Coincast Episode 2 - Do We Regret Buying Silver at $35?

In episode 2 of Coincast, we discuss whether we regret buying our first ounces of silver at $35 per ounce in May 2011 with the current price of silver at roughly $15 per ounce.

Coincast Episode 1 - Canadian Debt, Coin Roll Hunting Endgame and Silver Retirement Plan

Here is the first episode of Coincast! We have been wanting to do a podcast-like video series together for the past couple of months now and we hope that you enjoy episode 1. We are currently planning on doing at least two episodes a week, but if the feedback is positive we would be happy to do more.

In this first episode, we discuss the following topics:

• Why Canadians are getting themselves into record debt

• Whether you need to melt copper pennies or 99.9% nickel nickels in order to benefit from coin roll hunting

• Whether silver is a good asset for retirement

We are more than happy to hear your views and opinions on any of these topics, so please feel free to leave a comment below. We hope you guys enjoy the discussion and kindly ask that you please like, comment and subscribe if you enjoyed it. Thank you as always everyone!

Debt, Interest Rates and Silver Stacking

A lot of reactionary blame is always placed upon individuals whenever there is a news report or general conversation discussing the ever growing debt that the public is finding themselves in. Whether it is through labels such as the "need it now generation" or negatively referring to financial habits as trying to "keep up with the Joneses," it is easy for people to not feel any sympathy for those who have gotten themselves in over their heads in debt. Although it is true that individual must be held responsible for the financial situation that they find themselves in, this type of thinking erroneously focuses only on the seen actions of individuals, and not the unseen factors that impact these actions.

As this video argues, the artificially suppressed interest rate environment that individuals find themselves in has created a situation that induces individuals to not only get into debt rather than save, but to exacerbate that debt by making it easy to carry their debt balances further into the future. As Henry Hazlitt so eloquently explains in his book "Economics in One Lesson," these unseen factors should be a place of reflection for any good economist. However, these difficult to see factors go largely ignored. When someone has their house foreclosed upon them since they can no longer afford the mortgage, it is too easy to call the individual a fool, rather than comprehend how lower interest rates had the unintended consequence of discouraging saving while at the time same make it seem more desirable and simple to finance their current overindulgence's at the expense of tomorrow's wealth.

At the end of the video, I also take the time to reiterate how important it is to avoid getting into debt when the goal is to acquire a larger silver stack. It is not possible to reach our goals in relation to silver stacking if we get ourselves into debt. A large silver stack requires one to sacrifice the luxuries today, for their enjoyment in the future.

As always, we would love to hear your opinions on the topic in the comment section below. Can debt and a large silver stack co-exist?

Entire Silver Stack - January 2014 Update

Now that we have posted our 2014 silver stacking goals, we thought that it would be a good idea to update our entire silver stack and show where we are starting from. We currently have 34 ounces of silver, with most of it being added during 2013. As you can probably tell, we are trying to get a wide variety of products, including generic bars, silver dimes and coins. The entire 34 ounces consists of either one ounce coins or bars, so we look forward to adding a few more denominations along the way, such as two ounce coins and ten ounce bars.

We hope that this video will help us to stay motivated through the entire year and serves as a good indication of not only where we started, but also what hard work, dedication and some fun can build. I look forward to coming back to this video at the end of the year and compare it to where we are at that time. Hopefully, it will serve as a positive image that indicates our efforts throughout the year.

Let us know what you think about our starting silver stack and what your 2014 silver goals are. Also, if you are thinking about making a silver purchase this month, what are some of the products that you are currently looking at?

Nickel Coin Roll Hunting Finds From Box #36

We have been lucky to have had the time to do quite a bit of nickel coin roll hunting over the Holidays. As I have mentioned before, with the termination of the Canadian penny last year, we have focused on trying to get as many 99.9% nickel nickels as we can. The results from this box were not the best in terms of the nickel bullion within the rolls, but we were able to add 77 99.9% nickel nickels to our collection, in addition to four pre-1963 Canadian nickels and two pre-1960 American nickels. The best find that we had in this box was a 1940 King George VI nickel. It is not very often that we get to find a King George VI nickel, so it is always exciting for us whenever we come across one.

