Yep. PMs (Precious Metals). The only way to be sure. But only if you have the physical stuff (not paper) under your own physical control (not in a bank).
Under the current economic circumstances, silver will never get back down to 25-30/oz. That ship has not only sailed, but sunk to the bottom of the Marianas trench.
The best I can do now is to try to follow trends (silver hit a peak earlier this week, and was trending down). How far down? And for how long? How much can I afford?
Once upon a time, when gold was $200/oz and silver was $4, I intended to buy a couple of 1/10 oz gold coins and a couple of 1 oz silver bars every payday…since I’m not living in a mansion today we can all assume how that went.
“In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley”
It’s customary to quote Burns on News Year Day, thanks for the excuse 😉
One of the MANY “financial advice” emails I get daily (and trash) advised saving pennies now that none are being made, on the theory they would become good TEOTWAWKI currency, as the silver dimes and quarters did.
I never bought the first theory. I understand the concept, the silver is worth more than the coin. I just never could see random store clerks buying the idea that an old dime should buy a loaf of bread, or whatever. I could hear the clerk saying, “It’s a dime, Dude. Ten cents. Sez so right there onna coin.”
Oh, did I also forget the other PMs?
Brass, lead, copper, steel.
Mason jar rings and lids.
Canned goods.
As the hippie era FFFBs put it, “grass and drugs will get you through times of no money, better than money will get you through times of no grass or drugs.
And Sam, you’re definitely stacked. In every way that counts.
The incident that Don Portago is loosely referring to, a Brit came to the colonies (US) to visit friends. He posed with a pic of himself holding a shotgun. Not his gun, didn’t shoot it, made no threatening statements. But when he got back to Britainstan, he was harassed and arrested by the po-po. So much for freedom of speech across the pond.
Bet if he’d been a Paki holding a machete, he’d have been just fine.
2026 hat tip for Sam/Zed: if you’re ever looking for new reading material try the Cormoran Strike books by Robert Galbraith ( = J.K. Rowling), an epic love story disguised as a series of clever detective novels. Am 2300 pages into it (at book 5 of a projected 10) and can literally not put it down. Surprisingly based, brilliant writing. Happy 2026!
Thanks Halley! The missus is (always) looking for another good read to jump into. She’s going to squawk at the prices on Amazon. Maybe I’ll buy them for her for my birthday (after some pricing research, elsewhere.)
: ) Must be read in order, though. Got interested in Rowling after the “transgender controversy” they put her through, and was pleasantly shocked reading these Strike books how BASED she is, and with an IQ that must be off the charts. Warning: highly addictive series.
Amazon doesn’t always have the best consumer friendly pricing.
Try going to the author’s or publisher’s own website for a lower price vs Amazon.
(But don’t forget to also account for shipping. The pricing difference between the two may be a wash)
I started purchasing silver coins back in the 90s and early 2000s, when it was like $12 to $18 per oz. Gold was always too expensive, so I figured silver … it’s the poor man’s gold, right?!?
I bought a number of the Silver Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, Silver Krugerrands, Silver Mexican Sovereigns, Australian Silver Dollars, some historical silver coins, a small but nice hoard of Morgan’s, etc., and a number of 10 oz. Silver bars.
I figured I would just buy them in case of a zombie apocalypse or something, but I still occasionally buy Morgans, because they are my favorite, even though they are now about $120 to $150 for a typical Morgan dollar. The Carson City Morgans are real collectors’ items and now can fetch up to to $1K or more each. I only have a couple of these that I bought some 25 years ago.
It’s fun … kinda like a hobby, but good too for security and safety purposes too.
BTW … I just noticed very recently that you can purchase precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and others on the Walmart website; not jewelry, but sold as bullion in various sized bars and rounds. I thought this was kinda interesting for Walmart to be getting into.
In the meantime … wishing everyone a most blessed, prosperous, and happy 2026. Stay frosty … and watch your six!
