Hard Money Newsletter Review

Why Jeff Nielson Is Good For The Silver Investor

Note: Updated 4-27-2010

I’ve been following Jeff Nielson for quite some time now. I believe that for the average silver coin or silver bullion investor, because his writing is succinct and honest in it’s treatment of a very emotional investment sector.

This is information that the small silver coin investor can appreciate and trust.

I originally “discovered” his silver articles around the web. He does cover a broad range of related topics, but I prefer to stick with the silver articles.

He also shows up at Lemetropole Cafe and other sites from time to time because of his willingness to “treat” price manipulation.

His main “home” is Bullion Bulls Canada. You might try him there first to get broad sense of where he is coming from.

The crux of his writing for me is the fact that he understands and treats manipulation – in addition to covering the fundamentals.

You can trust Neilson for this…which is a relief…It is rare to find writers who approach precious metals with a balanced approach.  It one thing to be “all about” the fundamental and/or technical analysis, or focused solely on the blatant crimes of manipulation being carried out on daily basis, in broad daylight. But to balance these requires a strong determination and commitment to the truth, no matter how unpleasant, bullish, or bearish.

It is painful to face the inconvenient truth about precious metals, but imperative that one recognize the opportunity to not simply make money, but too loose as little as possible.

About Jeff Nielson

As I mentioned above, Jeff Nielson is from Canada and is a writer/editor for Bullion Bulls Canada (BBC).

His background is law and economics.

Bullion Bulls Canada provides general macro-economic and political commentary, since the precious metals markets are among the most complex (and misunderstood) in the world.

What Can Jeff Nielson and Bullion Bulls Canada Can Do For Silver Investor

Bullion Bulls Canada (BBC) also provides basic coverage of Canadian precious metals mining companies. For anyone ready to leap from bullion to bullion producers, this would be a good place to start. Ultimately the mainstream focus will turn to the producers, so you can get ahead of the crowd now, or use it a resource if you have some money to gamble with.

Another feature about Neilson and BBC  that I subscribe to can be summed up by how Nielson spells out his objective: “To slice through the veil of propaganda which taints most mainstream “news” organizations – and deceives rather than informs the general public”.

Again, it is uplifting, if not sobering to have a few places like this to turn to as we experience this great bull market and it’s accompanying grand wall of worry. Nielson’s writing provides a clear voice you can turn to when you need to get back to a fresh look at the fundamentals.

And Nielson has still another bold objective: To highlight the tremendous investment opportunities in Canadian mining (in general), and the precious metals sector, in particular.

From Nielson’s Bullion Bulls Canada: “Even with current prices for precious metals, mining companies trading on Canadian exchanges are getting horrific valuations – near the lowest levels this decade. With the enormous upside still ahead in precious metals, this provides nothing less than a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity (at a time when most people are reeling from a series of economic “shocks”).”

Where to Find Jeff Nielson

Bullion Bulls Canada

A sample of one of my favorite Nielson series:

History of Silver, Part I: Metal of the Moon

I am always looking for a place that offers the amateur a friendly and reasonable peek into the world of resistance, moving averages, head-n-shoulder tops, wedges, and areas of support – while demonstrating a respect for underlying trend.

Advanced technology is both a blessing and a curse. Where mouse-clicks and emotions are simultaneous.

Those of us braced for the storm ahead will likely find the upcoming volatility (in all financial markets) to be like nothing we could ever imagine.

Many expect silver prices to fluctuate wildly. Both to the upside and down.

Even the “sideways” trade may unnerve the best of us. Uncertainty leading to despair will arise as fundamentals slowly break out from dormancy. – no matter how committed we are to the long-term, insurance character of silver.

Physical silver investors are tethered to the primary trend. Possession of the actual metal requires an entirely new layer of appreciation – and there is little glamor or excitement about it.

Yet we all crave a little excitement.  Or the occasional signal or impetus to buy? And why not understand the nuance of the trade? Learn all you can about this scarce resource – that primal money you hold in your hand?

Is there a way to balance observing the short-term, while remaining committed to the long-haul?

And read commentary about what it all means for yesterday and tomorrow, regardless of the direction of the primary trend? Yet, from source that “gets” it…

That every fiat currency ever created has had the same fate. That markets today are managed by rogue investors enabled by sovereigns to take down sovereigns in a great new battle in the shadows.

Fundamentals have been ignored for so long here, and in other markets, that the professional trade can essentially the influence.

Let me introduce you to Bill Downey’s GoldTrends.net.

Mr. Downey has a simple to follow, clear, technical analysis website for gold and silver.

While the content serves the advanced-technical mind, it is presented with a nod to the fundamentals and an accessible presentation.

Not much hype, nothing fancy. It doesn’t need it.

The site is well written, honest, and passionate  — and his service is Free. So why not?

Only a couple reasons why you might want to stay away.

1. If you are like me, a sponge for precious metal content and particularly interested in the how bearish signals manifest.

(Yes, bearish! In fact, I  am so bullish that I have become a skeptic by default. I crave any analysis that depicts the downside scenario).

2. The other reason to tread carefully, outside of the time-sync in if you choose to read the content — is that when the volatility swings against the trend, you may not find the emotional support you need to retain your focus. I’m just saying because I know.

The way these (all) markets are traded on a daily basis is criminal and so far from natural that its a wonder that the whole thing does not blow apart tomorrow.

Take a look at Bill’s silver page here.

Or check out the article that first alerted me to his site about silver’s most important price point right around one of the more difficult moves to endure.

Better yet, here’s the Mogambo Guru — also a Downey follower — who always serves to put things in perspective.

Those three links plus the one below ought to give you what you need to help you decide for yourself.

