Two Dimes

Two Dimes April 5, 2012 Two Dimes? What on earth could a column be about two dimes? You'll see. As you know from previous columns, I do not particularly like 'bags' of U.S. silver coins. Not because they aren't a good investment, as they are. Their trouble is that they are so heavy at 56 pounds, and unwieldy as well, which makes them difficult to store. Also, they are bought in full or half bags, and if you need some cash by selling some gold or silver, even a half 'bag' is cumbersome and heavy to ship. Besides that, you have to be as old as me almost, to even remember we at one time had 90% silver coinage. So, enough about 'bags.' You'll never have to barter with them, as no one would believe they are silver. Two dimes? Yes, two dimes. When I was a teenager and even later in my life, I could buy gasoline for 20 cents a gallon. Those were the days. A new tire for $9.95, a quart of Quaker State oil in a metal can for fifty cents, and my first McDonald's hamburger was twelve cents. I could buy gas for two dimes per gallon. 90% silver dimes, of course, which is all we had then. All coinage was 90% silver, and two dimes would buy a gallon of gasoline. Two silver dimes, as I write this, will still buy a gallon of gasoline. You figure it out for yourself. A 'bag' is $22,421, which would contain ten thousand dimes. Each dime would be worth $2.24, and two of them would be $4.48, which is more than a gallon of gas costs, except maybe in California, Hawaii, or Alaska.. As the buck has slid in value, silver and gold have held their value, so two silver dimes would, 60 years ago, buy a gallon of gas, still will, and has always bought a gallon of gas in each of the 60 previous years. I think that anyone with even a third grade mentality, will realize that gasoline is gasoline, and was even better 60 years ago, because it was pure and had no corn derivatives in it. Silver is also silver, and hasn't changed over the last 60 years. A silver dime has .07234 ounces of pure silver in each one. As silver has gone up from a couple of bucks an ounce to well over $30, the one thing which has changed, is the value of the previously almighty dollar. As gas and silver will continue to go up in dollar prices, both remain the same tangible things...silver and gasoline. The dollar goes down, the more that are printed, and for goodness sakes, DO NOT SAVE SURPLUS ASSETS IN DOLLARS! The reason is so obvious as to be ridiculous. Saved dollars continually buy less and less, and silver continues to buy the same items, year after year. Gold? An ounce of gold has always bought a good man's suit, and still will. When gold was $20.67 per ounce, and after FDR raised it to $35, a good man's suit cost an ounce of gold and still does. A Hart Schaffner & Marx suit can be gotten for the price of an ounce of gold today, as it would have cost 60 years ago. My Dad bought a new, non-deluxe, 1940 Plymouth for $660, which was about 19 ounces of gold. A new, non-deluxe Ford today, can still be bought for the price of 19 ounces of gold. Comparisons can be made ad infinitum, ad nauseum, but the totally strange thing to this scribe, is why, in the glare of obvious truth, do probably 99% of people in the world still store surplus assets in paper and ink, computer entries, un-backed currencies, and thieves like Bernie Madoff? Why do people believe slick advertisements and empty promises of licensed, degreed, advisors, who know nothing but paper and ink, stocks, and yearly charges for their unsound advice? Get, keep, and pass on to your kids, real money for thousands of years in all civilizations, which happens to be gold and silver. Gold and silver, which occasionally correct a few percentage points, but will always increase in currency prices, in spite of manipulations and bad mouthing. Gold and silver, are the enemy of the paper and ink shufflers and bankers who know nothing else but fiat money, which throughout history have always gone to absolute zero. The buck has lost 99% of its value in the last hundred years, and Obama and his cronies are trying to make it a 99.5% loss with their printing presses. In the last hundred years, gold and silver have constantly bought the same things, and always will, when converted into dollars, francs, euros, or whatever strikes your fancy. They're down a few percentage points in the latest correction. It's a good time.

By Don Stott