welcome to fellow Bosnian. There used to be silver coinage before ww2 in the then called Kingdom of Yugoslavia and before that also through Ottomans. Gold is valued in that region as a whole. Probably a good opportunity few years back before the $50 silver would have been to set up a business that buys silver and i'm guessing you would have been able to pick it up in large amounts at small fraction of spot. When you have enough just cross a few borders west and get spot at least, but this is hindsight lol
I dont know why people do not value PM. Most of the people just want cash money. We are not in a crisis, most people drives new cars, have businesess, we are not Africa. Yes there are poor people but there are a lot of milionars and very rich people, and nobody talks about PM or value it as store of vealth. Gold maybe - mostly jerwelery not bulions, but silver, no, nobody cares about silver. That is very disappointing. Not to mention numismatics or semi numismatics.... nobody collect it. Ps. There are a few pawn shops but nobody use them. People sell items when they dont need them, nobody pawns anything. If someone needs a casche they go to bank and get credit. Everybody can get credit from a bank here. And nobody stacks anything except cache. Peopele do not care about fuel, food... they buy when they need. Nobody think there will be shortage again. SHTF scenario is not an option here. We are in illusion that European union will protect us and nothing bad will happend. (I do not want US dollars, I just converted prices so you can understand it better, we deal in BAM which is tied to EURO (it is always 1 EUR = 1.95 BAM and it never change! it is political agreement)
Try to drive into Slovenija or maybe Croatia, there are in Zagreb/Ljubljana few Coin Shops. And for better understanding, i don't think you could open PM business in Bosna, theft and robbery is there big problem.I lived in Bosna 19 Years and last time i been there is September 2014 Gold is worth only as Jewelry, also old Ducats and Napoleon Gold francs, Hungar or Austrian Gold Kronen/Florins/Gulden are known and respected, Modern numismatics is not known and not possible to sell. Srdaan pozdrav zemljacima
Yes, 600 kilos of silver for 2 small boxes of ammunition and a 5 gallon jug of gasoline...how's that store of wealth notion workin' out for stackers? .
after ww2 commies confiscated loads of gold from populace. My grandad bought some from a rich guy right after the war and had to go to jail as the country declared that gold to be officially theirs(gold of the rich) and noone is allowed to trade it so seller and buyer both are in trouble. He went 5-6 months to jail cause of it. I think since that time people stopped being stackers and if they have any gold its jewelery. Even then i heard of people saving themselves from soldiers when they offered them gold
During the war both Deutschmarks and $US were used interchangeably, I think with a 1/1.5 pretty much fixed trading ratio, you could spend either, and would get change in either (or even both) A lot of cafes had locally printed credit 'chits' they'd give you in lieu of change I do remember gold coins being used and circulated, double headed eagle on the back from memory? Gold was used then, I'm surprised the locals have not remembered what it meant for the families at the time? I think really poor quality candles were 1dm each, a French ration pack was 25dm, fuel was (I think) 5dm per litre if you could get it. Coffee was off the planet, although you always seemed to be able to get one. Good luck with getting a decent price, it seems so obvious to us, makes you wonder how the collective memory has faltered in a such a short timeframe?
you are right, people here value only gold jewelery and very old gold coins (Ducats and Austrian coins). But you can find a gold coin in 1 of 20 jewelery shops! Nobody buys them.
not really. MAny people here have been saying ( but the perma bulls shout you down ) that silver only has value that people perceive it to have it has no intrinsic value. Average joe on the street in Australia would also not know the value of a silver or gold coin, apart from the face value. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndshbH3qZ6Y[/youtube] if you ever need money fast, cash is King, silver / gold in a SHTF scenario would be nothing but dead weight to carry.
Can I cross the border with for example 3 kilo of silver? Do I have to declare or pay some customs fees?
Take a train to somewhere (e.g. Germany), and sell there? Edit: sorry, I saw some people already suggested this.
Just the trip to germany would cost 1 kilo of silver at todays prices. Not very smart option. Nevwermind, I will wait for little longer hopeful silver will get back at least to 25 USD, and change it to gold... gold is more acceptable here than silver.