Coins Archives - Antique Sage

How the International Gold Standard Ended in the 1930s

How the 1930s Global Gold Standard Ended

Photo Credit: LBMA

This Art Deco inspired French 100 franc gold coin was struck in 1936 - the year the international gold standard finally went bust.

I've been fascinated by the 1930s collapse of the international gold standard for some time. Over the course of the 20th century we somehow went from circulating gold coinage being considered normal and "right" by mainstream economists, to a wacky world of perpetually depreciating fiat currencies where even the mention of the word gold gets you labeled a monetary crackpot.

Although a lot of ink has been spilled about how the United States abandoned the gold standard in 1933, there is precious little commentary on how the gold standard fell apart in other countries. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's decision to devalue the dollar undoubtedly played a big part in the end of the international gold standard, but it wasn't the only important event.

I hope to fill in the historical gaps with this article.

Our story begins at the dawn of the 20th century, before the outbreak of World War I. At this time, almost every nation - or at least every nation that mattered commercially - had adopted what was known as the classical gold standard. Under the classical gold standard a nation's monetary unit was defined as a specific weight of fine gold. For example, the British pound was defined as being 7.3218 grams of pure gold. Each French franc was fixed at 0.2904 grams of gold. And the German mark was pegged at 0.3584 grams of gold.

The classical gold standard stipulated that the national central bank had to hold gold coin or bullion in sufficient quantities to back outstanding bank deposits and circulating paper currency. But no country maintained a 100% coverage ratio. Instead, most central banks were bound by law to maintain lower coverage ratios that generally ranged between 30% and 60%. This was done on the (sometimes false) premise that not everyone would want to exchange their paper money for gold simultaneously.

Another tenet of the classical gold standard was that the national currency had to be freely convertible into gold at the stated rate upon demand. Anyone - citizen or non-citizen - could present a banknote at a bank window and walk out with a gold coin of the appropriate value. In addition, there could be no capital controls - laws impeding or forbidding the import or export of gold coin or bullion between nations.

For many decades this system worked remarkably well. Between 1871 and 1914 Europe experienced a commercial and cultural golden age, driven in no small part by the economic stability that the classical gold standard provided.

Then disaster struck in 1914: World War I.

The expenses associated with this global conflict were immense. It was easily an order of magnitude more expensive than any previous conflict in human history. Every belligerent nation was forced to suspend gold convertibility once it became clear the war would not end quickly. The warring countries also ran up massive sovereign debts in an effort to finance wartime expenditures.

But the classical gold standard was such a powerful idea that most countries involved in World War I sought to reestablish convertibility as soon as practicably possible in the aftermath of the conflict. It is just that in most circumstances these new gold pegs had to be established significantly below pre-war parity. In other words, the countries spent so much on the conflict that they were forced to devalue their currencies - sometimes by a considerable amount.

Photo Credit: papercut4u

Here is a rare U.S. 1882 $100 Gold Certificate. Notice the prominent statement on it that reads "gold coin repayable to the bearer on demand".

Great Britain was a notable exception to this rule. Before the Great War, London had been the undisputed center of global finance. The British attributed this - at least in part - to the stability of the pound sterling under the classical gold standard. Every pound had been exchangeable for 0.2354 troy ounces of pure gold since Sir Isaac Newton set the exchange rate back in 1717. The only interruption in convertibility occurred during the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century.

The non-convertibility of the pound during World War I was merely seen as another such inconvenience by the British monetary authorities of the time. Much like in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, they strove to reestablish the pound's pre-war parity to gold and then regain their position at the center of the financial universe. Winston Churchill - in his capacity as the Chancellor of the Exchequer - did indeed re-peg the pound to its pre-war gold parity in 1925, but London never did manage to regain its throne as the preeminent global capital market.

Instead, a bizarre three-way system formed with New York, Paris and London sharing monetary hegemony in the inter-war period. The U.S. dollar, British pound and French franc all became internationally important gold-backed currencies in the new post World War I financial landscape.

Although the international gold standard had been largely restored by the latter half of the 1920s, it was not the classical gold standard of the pre-war years. Most nations chose to "economize" on the use of gold by adopting what was called the "gold exchange standard". In this scenario, a nation held its reserves in the form of both gold and foreign currencies exchangeable for gold. In most cases, this meant U.S. dollars or British pounds. The French franc was only re-pegged to gold in June 1928 at about 1/5th of its pre-1914 parity.

Another development was that gold coins were struck less frequently by gold standard nations in the inter-war period. In most places, gold coins no longer circulated in day-to-day commerce as they had before 1914. These trends towards sovereign mints striking fewer gold coins and those coins circulating less frequently only accelerated once the Great Depression began.

In tandem with this, some countries embraced a modified "gold bullion standard" in which the smallest allowable gold/currency swap typically involved 400 troy ounce London Good Delivery bars. Great Britain was the leading example of a gold bullion standard in the inter-war years. In order to exchange your pounds for gold post-1925, you needed to present around £1,700 at the Bank of England. This represented several years' salary for a skilled white-collar worker of the time - a small fortune.

In contrast, the classical gold standard used by the U.K. before World War I was much friendlier to the average man on the street. Before 1914, a mere £1 note was convertible into a gold sovereign coin.

Even though the international gold standard appeared healthy in the late 1920s, in reality intractable problems lay just beneath its glittering façade. World War I had been characterized by gigantic sovereign debt issuance and accompanying inflation. Most belligerent nations (with the notable exceptions of Great Britain and the U.S.) chose to devalue their currencies before re-pegging to gold again in the 1920s. Despite these near universal devaluations, there was still too little gold in the global monetary system to support the mountain of credit and currency that had accumulated.

Old U.S. Gold Certificates For Sale on eBay

After a sharp, but brief, post-war recession that ricocheted through the global economy from 1919 to 1922, the Roaring 1920s began. This decade-long non-stop party was fueled by alcohol, gambling and debt - with debt being the worst of the three vices by far. Banks happily gave out loans for the purchase of real estate, stocks and even consumer goods like cars, vacuum cleaners and refrigerators. If you could fog a mirror, you could get a loan. And although the Roaring 20s is primarily associated with the U.S., the accompanying credit explosion happened in other developed markets like Western Europe and Japan, too.

The newly established U.S. Federal Reserve made a bad situation worse by recklessly encouraging credit expansion in the face of obvious securities market bubbles. In July 1927, the then head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Benjamin Strong, gave the already-inflated U.S. stock market a "coup de whiskey" by cutting the Fed's discount rate. The artificially low discount rate then spurred additional speculative borrowing in an economy already saturated with debt.

