Krugerrands

Trojanargus

Trojanargus

Joined
Aug 23, 2004
Messages
150
Has anyone given any thought to storing away gold Krugerrands? Not so much for the short term investment, but in the event of banks crashing or some extream event that prevents accces to cash?

Bob
 
I suggest you try a test before you do this. Buy a small gold piece say 1/10 of an ounce. Go fill up you vehicle with fuel, and try to pay with your gold piece. See what happens.

My guess is you'd do better stocking up on cigarrets and toilet paper, it's probably easier to barter those.
 
You could be right. The kind of event I was think of would probly stop the pumps working and/or the people to work at them. What would you use to buy drinking water from the guy with a 1000 gallons if you only had a few plastic bottles/ (Rhetorical question)
I think people will always want gold for when times get better, but may have no faith in paper money. How much toilet paper or cigs would you need to have to barter for a horse for example?

This why Brit. SF troops carried gold in money belts during the fighting, to batter for help behind the lines - and it worked.
 
Gold is very liquid. When it was 260 - 290 a little over a year ago, it was also a good buy from a view of past history at that time.
 
I prefer American Silver Eagles.
Smaller cost per coin.

Oh, and I can afford them :D
 
Now thats interesting. Whats the true value (obviously not face)? Do you get those from the Mint? The reason Krugs became popular was that they are 1oz Troy, so it was a known amount of gold in weight, so the country etc on the front didn't matter.

Would silver dollars be worth the same if government broke down, for example, or in another country?

This used to be wa big thing years ago when people were really worried about nuclear war.
 
Trojanargus said:
Now thats interesting. Whats the true value (obviously not face)? Do you get those from the Mint? The reason Krugs became popular was that they are 1oz Troy, so it was a known amount of gold in weight, so the country etc on the front didn't matter.

Would silver dollars be worth the same if government broke down, for example, or in another country?

This used to be wa big thing years ago when people were really worried about nuclear war.
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When argentina's economy went to hell, they had a full on barter society for a while.
 
Sundsvall said:
Gold is heavy. Get diamonds.
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Do you think diamonds would workfor bartering? Krugers are prety universal, but I'm not sure I could tell a diamond from zircon without technology?
Would t be easier to bribe an official with gold or diamonds if you had to?
 
I bought 150 Krugerands in 1975.

I have no idea where I put them!!!

therefore, gold has been a terrible investment for me.

What's it worth now BTW???
 
Eagles are 1oz troy, legal tender, and designated numismatic coins of value to collectors by the authorizing congressional legislation.

gold eagles are alloyed with silver,rather than copper like Krugs, maples are pure, all contain the same amount of gold.

Eagles are good, junk silver is better, lead and brass are best.

Diamonds can be manufactured, in fact people are being turned into diamonds now for their spouses to wear after they're gone!

Why would you pay enormous markup for a material which can be produced in essentially unlimited quantities?

Preps, TP, and so on is all well and good unless you decide next month you want to buy a vehicle or something, precious metals are easily converted to cash, or traded directly. TP is yours forever, unless everything goes completely FUBAR.
 
Gold as escape money worked very well during ww2 and a few years afterwards, but nowadays, it's become quite useless. Even in the United States where gold posession is rather common and innoculous, there's very few places one could exchange gold for currency or services without raising suspicion.

Investing in something that is not affected by financial collapse is looking for a solution to a non-existant problem. There is little in the world today that would destroy a financial system and render first world currencies worthless. When the two planes crashed into the twin towers, the US dollar and the British pound still bought goods and services. When the August blackout crippled parts of Canada and The northeast US, you could not access your bank account, but cash still bought your necessities.
 
www.mintproducts.com

These are the guys I have dealt with in the past. Good company and I liked their shipping deal. If you buy locally in a state with sales tax it's cheaper to pay the shipping. Sales tax eats up 4-9% of your investment!

