Pre-1965 Silver coins are real silver coins!

    As people that keep a close eye on the future, you won’t catch us off guard, we try to be prepared for whatever comes our way. At least that’s our plan! With this in mind I’ve been pondering the ways a prepper prepares for the future. More specifically the ways a prepper invests that are different than an average investor. We have a different set of priorities than many do and therefore it would make sense for us to put our investment dollars into different places as well. There’s quite a number of things under this category - Land, Gold, Food storage, Tools, Barter items but the investment I’m going to talk about today is Silver.

   What I’m referring to today in the silver investment family, is “Junk Silver”. When you hear junk silver referenced it means the old US coinage minted prior to 1965. Specifically, dimes, quarters and half dollars. These coins contained 90% silver. The coins currently in circulation, after 1964 with few exceptions, are nothing more than clad metal tokens. This is a coin that is composed mostly of a low value metal and than clad with a silver looking outer finish.

   It wouldn’t be at all inappropriate in my opinion to compare this physical reality of our current coinage to the remarks of Mark Twain. He spoke of the gilded age where everything looked great on the outside. However, scratch just below the surface and we would see that all is not as it seems at its core. Sound like the America we are currently living in?

   Take a look at the edge of any of the “silver” coins in your pocket… See that coppery looking layer in the middle? That’s something else, not silver, right? Of course these coins aren’t worthless, just worth-less, than a true silver content coin… For example, currently at today’s posting these “Junk Silver” coins are trading on the Internet at 16-18 x their face value. This means that a junk silver dime is worth about a buck seventy five ($1.75)… Not to bad, if you have some you wanted to sell…

   There are a couple of schools of thought on this investment strategy. Some credible folks suggest purchasing silver as a hedge against inflation. I would agree that this is a GREAT idea. The other camp would advocate using these metal investments and their current volitility in a manner similar to trading stocks… Buy low, sell high – I don’t disagree with this idea either but it isn’t the strategy I will be discussing for preppers today.

   I advocate us preppers taking a long look at what might be coming down the road… Can you see it? That’s right, some dark clouds on the horizon, doesn’t mean they’ll make it to us for-sure but it would only be prudent to carry an umbrella. This silver investment could possibly be that umbrella. This alone isn’t the answer to the potential of bad days ahead but it can be part of the strategy we employee. Just like a well rounded traditional investment portfolio, preppers need to have multiple ways of protecting themselves.

  I think we can all see and agree that inflation is eating away at the spending power of the our dollars. It’s this insidious enemy of our financial success that requires us to take steps with our investment funds that will allow us to activate a time machine of sorts. Junk Silver can be one of these time machine investments, bought today and held until such time in the future as it might be needed.

   In 1964 the value of a dime was 10 cents and if we all agree at the time of this posting that a 1964 dime is worth $1.75, what does that tell us… Our money is losing value. If we don’t convert at least a portion of our current assets into something that will stand the test of time, eventually the spending power of our current assets will look similar to that clad token dime in our pockets.

  Purchasing these coins really is just a way of turning today’s investment dollar into a tangible asset that is universally recognized as valuable for its underlying content. Not all that different than purchasing a shipping container of quality backup generators and then waiting until there is a wide spread power outage to sell them. Although I maintain that the coins are an even better way to guarantee your investment will be a sure thing… The coins can’t be degraded the way a complex generator might be… Purchase most tangibles and let them sit for 45 years and see if there quality has been maintained? The value may very well have endured but the quality would likely have suffered. Maybe this isn’t the best analogy but I think all you get the idea. 

   A number of sources are available to the prepper that wants to add this metal to his prepping portfolio… I regularly see vendors at the local gun show that trade in silver. In my area I know of 2-3 collectibles shops that have both gold and silver coins or bullion. Of course there is also the internet… Everybody from ebay to specialty companies carry precious metals. It’s really not at all hard to find, which also adds to the value as I’m describing it today, it should be relatively easy to convert back to dollars or their equivalent in the future.

   Like everything else I advocate, it’s more important to just get started rather than worry about getting it all done at once. There is no minimum investment required with these coins! You can buy just one thin dime or many thousands of dollars worth. Every investment portfolio is different depending on the intentions of the investor.

   Personally, I like the idea of having control of my assets and just like with free and clear land, a stash of real silver coins in hand may make a difference in our uncertain future of tomorrow.

Prepper