In many ways, this maneuver was no different than the modern-day insanity of the Fed pegging short-term interest rates at 0% in an attempt to get the last sucker to buy an overvalued house in Southern California.

But the reason that Strong pursued this unwise policy is the really astonishing part; he did it as a personal favor to the Bank of England, which wanted lower U.S. interest rates in order to make investing in London at higher rates more favorable! In other words, the British pound was overextended and the Bank of England had insufficient gold reserves (due to their aggressive 1925 peg to pre-war parity). By lowering U.S. interest rates, the Fed could drive money (in the form of gold or dollars, either one would work) into the U.K. where they would pad out the pound's gold coverage ratio.

Benjamin Strong apparently never seriously considered that his actions would lead to even greater speculation in the U.S. stock market, thus ultimately leading to the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression!

But things were falling apart in the global economy even before the infamous 1929 stock market implosion. After frenetic price increases during World War I and into the early 1920s, many commodity prices gradually fell for the rest of the decade. This was due to rampant over-investment and consequent over-production. Commodities as diverse as sugar, oil, copper, rubber and beef either fell or stagnated in price during the mid-to-late 1920s.

Emerging market countries that relied primarily on commodity exports to power their economies felt the pinch first.

Argentina, a major agricultural producer, abandoned the gold standard in December 1929. Venezuela, a leading oil exporter, devalued its currency in September 1930. Commodity export powerhouse Canada didn't formally break its peg to gold until 1933, but it did put severe restrictions on gold exports starting in 1928.

Although the U.S. stock market crash of October 1929 is widely viewed as the beginning of the Great Depression, the world didn't experience its worst effects until 1931. It was only after the major Austrian bank Creditanstalt unexpectedly failed in May 1931 that the economic crisis really intensified.

Photo Credit: Portable Antiquities Scheme

$20 double eagle gold coins (pictured above) were a primary form of bank reserves in the United States when the country was still on the gold standard.

The collapse of this Austrian bank put pressure on German banks, which also began to fail en masse. In July 1931 Germany nationalized its largest banks, suspended the gold convertibility of the Reichsmark, imposed capital controls and ceased payments on its World War I reparations. It then capped off this financial disaster by defaulting on its sovereign debt.

The reverberations of this economic catastrophe were felt around the world, but Great Britain was perhaps the hardest hit.

Up until the summer of 1931, most countries made a determined effort to maintain the international gold standard. It was widely believed by mainstream economists of the time that the gold standard was the monetary cornerstone of global prosperity and had to be retained at all costs.

The Bank of England, in particular, secured multiple rounds of gold loans from the Federal Reserve, the Banque de France and private banking consortiums in an effort to maintain its faltering gold coverage ratio in the wake of the German implosion. But the pressure on the British pound was unrelenting. Nervous businessmen, shrewd currency speculators and wary citizens all exchanged pounds for gold (or good-as-gold U.S. dollars and French francs) as quickly as they could.

As summer turned to early fall, the monetary pressures on the British pound became unbearable. The Bank of England's gold coverage ratio fell below the critical 25% threshold. The government was in crisis as it attempted to impose draconian budget cuts in the midst of rising unemployment and widespread economic distress.

The end came suddenly.

On September 16, 1931, - an otherwise nondescript Wednesday - £5 million in gold and foreign exchange reserves exited the U.K. On Thursday that amount rose to £10 million. On Friday it was £18 million. On Saturday - a day when the banks closed early - more than £10 million fled the country looking for safer shores. On Sunday, September 20th, the Bank of England recommended that the British government break the pound's peg to gold, which Parliament officially did the very next day.

Great Britain's devaluation sent shockwaves through the international gold standard community. The British Empire, with London at its heart, was one of the world's most important financial centers. Sterling had maintained a more or less constant link to gold for more than two centuries. The pound no longer being backed by gold was nearly unthinkable.

1920s & 1930s Foreign (Non-U.S.) Gold Coins for Sale on eBay

And yet once it happened, the dam burst.

In the weeks after the British devaluation, country after country followed suit. India, a British colony at the time, de-pegged from gold at the same time as Britain. Australia, a former British colony, devalued its pound simultaneously. So did Ireland. The Nordic countries - Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland - all abandoned the gold standard between September and October 1931. Nations as diverse as Portugal, Columbia and Hungary also suspended the convertibility of their banknotes into gold in the fall of 1931. Even Japan discarded the gold standard in December 1931.

Despite the exodus of so many countries from the international gold standard in late 1931, some nations stayed the course. The United States and France - two of the three great money centers of the time - continued to adhere to the gold standard despite the worsening economic outlook.

But the situation for gold as money was looking increasingly bleak.

All the countries that had debased their currencies along with the U.K. in 1931 now found that their exports were suddenly more competitive in the global markets. Conversely, nations that continued to embrace gold found their own exports to be artificially expensive.

This financial asymmetry put ever increasing, unrelenting economic pressure on any nation that chose to stick to the international gold standard.

Outside of Europe's financial center of gravity, only a handful of non-European countries maintained their peg to gold after 1931. The United States was the most important of these countries. But South Africa, a major gold producer thanks to its vast Witwatersrand deposits, also stubbornly kept its gold-backed pound intact.

For a little more than a year, the international gold standard struggled on. But the Great Depression only deepened.

South Africa finally abandoned the gold standard in December 1932. The United States was not far behind.

I won't linger on the drama surrounding the United State's departure from the gold standard in March of 1933. That has been well-documented elsewhere. However, I will give a short excerpt from an article I previously wrote about pre-1933 U.S. gold coins:

"Prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s, the United States was on the gold standard. Under this arrangement, dollars were exchangeable for gold at a fixed rate - $20.67 for every troy ounce of gold. But the financial dislocations created by the Great Depression put incredible strain on this convertibility scheme. As bank after bank collapsed, average people began withdrawing their money from the financial system fearing that their bank would be next.

Compounding the problem was the fact that there was no insurance for bank deposits; the FDIC did not exist at this point in time. As a result, the wise move was to remove your funds from any questionable bank rather than risk losing your hard-earned money when it failed.

The financial crisis came to a head in January-February 1933 when two Michigan banks - the First National Bank of Detroit and the Guardian National Bank of Commerce - effectively became insolvent. The Governor of Michigan was forced to declare a bank holiday in order to avoid a general banking collapse. This action frightened people in neighboring states who believed their governors may be forced to follow suit.