Can't get the Silver Eagles from the US Mint unless you buy proofs. I don't like doing that. Prefer the typical coins for around $8 (I paid less, silver is up a bit).

Not a fan of diamonds. I have no idea if one is worth $100 or $10000.
 
MelancholyMutt said:
Gold as escape money worked very well during ww2 and a few years afterwards, but nowadays, it's become quite useless. Even in the United States where gold posession is rather common and innoculous, there's very few places one could exchange gold for currency or services without raising suspicion.

Investing in something that is not affected by financial collapse is looking for a solution to a non-existant problem. There is little in the world today that would destroy a financial system and render first world currencies worthless. When the two planes crashed into the twin towers, the US dollar and the British pound still bought goods and services. When the August blackout crippled parts of Canada and The northeast US, you could not access your bank account, but cash still bought your necessities.
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Interesting points. Gold escape money has been used to good effect in both Gulf wars, so its popular and usful somewhere.
If its a non-existant problem (I think that was said about 9/11 on 9/10...) then why do so many people buy them? Cash is fine until it runs out.What then?

I agree all a bit far fetched, and I'm unsure whether to buy any, but as I said, there's a lot of folk doing it right now
 
I bought a set of Platinum Proof Eagles in '97 for about $1,200. Turned out to be a nice little investment. I'm hanging on to them just because they are so cool and so beautiful. The shiny parts are like mirrors and the frosted parts are like cameo.

Other than that, the extent of my precious metal ownership is 5 1914S Gold Eagles in MS64 (lucked into an estate dealer bulk buy), and a couple of 1997 standard issue platinum $50 Eagles. So if things really go belly up, we may be able to make it through a year or so.
 
Metals are high because the dollar is low.
They are a hedge against inflation. A safe metals investment is silver US currency, because it will never drop below face value. Most of it was melted down, but some places sell silver quarters, dollars, halves and dimes by the pound.
It's less of a SHTF item than a "economic trouble" item. As was mentioned... ammo, TP, canned food, MREs, smokes, etc are better barter items in a SHTF scenario. :)
 
I think precious metals may serve as a inflation hedge for ones investment portfolio, but to my way of thinking gold or silver coins won't be much good to buy vittles should the s*** really hit the ventilation system.

I always figured that ammo was a better currency. It has very very long shelf life, and worst comes to worst can be translated into other "needs".
 
Although I'm not much into worrying about the collapse of civilization, I sure wish I'd have been smarter when I was in the army back in the mid-60's.

We were still on the gold standard, and US citizens couldn't own gold (other than jewelry) which was fixed at (as best I recall..) about 30 bucks an ounce.

But in Germany, where I was stationed, there were no such restrictions. Instead of buying the silly 25-buck savings bonds (they held guns to your head) I could have purchased coins or gold ounces even on my Spec5 salary, and had a fair bit saved up when I went home.
Remember when gold shot up to 400 bucks plus per ounce? Ah, hindsight.
 
Trojanargus said:
Interesting points. Gold escape money has been used to good effect in both Gulf wars, so its popular and usful somewhere.
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If you read Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNabb, the only good effect the gold had was being confiscated. When you come up against a people who hate you so much that they're gonna start shooting long before you can offer money, I think having a trillion dollars isn't going to help too much.
 
MelancholyMutt said:
If you read Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNabb, the only good effect the gold had was being confiscated. When you come up against a people who hate you so much that they're gonna start shooting long before you can offer money, I think having a trillion dollars isn't going to help too much.
Click to expand...

That may have been his experience ;) Others I know had a different one. Much of the gold brought back by SAS guys was melted down and made into a large cap badge/plaque that now decorate the sergeants mess wall. You're right, though. If theres shooting, this is not the time to barter :D

I think that i like the idea of the solid silver dollars a couple of Krugs and a couple of Soverigns. Not too big an investment, a modest hedge against inflation and something else to barter with (along with the MREs, tiolet rolls etc.) should the wheel come off.

All interesting thoughts guys, thanks for 'em :)
 
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