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.

Our Direction and Plan for Coin Roll Hunting, Silver Stacking and Podcasts

The past few months have been difficult for us in terms of our goals in regard to stacking silver and coin roll hunting Canadian nickels. The necessity of having to focus on the traditionally considered important aspects of life that we all have meant that we had to put our silver stacking and nickel coin roll hunting on hold. However, we love silver stacking and coin roll hunting, and more importantly, we love sharing our journey in these respects with the amazing communities that have grown around these topics and the great individuals who we have the pleasure to engage with on YouTube and through social media.

That is why we are now taking the opportunity to refocus our silver stacking and coin roll hunting goals. Further, we have also committed to doing podcast-like discussion videos two times a week, which we hope to be able to use to discuss the topics of coin roll hunting, silver and gold stacking and economics more generally. It may not come across in all of our videos, but we are avid lovers of economics and history and the discussion videos should be a great outlet to be able to engage these topics more fully.

In terms of coin roll hunting, our goals are a bit more definable. We are hoping to be able to coin roll hunt through two $100 boxes of Canadian nickels every week. I believe that now is a great opportunity to try to get as many 99.9% nickel nickels as we can as there is the potential that these coins might not be available in significant quantities for much longer. Therefore, we will commit to making a push to hoard them and two boxes a week should be a very achievable goal for us. Finally, we do not have a set number of ounces that we would like to add into our silver stack for the rest of the year, but I think we have a number of purchases left in front of us in 2015 and I am confident that anyone following this blog or our YouTube channel will enjoy the additions as well.

That is the rest of our 2015 in a nutshell. We are definitely excited about being able to get back into our favourite hobby of coin roll hunting as well as making more consistent silver additions and we are excited to add a little more discussion in between the hunting and stacking. Thank you again to everyone for sticking with us over the past year and we hope you enjoy what is coming.

Have you made any recent silver purchases and had success with coin roll hunting recently? Please feel free to let us know in the comment section below as we always love hearing the results that others are having as well.

Do Canadians Need to Stack Silver?

Whenever we make a YouTube video discussing the inflationary fiscal and monetary environment that motivates a substantial part of our silver stacking, and hopefully gold stacking one day, we inevitably turn to US statistics and Federal Reserve policy and news. This might, erroneously, give the impression that inflation is solely a US concern, something that only the American dollar holders need to worry about. In my humble opinion, this is false and as Canadians, we believe that it is prudent for us to protect our wealth from the current inflationary fiscal and monetary policies that exist in Canada.

In this video, I compare six Canadian fiscal and monetary statistics with their American equivalent to find whether there is a similar inflationary environment in Canada. These six statistics are: (i) M2 money supply, (ii) interest rate, (iii) central bank balance sheet, (iv) government spending, (v) government debt to GDP and (vi) the CPI. I won't fully spoil the video, but needless to say, inflationary fiscal and monetary policies are not solely being implemented by the US alone. Also, it needs to be mentioned that even if Canada had its fiscal and monetary house completely in order, any US repercussions would be significantly felt in Canada and in the global economy at large. This video just tries to look at the economics of the situation.

Let us know what you think of the video in the comments below, we would love to hear what you think. Also, let us know if you've made any silver purchases recently, as we are long over due for a purchase ourselves and would appreciate any suggestions. Have a great weekend everyone!

Nickel Coin Roll Hunting Finds From Box #45 (Another Great Box!)

We were back at it again with our favourite hobby, coin roll hunting! Each week we go through one $100 box of nickels, looking for pre-1982 Canadian nickels. We are looking for these particular nickels because an inflationary fiscal and monetary policy has caused their metal value to be worth more than their 5 cent face value. For example, as I write this today, with the price of nickel just over $7/pound, these pre-1982 are worth 7.1 cents in metal value. And we are only paying 5 cents for them; what a deal! This isn't a get rich keep scheme, but it certainly, in our opinion, is a positive way to protect our wealth from inflation.

We do not look for only the pre-1982 nickels. One of the reasons why coin roll hunting is so exciting to us is that there is the added benefits from finding older, rarer coins that carry a small numismatic element to them. Recently we have had amazing luck when looking for these older coins, and this most recent box continued the great streak that we have been on. Let's take a look at the results from our 44th box:

$100 Nickel Box #45
-149 99.9% nickel nickels (7.45%)
-13 pre-1963 Canadian nickels
-0 pre-1960 American nickels

We are looking forward to seeing what our next box yields, and as always, we will share the results with you on this blog. How have your finds been going this week?

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?

Nickel Coin Roll Hunting Finds From Box #44 - 1967 Centennial Rabbit Found!