The crisis quickly spiraled out of control.

One day after his inauguration on March 4, 1933, newly elected president Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared a national bank holiday. One month later on April 5, 1933, FDR issued his infamous Executive Order #6102 which suspended domestic gold convertibility of the dollar. In addition, citizens were required by law to surrender their gold coins, bullion and gold certificates to the government."

Interestingly, Canada only formally suspended the convertibility of its paper money into gold on April 10, 1933 - a full month after the U.S. had left the gold standard! Of course, Canada had already prohibited the export of gold overseas for years beforehand. But it is still notable that Canadian citizens could exchange their banknotes domestically for a hodgepodge of gold bullion, British gold sovereigns, Canadian gold coins or U.S. gold coins (the type of gold was at the discretion of the bank) for longer than U.S. citizens could.

By the early summer of 1933, the situation for the remaining gold standard countries was getting desperate.

1920s & 1930s U.S. Gold Coins For Sale on eBay

Hoping to reach an international agreement to end the Great Depression, the world's major economic powers held a conference in London from June 12th to July 27th, 1933. The lifting of tariffs, debt forgiveness and the stabilization of exchange rates were on the agenda, but no agreement was forthcoming.

As the London Economic Conference wound down, a core group of European nations publicly announced that they intended to remain committed to the international gold standard. These so called "Gold Bloc" nations were the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Italy, Poland and Belgium, along with the micro-states of Luxembourg and Danzig.

It is interesting to note that two of the Gold Bloc countries - Switzerland and the Netherlands - were using the same gold parity that they had before World War I. In other words, these countries (which had been neutral during the Great War) did not devalue their currencies after 1914. They were the last nations on earth to maintain their gold pegs unchanged since the 19th century. Incidentally, the Swiss Franc and Dutch Guilder were also the world's strongest currencies during the 20th century.

By the autumn of 1933, the Gold Bloc members - all located in Europe - were nearly the only countries in the world still on the gold standard. The last of the monetary traditionalists had circled the wagons, hoping their solidarity would be enough to fend off the rising economic storm.

But it was not to be.

As the Great Depression progressed and country after country left the gold standard, the pressure on those who remained wedded to gold only increased. Reserves of all types - primarily gold, but also foreign currency and bonds - steadily flowed out of those nations still pegged to gold.

Even France, which had fixed the franc to gold at an artificially low rate in 1928, began to have problems. This was notable because during the early part of the Great Depression, gold had flowed into the Banque de France due to the undervalued franc.

But during the latter part of the Great Depression, this situation completely reversed. The once undervalued franc, still pegged to gold, now became overvalued compared to the dollar and the pound. As a result, gold and other foreign reserves began to flow out of Paris in quantity.

Despite all official pronouncements and new policies, the plight of the Gold Bloc steadily worsened.

By 1935 the Gold Bloc shrank as Belgium, Luxembourg and the Free City of Danzig all devalued their currencies in May of that year. Now only five lonely countries remained in the Gold Bloc: Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Poland.

The beginning of the end for the international gold standard was, curiously enough, geopolitical in nature. In March 1936, Hitler marched his Nazi armies into the demilitarized Rhineland in clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles. No one opposed him. No country in Europe felt it had the military might to do so.

This was a wakeup call to all of Europe. Peace would not last. The World War I peace dividend had been squandered during the 1920s and early 1930s. It was now imperative for all European nations to rebuild their militaries as quickly as possible.

And building armies is not cheap.

The financial markets instantly realized what this meant. The budgetary fiscal discipline that the Gold Bloc countries had shown up to this point was instantly destroyed. Everyone knew they would be forced into massive deficit spending in order to reequip their armies against possible German aggression.

Poland was the first to go, breaking its peg with gold in April 1936. The remaining countries of Switzerland, the Netherlands, France and Italy - the core of the core - all stayed linked to gold during the summer of 1936, desperately looking for a way out of their monetary dilemma.

But there was no solution.

After suffering massive gold outflows all summer, France finally capitulated. On September 26, 1936 - a Saturday - the convertibility of the French franc was suspended. It took less than 48 hours for the Netherlands and Switzerland to follow suit. Italy's gold peg collapsed about a week later in early October 1936 (although it should be noted that Italy had already placed restrictions on the export of gold way back in 1934).

The Gold Bloc - and with it the international gold standard - had ceased to exist.

However, there was still one nation that purportedly stayed on the gold standard right up until World War II - tiny Albania, situated on Europe's Adriatic coast. I say purportedly because information about century-old monetary policies in obscure countries is nearly impossible to verify. Nonetheless, Albania supposedly maintained a circulating gold currency (the Lek) right up until it was invaded by Mussolini's Italy in April 1939.

When the international gold standard collapsed, most economists of the time naively believed the break with gold would be temporary. There was a widespread assumption that once the Great Depression ended and prosperity returned, most nations would happily reestablish their currency's link to gold. In fact, nearly all countries that abandoned the gold standard in the mid 1930s still officially defined their currency in terms of gold according to law (just less gold than before devaluing, obviously).

But World War II destroyed any desire, or even ability, to return to the gold standard. Europe had been the beating heart of gold convertible currencies, but World War II ripped that heart out. While World War I may have begun the destruction of the international gold standard, World War II definitively killed it. Our money has never been the same since.

Read more thought-provoking Antique Sage history articles here.

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Read in-depth Antique Sage investment guides here.

How Rare Are Pre-1933 U.S. Gold Coins?

Around 2011 I had a really great investment idea. The price of gold had recently peaked at just over $1,900 an ounce in 2011 and, after a small decline, was carving sideways in choppy action. I wanted some exposure to gold, but I also wanted to hedge myself against the possibility of a future decline in prices.

What to do?

That's when I hit upon a plan. The premiums on pre-1933 U.S. gold coins had been declining for years beforehand. As the gold price rose, premiums on these coins (the amount you paid over the intrinsic value) seemed to inexorably compress. This led me to a tangible investment epiphany.

I could buy myself pre-1933 gold Indian Head quarter eagles (with a $2.50 face value) to get gold exposure while limiting my downside risk via numismatic value. At the time, each coin contained about $205 worth of gold (with spot trading at $1,700). But they only cost around $285 each for lightly circulated XF to AU specimens with good eye appeal.

