Hello Stackers, me again. Silver and its Availability in the World The Australian physical silver is pretty much made up of the Predecimals ( Crowns & the like ), postdecimals ( 50 Cent pieces ), Bullion priced Perth Mint (& other minor aussie mints) products and numismatically priced Perth Mint products ( 1kg Kook coin, Proof Issues ). Have you noticed that when we buy silver products from other places in the world the premium Paid is usually higher than with our products. Think about it, can you buy any silver minted after 1950 from South American or African or Asian or European mints ( maybe even North American ) and pay less than the Australian silver (excluding numismatic PM products)? Not that long ago our Kooks enjoyed a nice-ish premium, and from memory it cost more than A Maple, a Philharmoniker, ASE , Libertad- (now that premium over each one of those aforementioned coins is lower) Brittannias were the most expensive 1 oz Gov mint coins, and they still are. ( go ahead and Check on eBay or with your dealer or ask yourself if you had it in your stack right now, whether Ud exchange it for a 2010 Kook?) Now what happens when you set your sights on Silver coins from some obscure country the like Of Albania, Laos, Bolivia and you want to check out their silver coinage. In most cases their mintages are lower ( much lower ) and very hard to find them on eBay and When you do, they always trade at a nice premium to your Aussie silver coinage ( how many oz Of 1966 50 Cent pieces to give up to get that 10 Bolivianos 0.8068 oz 33000 mintage silver beauty ? A lot. So when the Boliviano initially gets minted and is sitting in the Bolivian mint ( hot of the press ) that Boliviano probably has a price where the Bolivians can buy them also. Now, in Bolivia the average man is barely scraping by with all his other necessities of Life, and than If he looks at the price of that silver coin ( which is priced in USD and than converted to his "crappy" currency ( apology for potential offence to the Bolivians, but hey, im not that far off) It becomes even harder for him to afford to buy that coin. ( think about how many oz of silver you Can buy within 24hrs from one days work? And estimate how many hours it would take the Bolivian to buy the same amount of silver let me give you a hint: A LOT MORE ! ) So, now we ( me, and you if you have any silver not minted in Australia in your stack ) are slowly buying up all the silver available from those regions, ( the Bolivian mint buys raw silver for SPOT, the Collectors pay SPOT + 30+% and sometimes even more ( an 1 oz coin that costs $120 for example), So the Bolivian mint will be selling those coins to the collectors who can pay the highest price, and Since the average stacker from Australia or other G20 country needs to work less hours to afford the same amount of silver as the Bolivian, the silver for the average Bolivian will become dearer and dearer to Him. Or if you go into older coinage ( 1880-1920 ), Ethiopia had their large silver coins ( 1 Birr 0.75 oz silver same as the globally popular Austrian Thaler at the time ), if you want to buy a BIRR, it will cost you pretty much at least $60USD ( for 0.75 oz silver ), and think about how long a government clerk or a farmer in Ethiopia would have to work to buy that coin and reclaim it back again? Anyways, the Government of Kelantan ( Malaysia ) decided ( don't know how many years ago google it if you like ) to mint some silver and gold coins and let it kinda circulate in their economy and help its people out. Anyways turns out that the whole project failed and the silver dirhams and gold dinars kinda left The economy so the people are back on the paper again. They were all sold off on eBay or hoarded privately by stackers there, or bought by the Chinese and Shipped out, don't know what happened to them but they are not fulfilling their intended duty to Serve as Money within the area. Why would that be? Well, the coin when issued would have had its issue price in Malaysian Ringgits and the citizens would have either bought them of the bank/mint/gov department, or they would have been Paid with them for their services/products . The dirham is between 0.1-0.2 oz of 0.999 silver ( stamped on the coin) and its issue price would have to Be over spot, the mint and government would have had their charges built in. And the cost of that Coin in Australia or other country would be around 0.3-0.4 oz due to its rarity and general unavailability. So some people within that country would soon realise that they can sell these coins For a lot more than what they are worth to outside investors or to keep it themselves as just in case ( Greshams Law ) or to do even better to sell them and with the money buy silver bars ( positive Premium arbritrage ) and that money would soon disappear from the economy and the people Would find themselves again with paper. Ethical Question Should we be buying silver coins from abroad from non G20 countries and thereby make their Silver even scarcer in their countries for their average citizen? I know its kinda a free-for-all event and if you don't buy them someone else will. But don't we have Our own silver? Are not most members here for the introduction of silver and gold coins in the population, or are We waiting for SHTF scenarios when our gains will be multiples of our initial efforts, due to Our awareness of money and its nature before that dawns on the sheeple? Just some thoughts from me.
I think that we will be waiting for a long time before AG/AU is introduced into coinage (on a large scale) here in Australia. An economic SHTF situation is more likely within the next 5-10 years.
I'm surprised to hear that the Kelantan dinar/dirham has failed as it was only launched in August 2010. A second Malaysian state (Perak) also introduced a dinar/dirham earlier this year (Feb 11). If its really failed, I'd think its only its legal tender status as the Kelantan Government had plans to pay government employees with the dinar/dirham. Incidentally, Perak is the Malay word for silver