Our search for Canadian 99.9% nickel nickels continues this week with our 44th $100 box of nickels. Readers of this blog know that these coins offer us a number of beneficial qualities, chiefly being a cheap way to protect ourselves from inflation within the current inflationary monetary and fiscal policies that are ongoing. In addition to this potential protection, since their metal value is higher than their 5 cent face value, there is also the potential to receive a small gain down the road. Of course, the future is unknown and there is no telling what can happen years from now. But the one thing that is constant is that I love this hobby! While the above is all just theoretical and hypothetical, the enjoyment and fun that we get from coin roll hunting is what continues to push us forward to the next box.

This week saw us find a coin that we have not come across in a very long time; a 1967 centennial rabbit. This was a very nice find as we have had difficulty in coming cross the rabbits from quite a while now. We had a lower number of the 99.9% nickel nickels this week, but still a decent haul. Let's take a look at the results from our 44th box:

$100 Nickel Box #44
-101 99.9% nickel nickels (5.05%)
-8 pre-1963 Canadian nickels
-0 pre-1960 American nickels

We look forward to sharing our nickel finds with you next week. In the meantime, let us know what you are finding in your searches. All the best in the upcoming week!

Hoarding Cupro-Nickels and 99.9% Nickel Dimes and Quarters?

Coin roll hunting is an extensive hobby, as there are many different ways to engage in the hobby and with many different coins that could be kept based on your own personal preferences and desires. For us, we look for coins that have a higher metal value than their face value currently or in the future, which generally includes compositions that include silver dimes and quarters, copper pennies and 99.9% nickel nickels. However, a question that we are asked frequently, and also discussed within the coin roll hunting community, is whether or not we hoard cupro-nickels and 99.9% nickel dimes and quarters.

The quick answer to both questions is not currently, but potentially in the future, for the cupro-nickels (i.e. nickels made from 75% copper and 25% nickel) and no for the 99.9% nickel dimes and quarters. In the video above, I go into greater detail why this is the case, but it has to do primarily whether or not we see value in these coins going forward. This is particularly true in light of the fact that we also see silver as a good place to put our money in order to protect our wealth within the current fiscal and monetary environment. Let us know in the comment section below whether or not you hoard cupro-nickels or 99.9% nickel dimes and quarters currently or could do so in the future.

Future of American Copper Penny and Nickel Hoarding Revisited

Coin roll hunters have to always be on the look out for the potential of governments to either change the composition of the coins that we value for their metal content, or even worse, eliminating a particular denomination altogether. The latter happened a year ago here in Canada in relation to the penny, and as a coin roll hunter it was pretty devastating. All of the goals and plans that my brother and I had made towards copper penny hoarding were instantly thrown out the window and there was nothing that we could do about it. Eventually, we reformulated our goals towards silver and nickel coin roll hunting, but it still is a hard truth to swallow even today.

For this reason, I have examined the topic of composition changes or discontinuations a number of times, particularly with regards to American pennies and nickels. In the video above, I look at a number of different articles and legislation that is currently on the table that affects coin roll hunting and provides a window into what could occur in the future. I always love to hear your opinions on this topic, so please feel free to leave your opinion down in the comment section.

Nickel Coin Roll Hunting Finds From Box #37

Anyone who has been coin roll hunting for any substantial period of time knows that banks do not always have coins available to give you during busy periods, Christmas being one of those periods. This is what happened to us recently when we walked into a local bank in order to try to pick up a box of nickels in order to search for Canadian nickels before 1982. Quite understandably, the bank could not spare to handout a full box, however, the teller was extremely generous and was able to allow us to leave with $40 in nickels! She didn't have to do this and we were very grateful for the rolls we could get our hands on.

The results that we received made us appreciate her kindness even more! Although we were not able to find any pre-1963 Canadian nickels or pre-1960 American nickels, we had one of our best nickel bullion percentages in a long time. We ended up with 78 99.9% nickel nickels in total, which worked out to be 9.75%! It has been a while since we have received that good of a rate, so it was pretty exciting to be finding so many of them. In fact, we found one more 99.9% nickel nickel in this box than we did in the previous $100 worth of nickels. Here are the results for this box:

$40 Worth of Nickels
-Pre-1982 99.9% nickel nickels: 78 (9.75%)
-Pre-1963 Canadian nickels: 0
-Pre-1960 American nickels: 0

This $40 worth of nickels was definitely a reminder for us that sometimes it is better to get your hands on whatever amount you can when a full box isn't available, in addition to showing that there is still the potential to receive a high percentage of nickel bullion in any box. You just have to be patient and enjoy yourself during the less plentiful boxes. Thanks to this very generous teller, we were able to keep adding to our nickel collection and enjoy a little bit a fun with our coin roll hunting hobby.

Let us know in the comment section below how your searches are going as we begin 2014. I hope all of your searches are going great!

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