The $80 difference between the price of the coins ($285) and the bullion value ($205) represented the premium - about 39% in this case. Although this might seem like a hefty price to pay for semi-numismatic gold coins, these scarce pieces had traditionally traded at much higher premiums to spot only a decade before. In fact, from the 1940s until the early 2000s, pre-1933 U.S. quarter eagle gold coins - even well circulated examples - rarely sold for anything less than 300% or 400% over their bullion value.

Alas, my story does not have a (completely) happy ending.

My original intention was to allocate somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000 to this strategy. This would have been enough to purchase anywhere from 3 to 7 gold Indian Head quarter eagles. But when I walked into my local Boston coin shop (J.J. Teaparty) to see what was available, I was terribly disappointed.

The only quarter eagles the dealer had looked like they had been run over by a pickup truck. They were ugly, heavily worn coins with plenty of dings, rim bumps and scratches. These were not the attractive, lightly circulated examples I had been hoping to buy. I asked the dealer why he didn't have any better coins. He replied that there was a shortage because the nicer specimens had all been shipped off to the grading agencies (PCGS and NGC) for certification - even the AU coins!

After this setback, I decided to put the idea on the backburner. Much to my chagrin, I never got around to seriously considering a mass purchase of pre-1933 U.S. gold quarter eagles again.

As you can probably guess, prices for these coins are much higher now. A nice AU Indian Head specimen will set you back around $450 in 2021 versus the $285 it cost in 2011. This is despite the fact that the gold price isn't much higher now than it was back then.

But my story does have a happy postscript.

During the summer of 2019, I was flabbergasted by the absolute collapse in premiums on pre-1933 U.S. gold coins. I saw common-date, MS-63 certified St. Gaudens and Liberty Head double-eagle $20 gold pieces routinely sell for 5% to 10% over melt value on eBay. After adding in the eBay Bucks bonus, this meant that you could have purchased these coins for under spot!

I resolved not to miss my chance to pick up a nice old U.S. gold coin in Mint State condition for a trivial sum over melt value. After perusing eBay for a couple weeks, I opted for an 1886 Liberty Head $5 half eagle gold coin from the San Francisco Mint (photo at the top of this article).

This coin was certified MS-63 by NGC, but I assessed that it was on the upper end of the MS-63 spectrum. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was an MS-64, but it was definitely a premium quality MS-63 at a minimum. Due to the depressed market for pre-1933 U.S. gold coins at the time, I could afford to pick and choose the very best example I could find.

In addition, the coin possessed a wonderfully deep-orange patina that is characteristic of surfaces that have lain undisturbed for a century or more. Toned gold coins are rather scarce today because well-intentioned, but misguided, collectors and dealers used to dip or clean toned specimens. This restored them to a bright, albeit sometimes unnaturally brassy-looking, yellow hue. However, knowledgeable collectors are gradually waking up to the subtle beauty of old, natural surfaces on gold coins.

In short, the coin I bought was a gem.

Better yet, my 1886-S half eagle only cost $535. After accounting for eBay Bucks and credit card rewards the premium over spot was a pittance for such a fine coin - only about 30%.

But these numismatic forays into U.S. gold really got me thinking. Just how rare are pre-1933 U.S. gold coins? And is there any good way to estimate the surviving population of pre-1933 U.S. gold?

Lightly Circulated Pre-1933 U.S. Gold Coins for Sale on eBay

Before we attempt to answer these questions, let's have a brief monetary history lesson.

Prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s, the United States was on the gold standard. Under this arrangement, dollars were exchangeable for gold at a fixed rate - $20.67 for every troy ounce of gold. But the financial dislocations created by the Great Depression put incredible strain on this convertibility scheme. As bank after bank collapsed, average people began withdrawing their money from the financial system fearing that their bank would be next.

Compounding the problem was the fact that there was no insurance for bank deposits; the FDIC did not exist at this point in time. As a result, the wise move was to remove your funds from any questionable bank rather than risk losing your hard-earned money when it failed.

The financial crisis came to a head in January-February 1933 when two Michigan banks - the First National Bank of Detroit and the Guardian National Bank of Commerce - effectively became insolvent. The Governor of Michigan was forced to declare a bank holiday in order to avoid a general banking collapse. This action frightened people in neighboring states who believed their governors may be forced to follow suit.

The crisis quickly spiraled out of control.

One day after his inauguration on March 4, 1933, newly elected president Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared a national bank holiday. One month later on April 5, 1933, FDR issued his infamous Executive Order #6102 which suspended domestic gold convertibility of the dollar. In addition, citizens were required by law to surrender their gold coins, bullion and gold certificates to the government.

Consequently, huge quantities of pre-1933 gold coins flooded into the U.S. Treasury. Exactly how much was confiscated is unknowable, but it is estimated that nearly 500 metric tons of gold were seized from U.S. citizens. The vast majority of this amount would have been in the form of old U.S. gold coins - perhaps as much as $321 million face value.

The Treasury melted these coins into gigantic .900 fine gold bars (the same purity as the coins they came from), which were subsequently stacked in either Fort Knox or in the subterranean vaults underneath the New York Federal Reserve. These melted coins have been lost to us forever.

An intriguing follow-up to this story occurred in 2013 when Germany decided it was going to repatriate approximately 674 metric tons of gold bullion that was being held by foreign central banks on its behalf - most notably at the Banque de France and the Federal Reserve. Curiously, it was announced that this repatriation was scheduled to take an astonishing 7 years to complete.

No one knows for certain why it would take Germany so long to get its foreign-held gold back, but there was speculation that the U.S. was unable to easily complete the delivery in .999 fine gold bars because all they had on hand was old .900 fine coin melt bars. These old bars had never been refined up to industry standard .999 fine gold because it was seen as unnecessary in the 1930s. If the Treasury/Federal Reserve was now forced to refine old coin melt gold bars en masse, it would explain at least some of the delays that Germany's monetary repatriation effort suffered.

The entire situation implies that massive quantities of gold held in the United State's reserves were derived from melted pre-1933 gold coins, meaning that surviving coins must be at least somewhat scarce.

PCGS & NGC Certified U.S. Classic Head Gold Coins for Sale on eBay

It is also an indisputable fact that old U.S. gold coins (along with old foreign gold coins) have been melted by private parties for their bullion value during every significant historical spike in the gold price since the abandonment of the Bretton Woods monetary system in 1971. This includes the run-ups in the mid 1970s, 1979-1980, 2011 and 2020. Some of the rarer pre-1933 U.S. gold coins that sport substantial numismatic premiums (like the $1, $2.50 and $3 gold pieces) have largely escaped this fate. But the more common date half eagle ($5), eagle ($10) and double eagle ($20) gold coins have undoubtedly been melted in quantity in modern times.

