I’m back, after a well deserved vacation. (For the first couple of days away, I was writing orders, talking on the phone and worrying in my sleep. The pressure here lately is very severe). While I was away, my supplier, A-Mark, shipped $2,621,616.15 worth of back orders to my customers. In other words, a bit of catching up has occurred, and Sunshine Mint, I understand, is shipping lots of 10 oz bars and A-Mark Rounds either today or tomorrow, directly from the mint to save time.
I can assume that soon, we will be taking orders for silver again, maybe next week? We’ll see.
Everyone wonders why, if there is such a demand for silver and gold, why are the prices so low? There are a couple of reasons. First of all, there are very few people who understand the value of tangible, beautiful, gold and silver, but are racking their brains, trying to figure out how to get out of the stock market, hedge funds, or whatever…to save themselves. The trouble is, they keep in dollars, and dollar denominated items, rather than getting into tangibles which can never go to zero. Gold and silver are the arch enemy of paper instruments, whatever they may be. Stocks, paper money, and mortgages can go to zero, as we have all seen of late. GM at $2? Maybe it will go to a buck, I don’t know, but gold and silver are the life preserver in times of trouble, which few understand, or will take hold of when they should…which is now. I admit, the phones are busy, and we feel terrible that so few of you can get through to us. There’ll be a third number in a couple of weeks for you to call, and the third number, which will be my daughter Melissa, will be open from 8AM to 4 PM Eastern Time. David, the second number, will be open from 8AM to 4 PM Central Time, and I will be open from 8AM to 4PM Mountain time. An extra number, and an extra two hours for you to contact us, in other words.
Is there a huge demand? Only from smart thinking people. The rest, or 99.5%, haven’t a clue. Compared to the population, the demand is maybe a small fraction of 1%, and admittedly growing. There is a manufacturing crisis. Not enough machinery to produce the stuff. Suddenly, a small, infinitesimal part of the population, got wise and decided to get into gold and silver, and especially when they went down to ridiculous levels, as they are at today. This sudden demand, has cleaned us out, and cleaned out the coin shops. We therefore can only deliver what mints can produce. Sunshine Mint, which makes the blanks for the Silver Eagles, Silver Maple Leafs, and also the 10 ounce bars and A-Mark rounds, has new machinery coming, but it will not be in place for a couple of months at a minimum. (Executive offices being moved, and new machinery being placed in their old spaces.) Johnson-Matthey has decided not to buy new machinery for their hundred ounce bars, but has merely increased shifts. Maybe they will realize that the demand for gold and silver will not decrease, but only increase, and they may order new machinery. We can hope so. We will not sell bad hallmarks or bad brand names, so we will stick with the old line names.
Gold and silver are of course being manipulated by the futures crooks, who have made terrible decisions by going short on silver, and are trying their best to get out without going bankrupt. The COMEX is their big helper, by not requiring that there is silver in stock to cover contracts, and allowing trades which should never happen. There may be a third of that supposedly required amount, or less. If everyone decided to take delivery of their futures contracts, that would blow up pretty quickly, and silver would go to where it should be and that is at a sixteenth the price of gold, or about $50 an ounce, rather than $10. Paper silver? Paper gold? I think not. Nothing takes the place of real, tangible, beautiful, silver and gold. How do you know there is real silver and gold to back the paper? No, just get the real stuff.
Government isn’t going to confiscate your gold and silver. Government problems are far larger than your ten Gold Eagles or hundred Silver Eagles! The governments around the world are trying to make matters worse by trying to help, which is what Herbert Hoover and FDR did. The markets will cleanse themselves if left alone, and it might be a re-run of 1929, but that’s the only solution. The more they print and inject, the worse it will all get. When they print to help, it only gets us into hyper-inflation, and then we will all pay through the nose with higher consumer prices. Governments have but one solution, and that is the printing press. That’s it! The more they print, the less they will be worth, and the more things will cost. Why has oil gone down in price? Because the demand is small, thanks to the high prices, and they can pump at will, since the wells are in place. If they stopped pumping, their Muslim nations would suffer terribly, so they keep pumping, and the price goes down. nbsp; It’s all so simple. Gold and silver cannot be run off of presses. They require exploration, geology, capital, effort, machinery, discovery, milling, smelting, stamping or pouring, transporting, distributing, and the list is long. All the orders we take, will be delivered. If we can’t deliver, we won’t take your order. Be patient and smart.
The current economic situation is not the end. It may be only a small beginning. We will have a terrible Christmas shopping season, home prices are still going down, and jobs are still being lost. Banks are still in trouble, thanks to derivatives and bad loans. Everything now happening I have predicted, if you will read past columns which can be gotten by clicking on “Archives.” I am thankful if I have helped a few out there to protect themselves. You’ll never be sorry for saving surplus assets in tangible gold and silver. While silver is a better buy for sure, if you can’t get silver, get gold. Remember the milk ads which said, “Got Milk?” How about “Got Gold?”