Good on yer! I started buying one ounce silver rounds when they were eighteen bucks and some change an ounce for pretty much the same reasons you did.
I also did (In preparation for my old age, which is getting close I’m 87.) some more conventional investing, in utility stocks. I never planned to nor got rich.
However sitting up here on top of the world, the temperature is minus forty two degrees outside right now, I can afford to keep hearing oil running to my furnace in spite of today’s inflated prices.
Serious question here- if you have gold and silver and coins after the apocalypse, how do you convert those into food and other supplies? I just find myself thinking how do you use a bar of gold or silver to buy bread and food, etc.?
My thought it that many see society going back to a gold\silver based economy, but those items, like many, only have value if most\all of that society recognize them as having wide-spread intrinsic value.
If\when the SHTF, I believe we will go back to trading items with real actual value (food, tools, ammo, powder, etc) for quite a while until the society progresses to things they give value and that are easier to carry (vis-a-vis coins vs a bunch of heavy, bulky tools, and such)
Owned pawn shops with emphasis on gold and guns since 1978.
I was one of the first to hit the motels running ads to buy the stuff during the first PM boom of 79-80.
That boom busted pretty quick and some were left hold the (silver) bag. I was in West Palm Beach when that happened and then the Bunker Hunt thing broke on top of that; a customer who insisted on buying two silver bags (1000.00 face value per) and couldn’t be talked out of it had just taken delivery when the Hunt thing happened and silver went to damn near zero. Turns out he was siphoning funds from his wife’s real estate portfolio, notably a penthouse in Trump Tower on Flagler Blvd. down there; she caught him and he offed himself doing a swan dive off the roof. Crazy.
After that bust metals stayed way way down for decades, gold stayed at or below 300 for most of the 80’s and 90’s and silver got so low (3.00 oz) that many dealers wouldn’t even buy US junk silver coins, but I never paid less than 3X face and just kept accumulating.
You say you wish you were hoarding it then? Many did, and doggedly held on for all those years until they gave up and liquidated, died, or lasted until this crazy boom of the last several years.
@cdr9215: That is the question not just of the moment but of the decade…SHTF stashes have been promoted and accumulated all of that time (along with the other shooty PM’s). Those that I have been able to advise stopped socking away private-mint and third tier refinery products and started with eagles, silver and gold, in spite of the crazy premiums (that were crazy for this specific reason) for exactly the questions you raise of fungibility. Take a 10 ounce NTR or similar silver bar to the grocery store and get a stupid look from the cashier but no groceries. Same with all of those off-brand bars and rounds and gold too. OTOH, take a silver eagle with spot value at 30.00 (when silver was 30) for which you had to pay 33-35 and the trade for goods is easy because everybody in the world knows exactly what it is and what it’s worth. In that way the premium although hard to swallow, comes back to you. Junk silver is even better for market use as the breakdown to 10.25,and 50 cent denominations lets you use a dime for that loaf of break you mention (10 cent dime bought a loaf in 1970’s, and still will as a 2.00 dime in 2020’s. And there again recognition of value as us minted currency is recognized and accepted throughout the US and the world.
There are specific exceptions to the above more for dealers or large collectors than individuals with their stash, I have an interesting and recent story about this that happened in the last month or so that really illustrates both concepts. I will try to slip that in as a OT comment soon…
January 1, 2026 at 1:37 pm
WayneM
Happy New Year, lady & gents!!
May 2026 be filled with joy, good health & prosperity for each of you.
And may this be the year Canadians finally f***ing awaken to the existential crisis known as the Liberal Party of Canada.
24 Comments
Yep. PMs (Precious Metals). The only way to be sure. But only if you have the physical stuff (not paper) under your own physical control (not in a bank).
Under the current economic circumstances, silver will never get back down to 25-30/oz. That ship has not only sailed, but sunk to the bottom of the Marianas trench.
The best I can do now is to try to follow trends (silver hit a peak earlier this week, and was trending down). How far down? And for how long? How much can I afford?