We can also attempt to garner clues about the rarity of pre-1933 U.S. gold coins by checking out population reports from the popular third-party grading services. According to NGC and PCGS, they have certified just under 6 million pre-1933 U.S. gold coins (excluding scarce pre-1839 gold, proofs and the ridiculously rare $4 Stella) with an aggregate face value of $86 million.

Although this seems substantial, we have to keep a couple caveats in mind. First, the numbers include crack-outs and resubmissions, which are significant. This means the values given are definitely overstated, although no one knows by how much.

Second, U.S. Mint records claim that it struck almost 345 million coins over that period with a gross face value of nearly $4.5 billion. The amount of pre-1933 U.S. gold coins certified by NGC and PCGS together represent less than 2% of the original mintages regardless of whether you are comparing number of coins or face value.

There are undoubtedly many old U.S. gold coins that have not been submitted for certification to the major grading services. But even if we assume that only 1 in 5 coins has been submitted, it still means that the surviving population (across both certified and uncertified coins) is, on average, less than 10% of the original mintages. In all probability, the true extant population is probably closer to 5% - or even less - with that number dwindling little by little every year as ever more common-date coins inevitably find their way into the melting pot.

Although we ultimately can't say with any certainty exactly how rare pre-1933 U.S. gold coins are, we can reach a few general conclusions.

First, I feel confident that the Indian Head/St. Gaudens series struck during the 1910s, 1920s and early 1930s have the highest survival rates of any pre-1933 gold. These coins would have circulated for the least amount of time - generally no more than 25 years - before gold was demonetized during the Great Depression. And while many of these coins were undoubtedly melted by the Treasury, most of those that survived would have been in relatively high grades.

Another consensus position is that for any given date and mintmark, circulated examples will be more common than uncirculated specimens. This is just common sense. Most coins that sat in bank vaults and didn't circulate were confiscated by the government in 1933 and melted down. Only those coins that left the banking system and found their way into private hands (and thus circulated, even if only a little) had a chance at surviving the great melt.

This doesn't mean that all uncirculated pre-1933 U.S. gold coins are rare, just that they are almost always rarer than their circulated counterparts.

It is also obvious that $3, $1 and $2.50 (quarter eagle) gold pieces are the rarest denominations (ranked in order of greatest rarity to least rarity). Mintages for the aforementioned odd-ball denominations were very low to begin with and NGC/PCGS population reports verify that relatively few of these coins have survived compared to the much more common $5, $10 and $20 gold pieces.

PCGS & NGC Certified Pre-Civil War U.S. Gold Coins for Sale on eBay

Now that we've addressed the rarity question insofar as it is possible to do so, we can move onto investment recommendations.

There are a few standout areas for anyone hoping to invest in pre-1933 U.S. gold coins. The first is pre-Civil War issues - anything struck before 1866. Mintages during the antebellum era were far smaller, on average, than anything that came afterwards. Survival rates were also abysmal, meaning that very, very few of these coins are still with us today.

And within the pre-Civil War category I'm particularly fond of early U.S. gold, which was struck before 1840. Only three denominations were minted during this period of American history: $2.5, $5 and $10 gold pieces. This hallowed era of American numismatic history included famous series such as the Draped Bust (1795 to 1807), Capped Bust (1807 to 1834) and Classic Head (1834 to 1839) designs.

Prices for early American gold coins can be prohibitively expensive for the aspiring collector, but problem-free coins sporting the 1830s Classic Head design are still readily available with a price tag of less than $2,000. Liberty Head coins from the 1840s and 1850s can also be found for less than $1,000 on occasion.

My next recommendation is to pursue scarce branch mint issues. These are coins that were struck at provincial mints: Dahlonega, Charlotte, New Orleans and Carson City.

The Dahlonega mint (located in Georgia) was founded to process gold extracted in the Georgia Gold Rush of the 1830s. It operated from 1838 to 1861. Charlotte, North Carolina was another Southern branch mint that solely minted gold coins between 1838 and 1859.

The New Orleans mint, positioned at the mouth of the Mississippi River, struck coins in many different denominations from 1838 to 1861, when production was interrupted by the Civil War. The mint resumed operations in 1879, with the final coin rolling off its presses in 1909.

The last branch mint I like is Carson City, Nevada. This mint was created to process silver and gold that had been mined in Nevada's immensely rich Comstock Lode. Many collectors like Carson City mint-marked coins because of their close association with the Old West. The Carson City mint operated intermittently from 1870 until 1893.

Prices for coins struck at these desirable branch mints will be high, with many specimens selling for thousands of dollars. While mintages were never high at any of these mints, the later New Orleans issues struck between 1879 and 1909 are by far the most common (and therefore affordable).

Another recommendation for those wanting to invest in pre-1933 U.S. gold coins is what are known as "conditional rarities". A conditional rarity is a coin that, while not particularly low mintage or rare in lower grades, is still rather scarce in higher grades.

PCGS & NGC Certified Rare Branch Mint U.S. Gold Coins for Sale on eBay

An example of this is the beautiful NGC certified MS-63 1886-S half eagle mentioned earlier in this article that I bought for my personal collection. Almost 3.3 million specimens were struck - a very healthy mintage by late 19th century standards. And yet PCGS and NGC together have certified less than 3,800 coins in MS-63 or better condition. Yes, there are undoubtedly a few high-grade Mint State pieces that haven't been certified yet, but probably not very many. In short, the coin is scarce in higher grades, even if it isn't in lower grades.

There are many, many different date/mintmark combinations of pre-1933 U.S. gold coins that qualify as conditional rarities. And asking prices often aren't more than a few hundred dollars above melt value, although some hunting may be required to find the right coin at the right price. These attributes give conditional rarities the perfect blend of reasonable cost and high numismatic potential that both coin collectors and investors naturally gravitate toward.

My final play in the space is probably the most humble. Buy any lightly-circulated, problem free pre-1933 U.S. gold coins (common-date coins are fine) you can find selling for less than 30% over melt. Just avoid coins that have been harshly cleaned, holed, bent, badly scratched, or otherwise abused.

Even a circulated gold piece in XF or AU condition will still look impressive in the hand and retain all the history of a much more expensive example. And because you will have paid so little premium, there is very little possibility of significant loss unless the price of gold collapses - an event I see as incredibly unlikely.

