when inflation is out of control and the bond markets no longer trust anyone? You cannot default on PMs if you have them in your hand. There is no counter party risk.
Plus all those depleted missiles and bombs that the US and Israel dropped on Iran need to be replaced and that takes a lot of silver. Also, Ukraine and Russia needs to build more missiles and bombs too.
I also wonder how much silver is in the chips, servers, and other equipment in some of those mega data centers. More than a few ounces is my guess.
Plus all those depleted missiles and bombs that the US and Israel dropped on Iran need to be replaced and that takes a lot of silver. Also, Ukraine and Russia needs to build more missiles and bombs too.
I also wonder how much silver is in the chips, servers, and other equipment in some of those mega data centers. More than a few ounces is my guess.
Samuel Adams
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Copper been pretty aggressive over the last week…..
Rubbing up against previous record high as we speak, and climbing, this morning.
Rubbing up against previous record high as we speak, and climbing, this morning.
Hfcomms
EN66iq
All commodities are going to go for a wild ride going forward. These current ‘wars’ are as much of resource wars than anything else. If the chief export going through the Straits of Hormuz was broccoli I doubt all the bombs and missiles would of been expended.
As long as governments around the world (especially the U.S.) keep increasing their balance sheets and funding their deficits with mouse click money overall prices have one direction to go in.
As long as governments around the world (especially the U.S.) keep increasing their balance sheets and funding their deficits with mouse click money overall prices have one direction to go in.
Samuel Adams
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Mmmmmmm.
LOVE me some steamed broccoli in cheese sauce……
LOVE me some steamed broccoli in cheese sauce……
coalcracker
Veteran Member
August 6, 2026 @ 2 PM Eastern.
Calm markets.
Silver @ $61.52
Gold @ $4,248
Calm markets.
Silver @ $61.52
Gold @ $4,248
coalcracker
Veteran Member
August 7, 2026 @ 1:20 PM Eastern
Nice upswing.
Silver @ $63.21 (up $1.66)
Gold @ $4,334 (up $94)
Nice upswing.
Silver @ $63.21 (up $1.66)
Gold @ $4,334 (up $94)