Once upon a time, when gold was $200/oz and silver was $4, I intended to buy a couple of 1/10 oz gold coins and a couple of 1 oz silver bars every payday…since I’m not living in a mansion today we can all assume how that went.
“In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley”
It’s customary to quote Burns on News Year Day, thanks for the excuse 😉
I think she is talking about the precious metals Jeff and Jo!
One of the MANY “financial advice” emails I get daily (and trash) advised saving pennies now that none are being made, on the theory they would become good TEOTWAWKI currency, as the silver dimes and quarters did.
I never bought the first theory. I understand the concept, the silver is worth more than the coin. I just never could see random store clerks buying the idea that an old dime should buy a loaf of bread, or whatever. I could hear the clerk saying, “It’s a dime, Dude. Ten cents. Sez so right there onna coin.”
Especially since the cheap-*ss things aren’t even copper anymore — just plated zinc!
Oh, did I also forget the other PMs?
Brass, lead, copper, steel.
Mason jar rings and lids.
Canned goods.
As the hippie era FFFBs put it, “grass and drugs will get you through times of no money, better than money will get you through times of no grass or drugs.
And Sam, you’re definitely stacked. In every way that counts.
The incident that Don Portago is loosely referring to, a Brit came to the colonies (US) to visit friends. He posed with a pic of himself holding a shotgun. Not his gun, didn’t shoot it, made no threatening statements. But when he got back to Britainstan, he was harassed and arrested by the po-po. So much for freedom of speech across the pond.
Bet if he’d been a Paki holding a machete, he’d have been just fine.
Or a “Palestinian” with an AK-47 pointed directly at the camera.
Never in my wildest hallucinations did I expect to see the Fearless Freep Brothers quoted on DBD! Thanks for the first good laugh of the new year!
I think it was ‘Fabulous Furry Freak Bros’.
My memory aint that great, I also think
the comic came from Canada.
Phineas, Freewheelin’ Franklin, and Fat Freddie. AKA, The Fabulous Furry freak Bros.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fabulous_Furry_Freak_Brothers
2026 hat tip for Sam/Zed: if you’re ever looking for new reading material try the Cormoran Strike books by Robert Galbraith ( = J.K. Rowling), an epic love story disguised as a series of clever detective novels. Am 2300 pages into it (at book 5 of a projected 10) and can literally not put it down. Surprisingly based, brilliant writing. Happy 2026!
Thanks Halley! The missus is (always) looking for another good read to jump into. She’s going to squawk at the prices on Amazon. Maybe I’ll buy them for her for my birthday (after some pricing research, elsewhere.)
: ) Must be read in order, though. Got interested in Rowling after the “transgender controversy” they put her through, and was pleasantly shocked reading these Strike books how BASED she is, and with an IQ that must be off the charts. Warning: highly addictive series.
Amazon doesn’t always have the best consumer friendly pricing.
Try going to the author’s or publisher’s own website for a lower price vs Amazon.
(But don’t forget to also account for shipping. The pricing difference between the two may be a wash)
Try Abe Books, online pre-read books. Amazon new= $15, Abe = $7. Bought 8 of 9 in James Corey’s Expanse series from Abe
I started purchasing silver coins back in the 90s and early 2000s, when it was like $12 to $18 per oz. Gold was always too expensive, so I figured silver … it’s the poor man’s gold, right?!?
I bought a number of the Silver Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, Silver Krugerrands, Silver Mexican Sovereigns, Australian Silver Dollars, some historical silver coins, a small but nice hoard of Morgan’s, etc., and a number of 10 oz. Silver bars.
I figured I would just buy them in case of a zombie apocalypse or something, but I still occasionally buy Morgans, because they are my favorite, even though they are now about $120 to $150 for a typical Morgan dollar. The Carson City Morgans are real collectors’ items and now can fetch up to to $1K or more each. I only have a couple of these that I bought some 25 years ago.
