Going for the Gold

And the Silver. And the Copper?

Yes, I believe the time is upon us to talk about heavy metals.

No, this isn’t a Soundboard post.

I’ve gotten a couple different emails recently on the subject of precious metals confiscation. One of them was a cut & paste from Rawles site in which he pooh-poohs the idea.

The last time the confiscations happened was during the reign of the true unitary executive, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As Rawles correctly writes, FDR called Congress into an “Emergency Session” the day after being inaugurated and forced through a bill which enabled his Presidential Executive Order #6102, essentially mandating the confiscation of precious metals from private citizens. A 10 year and/or $10,000 fine was decreed as punishment.

His reasoning for this, at least by what he publicly stated was that any individual holding more than $100 of precious metals was holding back the economic recovery of the nation. Gold coins were exchanged at face value ($10 = a $10 bill) and citizens holding bullion were paid $20.76 per ounce in the new non-gold backed paper money.

Eight months later, with more help from his lapdog Congress, FDR and the Fed raised the price of gold to $35 an ounce.

Yay for government! Four years later, Camp Knox became Fort Knox and the government’s previously held stash, along with all of the recently confiscated booty now melted into standard bars were placed underground in the US Bullion Depository and behind armored vehicles.

Well, with the Dems running strong and the economy beginning to slow from its previously breakneck pace, people are worried about something like this happening again. As I said, Rawles doesn’t think it’ll happen and neither do I. But it doesn’t hurt to back yourself up.

As anyone who has read Rawles’ book “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse” remembers, after recovery started, items were bartered for other items of want, and metallic coins. Not the crappy zinc and cupronickel (aka: crapronickle) pieces we toss about in our daily travels, but the older silver and copper coinage.

Here, for the purpose of expanding your knowledge base, I would like to list out items you should keep your eyes out for (and sort through your change jars for). I had to scan all over the web to find this info, so now I’d like to catalog it in one spot, so as to make it easier for everyone interested.

Here we go:

Pre-1965 Quarters are 90% silver and weigh 6.25grams. These are very hard to find as most folks held onto theirs when the 5.67gram Johnson Sandwich crapronickle was delayed in production in 1965-1967. Since then when they’re found they’re held.

The same goes for pre-1965 dimes: 90% silver / 2.5grams. Post 64 dimes weigh 2.268grams and are of crapronickle.

Also, 10 dimes weight the same as 4 quarters (25grams for pre-1965 and 22.68grams 1965 and later)

Correction: All Nickels are 5.0grams in weight and are 75% and 25% nickel. This currently makes their value close to $0.06 each.

Something I didn’t know until somewhat recently, during the WWII years, FDR declared copper a necessity for the war effort and most 1942 – 1945 nickels are 35% silver, 56% nickel and 9% manganese. I have only found a couple these over the years. They’re current value is $0.78 each.
Pre-1982 Pennies are 95% copper and 5% zinc and weigh 3.11 grams. Pre-1959 coins have the wheat marking on the reverse side. 1959 to 1981 are of the Lincoln Memorial.

In 1982 approximately half of the pennies produced were of the 95% copper variety and there was a decent sized “Mistake” run made in 1983 of 95% copper pennies (depending on condition these 83’s are worth dollar amounts). The only way to discern between the good pennies and the 97.5% zinc pennies is to weigh them as the Zinc pennies weigh only 2.5grams. It is up to you to decide if it is worth the trouble to do the weighing.

Pennies are rather easy to find in daily transactions. I separate my wheat pennies from my other pre-1981’s

Now, some folks are asking why copper? Those folks need only look at their ammo receipts for their answer. I was recently flipping through the channels and saw the Bloomberg News Channels to find that copper was being placed on the ticker per pound. Somebody wants it now. they’ll probably want it later. If you do the math, you also find that the melt value for a 95% copper penny is currently a bit over $0.02.

Put it away and double your money.

Another thing to remember: Those Canadian coins are now worth more in exchange than their face value. Not enough to cover average exchange fees, but I’m segregating mine and waiting.

I recently went through my barely 10% full change jar and found $42 in junk dimes. I rolled them and traded them in for an equal dollar amount in rolls of nickels. Inside those nickel rolls I found 14 pre-1965’s. I pulled 14 crap nickels out of truck’s ashtray and poured the whole mess of nickels back into the change jar. I do this every six months or so to satisfy my numismatic urges.

So, anyway, I hope this is helpful to those who wanted it. Any questions or corrections can be left in the comments.