I'm a teenager. Therefore, I'm probably inexperienced, naive, and stupid. Nevertheless, I've decided that, with the idiot left-wing politicians here in the US, I should invest in something physical with a long history of reliability. No bonds, no annuities, and definitely no stocks.
After seven months of collecting, I've acquired 31.7 ozt of silver and about 82.4 lbs of copper in many different forms, such as rare coins and silver rounds. So, I've begun to question which is best: Canadian Silver Maple Leafs or American Silver Eagles.
Silver Eagles are the standard, at least here in the US (I can't speak for the rest of the world). They are readily available and widely accepted because they are backed by the supposedly trustworthy US gov't. They are .999 fine and have a face value of $1 USD. Many investors, like myself, pay close attention to the face value of the coin. The ASEs are denominated in USD, which means they are accepted as legal tender all over the world. A comforting fact if silver's value drops below $1 USD per ozt. Not likely, but nice to know.
Silver Maple Leafs are also very popular here in the US. Before 2006, they had a significantly lower mintage, calling for higher premiums and more numismatic value. Now, the Royal Canadian Mint spits out Silver Maple Leafs like crazy, lowering the premium to better compete with ASEs and even private mint rounds. The newer Maple Leafs are now cheaper than many of its competitors. In addition, the purity is .9999 fine. ASEs are only .9990, of course. As for face value, it is commonly known that Maple Leafs have a face value of $5 CAD, rather than ASEs' face value of only $1 USD. This can be a wonderful advantage. Some people might argue that the value of silver could drop below $5 CAD, in which the Maple Leafs would be more valuable as "fake" money than as real money. It is not, of course likely that the value of silver would drop so low. Nevertheless, I propose a hypothetical situation:
Imagine that Canada's government collapses or there's a massive economic crash or a widespread natural disaster. Imagine one or more of these occurrences causes massive deflation. In this scenario, you could imagine silver being worth perhaps $32 USD per ozt while it is $4.20 CAD per ozt. In this situation it would be advantageous to trade in your Maple Leafs at a bank for $5 CAD apiece, then convert the CAD to USD. You would then get over $38 USD per ozt without any haggling. Nice deal.
That scenario is not too likely either, but it is enough to make me want the Maple Leafs more than ASEs. However, the ASE's face value can be a serious advantage as well.
Imagine I am an old man with only a few days to live. I have my next-of-kin liquidate all of my investments and buy monster boxes of ASEs. Let's say I now have 5,000 ASEs. When I die, my next-of-kin inherits all of my possessions. For simplicity's sake, my only possessions of value are my 5,000 ASEs. To avoid estate and inheritance taxes, my next-of-kin can honestly say they inherited $5,000 USD. Imagine that silver is $150 USD per ozt. My next-of-kin inherited $750,000 USD and only got taxed on $5,000 USD of that. If the money was invested in Maple Leafs, the face value would be more like $25,000 CAD and much more costly to pay taxes on.
These are just a few Pros/Cons I've come up with when comparing Canada's premier silver bullion coin versus the United States' counterpart. Any thoughts?
After seven months of collecting, I've acquired 31.7 ozt of silver and about 82.4 lbs of copper in many different forms, such as rare coins and silver rounds. So, I've begun to question which is best: Canadian Silver Maple Leafs or American Silver Eagles.
Silver Eagles are the standard, at least here in the US (I can't speak for the rest of the world). They are readily available and widely accepted because they are backed by the supposedly trustworthy US gov't. They are .999 fine and have a face value of $1 USD. Many investors, like myself, pay close attention to the face value of the coin. The ASEs are denominated in USD, which means they are accepted as legal tender all over the world. A comforting fact if silver's value drops below $1 USD per ozt. Not likely, but nice to know.
Silver Maple Leafs are also very popular here in the US. Before 2006, they had a significantly lower mintage, calling for higher premiums and more numismatic value. Now, the Royal Canadian Mint spits out Silver Maple Leafs like crazy, lowering the premium to better compete with ASEs and even private mint rounds. The newer Maple Leafs are now cheaper than many of its competitors. In addition, the purity is .9999 fine. ASEs are only .9990, of course. As for face value, it is commonly known that Maple Leafs have a face value of $5 CAD, rather than ASEs' face value of only $1 USD. This can be a wonderful advantage. Some people might argue that the value of silver could drop below $5 CAD, in which the Maple Leafs would be more valuable as "fake" money than as real money. It is not, of course likely that the value of silver would drop so low. Nevertheless, I propose a hypothetical situation:
Imagine that Canada's government collapses or there's a massive economic crash or a widespread natural disaster. Imagine one or more of these occurrences causes massive deflation. In this scenario, you could imagine silver being worth perhaps $32 USD per ozt while it is $4.20 CAD per ozt. In this situation it would be advantageous to trade in your Maple Leafs at a bank for $5 CAD apiece, then convert the CAD to USD. You would then get over $38 USD per ozt without any haggling. Nice deal.
That scenario is not too likely either, but it is enough to make me want the Maple Leafs more than ASEs. However, the ASE's face value can be a serious advantage as well.
Imagine I am an old man with only a few days to live. I have my next-of-kin liquidate all of my investments and buy monster boxes of ASEs. Let's say I now have 5,000 ASEs. When I die, my next-of-kin inherits all of my possessions. For simplicity's sake, my only possessions of value are my 5,000 ASEs. To avoid estate and inheritance taxes, my next-of-kin can honestly say they inherited $5,000 USD. Imagine that silver is $150 USD per ozt. My next-of-kin inherited $750,000 USD and only got taxed on $5,000 USD of that. If the money was invested in Maple Leafs, the face value would be more like $25,000 CAD and much more costly to pay taxes on.
These are just a few Pros/Cons I've come up with when comparing Canada's premier silver bullion coin versus the United States' counterpart. Any thoughts?