It’s fun … kinda like a hobby, but good too for security and safety purposes too.
BTW … I just noticed very recently that you can purchase precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and others on the Walmart website; not jewelry, but sold as bullion in various sized bars and rounds. I thought this was kinda interesting for Walmart to be getting into.
In the meantime … wishing everyone a most blessed, prosperous, and happy 2026. Stay frosty … and watch your six!
Good on yer! I started buying one ounce silver rounds when they were eighteen bucks and some change an ounce for pretty much the same reasons you did.
I also did (In preparation for my old age, which is getting close I’m 87.) some more conventional investing, in utility stocks. I never planned to nor got rich.
However sitting up here on top of the world, the temperature is minus forty two degrees outside right now, I can afford to keep hearing oil running to my furnace in spite of today’s inflated prices.
Serious question here- if you have gold and silver and coins after the apocalypse, how do you convert those into food and other supplies? I just find myself thinking how do you use a bar of gold or silver to buy bread and food, etc.?
My thought it that many see society going back to a gold\silver based economy, but those items, like many, only have value if most\all of that society recognize them as having wide-spread intrinsic value.
If\when the SHTF, I believe we will go back to trading items with real actual value (food, tools, ammo, powder, etc) for quite a while until the society progresses to things they give value and that are easier to carry (vis-a-vis coins vs a bunch of heavy, bulky tools, and such)
Owned pawn shops with emphasis on gold and guns since 1978.
I was one of the first to hit the motels running ads to buy the stuff during the first PM boom of 79-80.
That boom busted pretty quick and some were left hold the (silver) bag. I was in West Palm Beach when that happened and then the Bunker Hunt thing broke on top of that; a customer who insisted on buying two silver bags (1000.00 face value per) and couldn’t be talked out of it had just taken delivery when the Hunt thing happened and silver went to damn near zero. Turns out he was siphoning funds from his wife’s real estate portfolio, notably a penthouse in Trump Tower on Flagler Blvd. down there; she caught him and he offed himself doing a swan dive off the roof. Crazy.
After that bust metals stayed way way down for decades, gold stayed at or below 300 for most of the 80’s and 90’s and silver got so low (3.00 oz) that many dealers wouldn’t even buy US junk silver coins, but I never paid less than 3X face and just kept accumulating.
You say you wish you were hoarding it then? Many did, and doggedly held on for all those years until they gave up and liquidated, died, or lasted until this crazy boom of the last several years.
@cdr9215: That is the question not just of the moment but of the decade…SHTF stashes have been promoted and accumulated all of that time (along with the other shooty PM’s). Those that I have been able to advise stopped socking away private-mint and third tier refinery products and started with eagles, silver and gold, in spite of the crazy premiums (that were crazy for this specific reason) for exactly the questions you raise of fungibility. Take a 10 ounce NTR or similar silver bar to the grocery store and get a stupid look from the cashier but no groceries. Same with all of those off-brand bars and rounds and gold too. OTOH, take a silver eagle with spot value at 30.00 (when silver was 30) for which you had to pay 33-35 and the trade for goods is easy because everybody in the world knows exactly what it is and what it’s worth. In that way the premium although hard to swallow, comes back to you. Junk silver is even better for market use as the breakdown to 10.25,and 50 cent denominations lets you use a dime for that loaf of break you mention (10 cent dime bought a loaf in 1970’s, and still will as a 2.00 dime in 2020’s. And there again recognition of value as us minted currency is recognized and accepted throughout the US and the world.
There are specific exceptions to the above more for dealers or large collectors than individuals with their stash, I have an interesting and recent story about this that happened in the last month or so that really illustrates both concepts. I will try to slip that in as a OT comment soon…
Happy New Year, lady & gents!!
May 2026 be filled with joy, good health & prosperity for each of you.
And may this be the year Canadians finally f***ing awaken to the existential crisis known as the Liberal Party of Canada.
I think she is talking about the precious metals Jeff and Jo!
Lead, copper and brass.