Reddit's silver "apes" now targeting silver, opportunity or fool's gold?

[myrdale]

What is yall's opinion for using a safety deposit box for maintaining your gold / silver collection? After this past week I am not too sure.

I signed up for a safety deposit box for maintaining an off site copy of my data. In my case I had purchased a pair of Apricorn USB flash drives. I plan to keep the first in the box and the second in my truck, and switch them out on some occasion. If the box were ever broken into or raided, the drives are encrypted so I don't have to worry about my passwords or cryto wallet seed phrases I have saved on it. But looking the vault over as a whole, I am not sure how secure I'd feel about keeping actual valuables in it.

To enter the vault, there is a finger print scanner. I think that is a silly sort of thing because that just means you need to pay $30 to purchase a box, now you're in the finger print system. The keys have the box number stamped onto them. If somehow I stole your key, I'd just need to open an account, walk in and open your box. There was no video recording that I saw inside the vault, so you'd never know who accessed the box. There was no second key required, so I'd have the luxury of being in there alone.

[james.hendrickson]

I used to keep my silver and gold in a safety deposit box. I think it might make sense if you have a large amount of physical bullion that your homeowners insurance won't cover.

The other advantage is you could pick a close place and you could get a bit of exercise in walking to the bank.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I have a bank 3 x 5 x 12 safe deposit box which is the smallest size for $70 a year. I inquired about getting a bigger box but my bank said none are available but I could get another same sized box for an additional $70 a year which I might have to do. My home stash is getting sizeable and too much to keep at home.

I created an account at Gainsville coins intending to buy (4) morgan like design 1 oz silver rounds but at checkout the tax is a bummer so I removed my items. I don't mind paying for shipping but I can purchase more silver from 2 other website dealers that don't assess taxes so I rather purchase from them instead.

[QuarterMillionMan]

App store has a free precious coin tester which uses your microphone to analyze the ping sound of silver/gold but use at your own risk. I have a case on my iphone and accidentally dropped the coin and cracked the case and luckily my iphone didn't crack. I don't think I'll be using this test anymore.

[myrdale]

App store has a free precious coin tester which uses your microphone to analyze the ping sound of silver/gold but use at your own risk. I have a case on my iphone and accidentally dropped the coin and cracked the case and luckily my iphone didn't crack. I don't think I'll be using this test anymore.

There are hand held metal analyzers which can be used, but they are extremely expense (+$5k iirc) and extremely dangerous as they use X-rays.

I wonder about using a metal detector? I understand that some can identify silver vs gold vs iron. I have no experience with them though.

[myrdale]

I used to keep my silver and gold in a safety deposit box. I think it might make sense if you have a large amount of physical bullion that your homeowners insurance won't cover.

The other advantage is you could pick a close place and you could get a bit of exercise in walking to the bank.

Keep in mind that the FDIC does not insure the contents of safety deposit boxes. I'm not sure I'd want to walk around with a backpack of bullion either. If it were only a couple of coins at a time, I guess no one would know or care.

[QuarterMillionMan]

God's money vs man's money? I know where most of you stand and you know where I stand. But my question to most of you is why do you trust man (lol)?

[james.hendrickson]

@ QMM - my scriptural knowledge is a bit limited, but where specifically in the Old or New Testament say that we need to use a specific type of money?

[kork13]

@ QMM - my scriptural knowledge is a bit limited, but where specifically in the Old or New Testament say that we need to use a specific type of money?

I'd actually argue that scripturally, what form of currency you use doesn't matter -- "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s" (Mat. 22) ... Point of the story being to let the world's governments handle their currency, God cares about the heart. Fun discussion to have though!

[myrdale]

Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin is worth the read on this subject. There is a great section about a Pacific Island village that uses giant stones (think 3ft in diameter) for currency. And everyone's bank account is parked in the middle of the village. One day a villager from another island buys his wife, but while moving his stone to that island it sinks. That's fine with the brides father because he knows the stone exist at the bottom of the ocean, and he can still trade that stone at the bottom of the ocean for a dozen pigs!

All currency is spiritual in that we have faith in its value. When you realize the US economy is based on the governments promise that your money is worth something its really scary. Even gold has the same spiritual element behind it. Your willing to pay $2000 per ounce because thats what you think its worth. You might be willing to trade 15 ounces for a car or 50 ounces for a house. In reality though, if the economy did collapse, you might be willing to trade an ounce for a dozen eggs.

[QuarterMillionMan]

James I use the term loosely God's money referring to gold/silver naturally occurring in finite quantities only to be dredged up and yet to be pulled out of the ground as opposed to man's money which is printed out of thin air.

I wasn’t referring to any biblical sense of the term although I render to Cesar that which is Cesar’s, and onto the Lord that which belongs to the Lord.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Dave Ramsey advises not to buy precious metals. I like to see both sides which keeps me balanced and not get lopsided.

[disneysteve]

Generally speaking I’m not a fan of Dave’s investment advice but on this I agree 100%. Precious metals aren’t an investment. The IRS agrees which is why they aren’t taxed as investments but rather as collectibles.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Ordinary nickels contains 75% copper, 25% nickel. Today's melt value of 1 nickel is $0.0574983 is the melt value for the 1946-2014 nickel on September 01, 2023.

[myrdale]

Generally speaking I’m not a fan of Dave’s investment advice but on this I agree 100%. Precious metals aren’t an investment. The IRS agrees which is why they aren’t taxed as investments but rather as collectibles.

It's been my long time opinion that Dave is a "one size fits all" approach to getting out of debt. He is like the 12 Step program for alcohol recovery. All you "have to do" is stop drinking. But most people can't do that. It's the same with people getting out of debt and growing their wealth. So many people need someone to hold their hand through the process. I disagree with his approach of no credit cards what-so-ever. But I have to remember we are talking about the financial equivalent of an alcoholic. Yeah you and me can go have a beer, or five and it's not a problem. For some one is too many and twenty isn't enough.