We have found that our numbers for the 99.9% nickel nickels has steadily decreased over the last few years, so we are lowering our expectations for each specific box. Rather than the typical 10% yield of two years ago, we anticipate there being between 6-8% nickel bullion nickels in the average box. Even at this level, we still find coin roll hunting nickels to be a very enjoyable hobby and worth the time and effort. Here are the results from this box:

$100 Nickel Box #36
-Pre-1982 99.9% nickel nickels: 77 (3.85%)
-Pre-1963 Canadian nickels: 4 (1940, 1960, 1962x2)
-Pre-1960 American nickels: 2 (1947, 1953)

I've gone through a number of boxes over the last few weeks, so I look forward to sharing the results from these nickel boxes with you. My brother and I have discussed our 2014 coin roll hunting goals, particularly as it relates to nickels. I will put this video out in the coming days and explain the journey we have planned in the new year. How are all of your coin roll hunting searches going and what have been some of your best finds recently?

Effect of Fed Taper on Silver and Gold

FTIdeas threw out a great question on his YouTube Channel: What effect with the Fed's recent $10 billion taper have on gold and silver? I find the whole topic infinitely fascinating, so decided to dedicate a video to the topic. I did not want to bore everyone with a long, uninteresting economic answer, but I did point out how I am more inclined to focus on the long term effects of the monetary policy behind quantitative easing rather than the short-term, fly-by-night taper debates. I believe that long-term, the consequences have already been created by the creation of $2.5 trillion (yes, with a "T") in excessive reserves. For me, it isn't a matter of "if" those excess reserves will lead to price inflation and a resulting lift in the price of silver and gold, but "when."

However, as always, that is just my opinion and you would not be wise to take investment advice from a guy who collects copper pennies in his spare time. Visit the video above if you would like to hear a longer explanation of this topic from me, or start with the links below to see FTIdeas' original video or to begin or own investigation of the topic.

I finished two more nickel boxes today, so expect to see the results from those boxes in the very near future. How are all of your searches doing as we approach the end of the year?

Links:
FTIdeas' original video
Excess Reserves Totals from the Fed
Interesting Article on the Topic

Copper Penny Hoarding Results From Box #48

One of my favourite hobbies is coin roll hunting through rolls of pennies, nickels and dimes. For the past three years we have been going through $25 pennies boxes looking for Canadian pennies to add to our hoard. We were lucky to be able to go through another box yesterday in order to take advantage of the increased value of copper pennies.

Our 48th penny box was fairly up and down. There were eleven full rolls that had no pennies before 1997, meaning not a single copper penny. However, to make up for such a poor run of rolls, there were five rolls that were filled completely with copper pennies. In fact, two of the rolls were fortunately filled completely with pennies before 1980, which are Canada's best copper pennies to find. In the end, we ended up pretty close to our average and got a pretty decent result from this box. Here are the results from this box:

$25 Penny Box
-940 copper pennies (37.6%)

Total King George VI pennies: 6
Total American Wheat cents: 3

It is always a nice feeling to be able to store some of our wealth in copper pennies, while at the same time gather some older numismatic coins. All the best in your searches this week!

Silver and Gold Stacking Goal

As you can probably tell, we enjoy coin roll hunting through boxes of pennies, nickels and dimes to look for coins that are composed of metals that make their melt value higher than their face value, in addition to older coins that consist of numismatic value. We find that coin roll hunting makes sense for a number of reasons, particularly as a way to protect ourselves against inflation.

However, we are also purchasers of silver, and hoperfully one day, of gold as well. We purchase silver bullion in order to once again, similarly to coin roll hunting, protect our wealth in economic environments consisting of inflationary fiscal and monetary policies. In the video above, I explain why I choose to have 10% of my wealth in precious metals as my stacking goal and I why believe this makes sense from an asset vs. investment standpoint. However, I also state that purchasing silver from a supply vs demand standpoint is popular too and just as valid to those who go that route. In the end, we are all accumulating silver and gold.

I also provide a brief update on our YouTube channel going forward. If you would like to see all of our coin roll hunting results for the last 15 months, check out some of the videos on that channel.

What are your silver and gold stacking goals?