As an old investment saying goes, "Once you've taken care of the downside risk, all that's left is upside potential." And pre-1933 U.S. gold coins are brimming with that investment potential.

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How I Stacked $1,200 of Premium Silver at Spot

I originally wrote this article during early 2020, before the global pandemic ushered in a period of widespread silver bullion shortages and accompanying crazy high silver premiums. Consequently, the advice contained in this article about buying silver at spot is no longer fully functional. Regardless, I decided to publish it anyway for two reasons.

First, it is an important window into how the retail silver stacking market historically worked prior to March 2020 (and how quickly that all changed). Second, it is possible that premiums on silver will normalize at some indeterminate point in the future. If this were to happen, my article on stacking premium silver at spot would be a great step-by-step how-to guide. Even with today's elevated premiums, adopting the strategy below might still offer the savvy silver stacker a way to accumulate precious metals relatively cheaply.

So without further delay, here is the original article with only minor edits.

It is maddeningly obvious that the world is careening towards a financial crises/monetary reset of some description. Because of this, I find it prudent to diversify my dollar holdings into something other than paper assets like stocks and bonds. That something else is usually tangible assets like antiques, art and gemstones.

But as much as I like antiques, there is a certain simplicity to purchasing raw bullion as a fiat currency alternative. Gold and silver have been treasured by mankind since the dawn of history. They have also served as an immutable form of money for that same length of time - about 5,000 years. So you can be sure that they will still hold their value during the next financial crisis, regardless of when it comes and what form it takes.

Now what if I told you that there was a way for you to buy silver at spot?

Under normal circumstances this is impossible. The spot price is typically a purely theoretical price available only in the paper futures market. The average person can't actually buy physical silver at spot (or any other precious metal, for that matter). Instead, coin and precious metal dealers will mark up their inventory by a small percentage in order to cover overhead costs and give themselves a modest profit margin.

The only exception to this rule is some online dealers who will offer a small quantity of silver - usually 5 or 10 troy ounces - at spot for new customers only. So if you're willing to sign up with a bunch of different online precious metal dealers, you can expect to get between 30 and 50 ounces of silver at spot (Ed. Note: To the best of my knowledge, only SilverGoldBull still has a silver at spot deal intermittently available).

But this strategy is both inconvenient and limited. You'll never get more than a few dozen ounces of the precious white metal at the going spot rate using this technique. And the dealer gets to choose the type of silver you'll receive. As a result, you're pretty much guaranteed to receive generic bars or rounds, which is the cheapest, least desirable kind of silver available.

But what if I said there was a way to buy hundreds of ounces of silver at spot? And that some of that silver would be premium silver of your choice?

It almost sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

But it isn't (Ed. Note: Well, it wasn't too good to be true before March 2020). In fact, I bought myself $1,200 worth - about 67 troy ounces - of silver at spot over the past few months (in late 2019) using this little-known technique.

How does it work?

The key is eBay Bucks, an incentive program offered by the online auction giant that only U.S. and Canadian residents can sign up for. Under normal circumstances, 1% of the purchase price of an item sold on the eBay platform is rebated to the buyer in the form of an eBay Bucks coupon. But this amount is often enhanced to 5%, 8% or even 10% during special promotional periods.

EBay Bucks accrue from your purchases until they are paid out in the form of a voucher at the end of each quarter. This eBay Bucks voucher (which expires 30 days after being issued) can then be used toward the purchase of anything for sale on the auction site, including bullion.

For those who are interested in all the gritty details surrounding eBay Bucks, I suggest you read my article titled "Buying Bullion at Spot with eBay Bucks"

So here is the story of how I bought $1,200 of silver at spot.

First I signed up for the eBay Bucks program; the strategy obviously won't work if you aren't signed up. Then I waited for a 10% promotional eBay Bucks period. EBay typically offers these promos once or twice a month, so you likely won't have to wait long (Ed. Note: Since COVID-19 hit, eBay has restricted its promotional eBay Bucks bonuses to only 5% - still worth it though). However, the incentive period usually only lasts for 48 to 72 hours, so you have to pay attention or you'll miss it.

Then I searched for pre-1965 U.S. 90% junk silver coin rolls for sale. I personally prefer to use eBay's "Buy-It-Now" option even though it is often marginally more expensive than the traditional auction format. I favor "Buy-It-Now" listings because it means that I can complete the entire transaction in just a few minutes. More importantly, I can be assured that I will be able to pay for the item before the end of the eBay Bucks promotional period, which is necessary in order to receive the enhanced eBay Bucks accrual.

In my case, I bought 5 rolls ($50 face value) of mixed Walking Liberty and Franklin half dollars for around $142 a roll, or just under $710 in total. Minted between 1916 and 1947, Walking Liberty half dollars are widely considered to be one of the most beautiful coins ever struck in the United States. In fact, the design was so recognizable that it was resurrected in the mid 1980s for use on the 1 troy ounce American Silver Eagle bullion coin.

Franklin halves minted between 1948 and 1963 are also quite attractive, with a distinctly Mid-Century aesthetic. They are some of my favorite junk silver coins, and are underappreciated in my opinion.

eBay Bucks Eligible Pre-1965 U.S. 90% Silver Coins For Sale

When I bought these 5 rolls of junk silver, eBay was offering 10% in eBay Bucks. So I accrued a nearly $71 rebate on the purchase.

After waiting a few weeks, eBay had another 10% promo period. This time I bought $30 face value of silver Roosevelt dimes for a bit under $141 (per $10 face value), or $422 in total. Roosevelt dimes were first minted in 1946 in honor of President FDR, who died in office in 1945. They were struck in 90% silver through 1964, when their composition was changed over to the cupro-nickel clad alloy that is still in use today. I accrued about $42 worth of eBay Bucks on this purchase.

When the end of the calendar quarter came, eBay issued me an eBay Bucks voucher for $113. Now it was just a question of waiting for the right bullion deal to come along.

EBay is careful not to offer eBay Bucks incentive periods in the month following quarter end. This is to keep you from double dipping by using your eBay Bucks voucher during a promo period (they stack). The only exception to this is October, when they will typically offer an eBay Bucks promo toward the end of the month. I suspect they do this because it is at the beginning of the Christmas buying season.

In any case, I opted to ignore the possibility of double dipping on another eBay Bucks incentive period. Instead, I chose to use my voucher to buy something from eBay's "Bullion" category. Items purchased from the bullion category don't accrue eBay Bucks, but you can redeem eBay Bucks vouchers on them.

