Collecting
Going for Gold – Part 9
As well as buying precious metals for their intrinsic value there are many people who collect coins, bars and other items and pay far more than their value in weight because of a perceived value [more…]
Trading
Business
How My Grandchildren Learned to Love Commerce
My three grandchildren’s other set of grandparents live just off the seventeenth green of a golf course in California. This set of grandparents hosted a multi-generation family vacation at their home this summer. The California [more…]
Business
Plain Truths Need Repetition
“The Government has a duty to the next generation to build more homes” – reads a recent headline, quoting the Housing Minister, whose choice of words masks his preferred role, which is to get out [more…]
Collecting
Going for Gold – Part 8
Prior to becoming interested in precious metals I had never visited the inside of an auction house, let alone placed a bid. However, during the last lockdown I discovered that auctions can be a rich [more…]
Economics
Get real, be real, and buy real – Part II
Claudio Grass (CG): During the first wave of lockdowns and travel bans we saw a lot of disruptions in the physical precious metal market. With delivery delays and logistics problems, has the situation fully normalized [more…]
Economics
What is Money?
Introduction Everybody knows how to use money, but very few people understand what it really is, or how it works. You might think people who work in finance and banking understand money, but I’ve not [more…]
Collecting
Going for Gold – Part 7
I had vaguely heard of the Latin Monetary Union and decided to do some research for this article after viewing some gold coins from this period on an auction website. The Latin Monetary Union (LMU) [more…]
Economics
Get real, be real, and buy real
The past year has been a remarkably interesting time for precious metals and especially for silver. The metal had spent many years in the shadow of its “big brother”, but it made an impressive, roaring [more…]
Collecting
Going For Gold – Part 6
Previous articles in this series have focused heavily on coins. This time I take a look at the history of bullion, ingots and bars for a change. What is Bullion? Claude de Bullion, became the [more…]