Now I like premium silver - the good stuff. Unfortunately, premium silver is invariably more expensive than generic silver. But to me, paying a little bit extra for a higher quality product is well worth it.

That's when I saw it.

Scottsdale Mint was having a sale on its gorgeous 10 troy ounce Scottsdale Stacker silver bars through its eBay store. They were being offered for only $1.48 per ounce over spot. This was a phenomenally good deal, especially for such a high quality silver bar.

The Scottsdale Mint is an Arizona-based firm known for producing some of the finest premium silver available on the market. They have been contracted to strike legal-tender collectible coins for many smaller sovereign nations, including Fiji, Barbados and Cameroon. So this is a company with tight quality control and a stellar reputation.

Scottsdale Stacker silver bars are precision machined in the U.S. Each one comes with a unique serial number and an anti-forgery, engine-turned design emblazoned on the reverse. And they typically cost you about $3 an ounce over spot, even if you buy them directly from the Scottsdale Mint website.

They are exactly the kind of premium silver that I love. So $1.48 over spot was too good a deal to pass up.

I quickly pulled the trigger, purchasing a single Scottsdale Stacker silver bar for $190. But because I used my $113 eBay Bucks voucher to pay for most of it, my net cost was only $77.

Now I understand that all these numbers can be overwhelming. So I've distilled my experience down to an easily digestible table that you can peruse at your leisure.

	Face			Price	Spot at
	Value/	Troy		Per	Time of
Description	Count	Ounces	Cost	Ounce	Order
90% Silver Walking Liberty/Franklin Halves:	$50	35.75	$709.70	$19.85	$18.04
90% Silver Roosevelt Dimes:	$30	21.45	$422.19	$19.68	$18.00
10 Tr. Oz. Scottsdale Mint Stacker Bar:	1	10.00	$189.90	$18.99	$17.51
Total Cost Before eBay Bucks:		67.20	$1,321.79	$19.67	$17.95
eBay Bucks:			$(113.19)
Total Cost After eBay Bucks:			$1,208.60	$17.99

I'll leave you will a short summation of my silver buying spree here.

I ended up purchasing $50 face value of Walking Liberty/Franklin halves, $30 face value of Roosevelt dimes and one 10 troy ounce Scottsdale Stacker silver bar. All of these purchases together totaled 67.2 troy ounces of pure silver (junk silver is calculated at 7.15 troy ounce of fine silver per $10 face value). My total cost was only $1,208 (and change). The spot price of silver during my purchases fluctuated between $17.51 and $18.04, with a weighted average price of $17.95.

The total cost per ounce for my 67.2 ounces of silver was only $17.99 - a mere 4 cents over spot! Now if you're buying silver at spot, you'd normally expect to only receive low-premium generic silver. But that wasn't my experience. Instead, I mostly bought silver half dollars (which always trade at a small premium to silver dimes and quarters), along with a premium bullion bar.

This defies expectations, proving just how powerful the eBay Bucks silver stacking strategy can be.

Scottsdale Mint Silver Bullion Bars & Rounds For Sale

Better yet, this approach to buying silver at spot is incredibly flexible. I purchased 67 ounces, but that is because it is what I could afford. If you wanted to, you could scale this strategy down to just a couple hundred dollars or scale it up to many thousands of dollars. And you could also tilt it towards higher premium silver (at a slightly higher cost per ounce) or lower premium silver (at a lower cost per ounce) as you see fit.

And let's not forget that the cherry on top for an eBay Bucks silver stacking strategy would be to combine it with a rewards credit card. It is fairly easy to get a credit card that pays 1% to 2% cash back on purchases. All of the numbers above assume you aren’t using a cash back card. If you do use one, you might even be able to buy silver below spot!

If you are interested in protecting your wealth, I highly recommend that you use this powerful eBay Bucks silver stacking strategy to buy silver at spot.

A word of warning though. I was only able to buy silver at spot because no one cares about precious metals at the moment. In a future scenario where silver and gold demand shoots through the roof, there is no way deals this good are going to be available. So buy now, while you can still get it cheap (Ed. Note: My warning at the time now sounds prophetic given the shortages that hit the silver market during 2020)!

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Welcome to the Greater Depression

Photo credit: Carol VanHook

I haven't written much over the past couple of months. That's because I've been watching in rapt awe as the financial markets first dropped like a rock and then quickly recouped most of those losses in a ludicrously improbable rally. The unfolding economic deluge, coupled with absolutely bizarre market dynamics have been fascinating to follow, if not somewhat disconcerting.

I had been expecting a financial crisis of some description for quite some time. I just didn't expect it to be triggered by a pandemic. Much like the Spanish Inquisition, no one expects a pandemic.

So I've decided to put pen to paper here and record some of my observations on our current economic predicament.

But first things first. We are absolutely screwed, financially speaking. The long-feared Greater Depression has arrived.

On that cheery note, it is obvious to me that the entire Treasury yield curve is headed to zero sooner or later. This has already happened for everything out to about 3-years until maturity, all of which currently trade for yields below 30 basis points (bps) - equal to 0.3%. It is only a matter of time before whatever yield remaining in the long end of the Treasury curve gets slowly squeezed out - like a tube of toothpaste.

This might seem fantastical considering that the U.S. 30-year Treasury was trading for well over 2% as recently as the beginning of this year. But we need look no further than Japan, which seems to perpetually be about 10 years ahead of the rest of the world (economically speaking). Their entire yield curve is negative out to 10-years until maturity, with the Japanese 30-year bond trading at less than 50 bps.

An outcome like Japan's was long thought to be impossible in the United States, but since the Covid-19 pandemic struck, a convergence with their experience seems to merely be a matter of time.

And this very neatly brings us around to my second thesis. We have officially entered the Greater Depression. The collapse in demand and output we are currently experiencing in the economy is without precedent unless one references the Great Depression of the 1930s. Cumulative unemployment claims over the past 6 weeks from mid March to late April 2020 have totaled a staggering 30.3 million claims.

This puts the unemployment rate in some states (8 to be exact) at more than 15%! If that doesn't qualify as a depression level event, then I don't know what is. Yes, some of these unemployed people will head back to work when the stay-at-home orders are finally lifted, but far fewer than many hope.

With the country facing its long-telegraphed Greater Depression, you might think that the stock market would finally get a clue. You would be wrong. The S&P 500 is currently (as of early May) just 16% off its all time highs, hovering around the level of June 2019. So let's get this straight. Financial Armageddon arrives and the stock market reacts by giving up its last 1 year of gains (in the context of a 10 year bull market), but not a penny more.

This makes no sense whatsoever.

It makes even less sense when you consider that wide swaths of corporate America are quickly going bankrupt. The entertainment, vacation and leisure sectors, including cruise lines, casinos, hotels and resorts are on the fast track to going broke.

Brick and mortar retail companies are in the same predicament. Lord & Taylor, J. Crew, Neiman Marcus and J.C. Penney are among the national chain stores that have declared bankruptcy (or soon will) due to coronavirus-induced economic disruptions. And that last great department store stalwart, Macy's, probably only has 2 or 3 years left before it joins them.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that all physical retailers or entertainment-oriented firms are going to disappear, just that there will end up being far fewer of these companies in existence after our Greater Depression concludes than there are right now.

The transportation sector is facing similar headwinds. Many airline companies are headed to bankruptcy for obvious reasons. And world trade has taken quite a hit as well, which is causing tremendous pain for trans-oceanic cargo shipping firms.

These trends are highly unlikely to reverse, too. The world is de-globalizing, a process that will take many years, but appears to be virtually unstoppable at this point.

If this news wasn't bad enough, the entire energy sector is currently on life support. The price of WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil plummeted below $20 a barrel in late April 2020 - commensurate with price levels last seen in 1979 and 1986! Natural gas prices aren't doing much better, bumping along late 1990s lows. Oh, and those values aren't inflation adjusted - just pure nominal goodness.

So yeah, a lot of oil & gas contract drillers, energy service firms and oil & gas exploration and production companies are going to go to corporate heaven pretty soon - along with all the bonds and stocks they've issued. In fact, it is a safe bet that many companies - perhaps most companies - involved in drilling for oil and gas in the shale fields of the United States will be forced into bankruptcy.

The deflationary impulse from these events will be absolutely massive - an outcome not even remotely discounted in the securities markets at the current time. The price of energy feeds into almost everything else that the global economy produces. With oil and gas plumbing multi-decade lows, the prices of many goods will have a tendency to decline.

Now many people are quite worried about inflation right now. This worry is misplaced, at least in the near term. Yes, I am aware that the Federal Reserve has just printed $2.5 trillion over the past couple of months (with the promise of more where that came from). But this is like throwing money into a black hole where the global economy once stood. Those freshly printed dollars simply disappear forever into the maw of nearly unlimited liquidity demand.

The total value of securities that will ultimately become valueless due to our Greater Depression is certainly greater than $10 trillion, and probably more than $20 trillion. The Fed's new $2.5 trillion infusion doesn't go very far in this context. And their next $2.5 trillion won't do the trick either. They would have to print tens of trillions of dollars to effectively stoke inflation. And while that might be a distinct possibility towards the end of the 2020s, I don't see it as being a realistic outcome over the next few years.

But make no mistake - bad times are coming for the dollar, albeit several years (or longer) from now.

The U.S. dollar, along with every other fiat currency in the world, is slowly losing its ability to transmit value over time. The importance of this development cannot be overstated. The governments and central banks of the world have fully embraced debasement (generally in the form of MMT) as a painless solution to their economic problems. But money printing is like an addictive drug. At first it seems like an unmitigated good, with no negative repercussions whatsoever. It is only later, when it is already far too late, that the printing press demons make themselves known.

Right now you can still find U.S. dollar denominated CDs paying around 1.4% or 1.5%. But that won't be the case forever. As the March 2020 liquidity crisis recedes into the rear-view mirror, banks will pay depositors progressively lower and lower interest rates. The natural floor is the Fed Funds rate, which is currently hovering between 0% and 0.25%

And even though the Fed has sworn up and down that they will not pursue negative interest rates, there is still a good chance that they will panic and cut below zero at some point in the future.

So what is an investor to do?

I believe the answer is tangible assets: precious metals, antiques, gemstones and fine art.

Due to the Greater Depression, there are tremendous bargains available in the world of antiques. For example, I recently purchased a magnificent set of 12 French .950 fine silver teaspoons from the 1860s or 1870s on eBay for only $13.75 a spoon. To put this value in context, I remember frequenting an antiques store in the late 1990s where a fine set of one dozen sterling teaspoons by Frank M. Whiting (a well-respected name among antique silver collectors) sold for $12 each. And I thought that was quite a deal at the time.

In other words, even though more than 20 years have elapsed, nominal prices have barely budged!

Another example of undervalued tangibles can be found in the coin market. I recently bought a couple mixed rolls of 90% silver U.S. State quarters/America the Beautiful quarters for almost no premium over circulated junk silver. Each $10 face value roll consisted of 40 coins in outstanding proof condition. Under normal circumstances, proof coins intended for collectors should always trade at a premium versus similar non-proof issues.

But due to the fallout from our Greater Depression, these wonderful coins are being treated as bullion pieces (for now anyway).

Sure, there will be a bit over 100 million specimens struck between the two series when the America the Beautiful series finishes up in a couple years. This isn't a particularly small mintage. But guess what? Those hundred million coins are enough for…wait for it…about 4/5ths of a single coin for each U.S. household.

Modern Silver Proof Quarter Rolls For Sale

And they are downright rare when compared to the Washington quarter mintages typically found in junk silver rolls and bags. For instance, in their last year of regular production, there were over 1.2 billion silver Washington quarters struck in 1964. Even if you assume a brutal attrition rate of 90%, there are still more 1964-dated Washington quarters in existence than there will ever be of silver proof State quarters and America the Beautiful quarters in the two series combined!

In the future, coin collectors looking back at this period of American history won't care about any of the nasty copper-nickel clad coinage struck for circulation. Instead, they will gravitate towards precious metal bullion coins and select commemorative pieces (like the America the Beautiful quarter series) struck in silver or gold. And because the silver proof mintages for the State quarter/America the Beautiful quarter series are spread over a hundred different designs spanning 20 years, collectors will have fertile ground to build an interesting, attractive and attainable collection.

So why not pick up a roll of these undervalued silver coins for only $160 to $180 each (subject to fluctuating bullion prices) while you still can? It sure beats earning nothing in a savings account or spinning the roulette wheel in the crazed stock market. The Greater Depression might mean that conventional assets are a losing proposition, but it doesn't mean that tangible asset investing is dead.

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