Bill provides an excellent, free resource for dabbling deeper into the technical aspect of silver (and gold) trading. Or, take a look at his long-term strategy for silver here.

Bottom line:

Taking physical possession practically eliminates the mouse click in times of despair.

But you don’t have to pretend to be disinterested in the day to day or month to month evolution of the technical perspective.

Worst case is that you end up enduring a dose of bearish reality. Best case, you find a short-term motivation to buy a few more coins.

If you stand the heat and you like to check the price or guess the action short-term…Or if you want to get a sense how the technical crowd keeps up with the market, I urge you to give Bill Downey’s site a try.

I believe Doug Casey’s ongoing interview series is well-worth the time of any hard money enthusiast – even the lonely (not lowly!) silver coin or bullion investor.

(Which reminds me of something I’ve been meaning to get across to you. Silver “coins” are not necessarily the same as silver “bullion”. I am technically more interested in bullion or generic silver. The purest may resent lumping coins and bullion together, but most people new to this world will not be immediately familiar with definition of “bullion”).

Now then.

Doug Casey is the Chairman of Casey Research, a unique organization that makes it’s living on subscription services for investment reports on a variety of mostly contrary or overlooked opportunities.

This interview series is one of the many Free subscriptions Casey Research provides and again,  it is highly recommend it for the long-term view and broader market trends.

Doug Casey is a highly respected author, publisher and professional investor who graduated from Georgetown University in 1968.

He literally wrote the book on profiting from periods of economic turmoil: his book “Crisis Investing” spent multiple weeks as #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and became the best-selling financial book of 1980 with 438,640 copies sold.

The timing (of my discovery) is a bit ironic in that from a monetary standpoint, we are in a similar predicament to 1980. Even more ironic, perhaps, is the fact that I saw Paul Volcker testifying before the Senate the other day in what may be only symbolic, but nevertheless interesting, given Volcker’s role as Federal Reserve Chairman in the early 80’s.

I look forward to the weekly interviews with Doug Casey because he stands for fundamentals and the long-term – with an eye for interesting recommendations for securities in the short term. And he is one of the few truly outspoken.

Additionally, he covers some broad topics like this recent one on Haiti and this one on education.

Here’s an excerpt from the “education” interview:

“Put it this way. The quality of a person can be determined by how he relates to three critical verbs: Be, Do, and Have. The classical liberal arts show you how to “be” – they help form your essence, your character, your will. The mechanical arts show you how to “do”; they are important, but really are just acquired skills. As a consequence of what you are, and what you can do, you “have” – acquire goods and money and reputation.”

The fundamental analysis is a key for any silver coin investor who desires some semblance of sanity in the world of derived price management and volatility.

Publications like this one, provide this much needed semblance.

I used to ask myself why a pure silver bug like me insists on reading a currency rag.

Silver and Gold might be money, but they ain’t traded on the Forex.

I suppose this is part of why Chuck Butler’s Daily Pfennig has become a part of my daily routine.

Butler recently quoted David Galland on buying Gold… Here’s David…

“Buy gold. Unless and until there is an angry upwelling of popular discontent at the growing size of government – and it has to be far more substantive than just a few vocal talk radio jocks, or even 100,000 or so people peacefully gathering on the Mall in Washington DC – the government will continue to grow, or even just keep running at current levels, which means the destruction of the dollar. Many tangible assets will do well, but their intrinsic value as money means gold (and silver) will do best.”

That would have been enough for me, but as it turns out, I had already come to know David Galland, who also turns out to be a fan of one of my favorite books, THE FOURTH TURNING, AN AMERICAN PROPHECY, by Neil Howe and the late William Strauss.

More on this in a minute…

Last week I happened to be listening to a radio interview with Mr. Gold, Jim Sinclair of JSMineSet (previously reviewed by me).

Sinclair was talking about his father, who worked with the legendary trader, Jesse Livermore.

(It turns out a good day-trading friend of mine had recently discovered Livermore, which was the first I’d heard of them)

Anyway, Sinclair brought up a Livermore axiom that really stuck with me and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

Livermore said that the most important thing when trading is to:

“establish and commit to a position, then use the technicals to support or improve the cost basis..”

Hey, just like I do. I don’t really consider myself a trader. I buy silver coins on the dips and/or when I can. That’s the commitment.

The other part of that or “using the technicals to support or improve the cost basis” is a tricky thing to do in the silver market.

Especially, as long as prices are determined by futures or paper silver. That is to say, manipulated or suppressed.

I think the only way to know when it’s really time to sell is when silver shows up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

I often feel taken advantage of by the chartists anyway.

Pardon the surf analogy, but it’s somewhat how I think about the surf conditions –Even though the short-term or local conditions matter some, its the long-term ground swell that we wait for.  You know the winter is coming, just now when the good days will actually arrive.

If you have a lot of extra cash, you might be able to use the technicals to leverage money around the mining sector, to support your cost basis. But for guys like me, that is mostly dreaming. I’m just happy my local coin guy is still able to find coins.

Okay. So anyone who invests in silver can attest to volatility.

Therefore, we need a direction, a path, a clear sense of where things are headed, a signal that the seasons are about to change.

Among other things it’s important to look at what the macro is telling you and stick to that direction and try to keep the short-term volatility in perspective.

I think a lot of people sort of wake up to find it warm and sunny and only then realize that it must be summer.

I enjoy learning from David Galland,  guys like him take “the chance” and really look at the long-term picture. Or, unlike many writers, he simply looks at what the policymakers are doing, and acknowledging their power to carry out these policies, and their track records.

Galland puts together a really good, once a week kind of read, an organized look at how the short term relates to the longer view contrarion  point of view.

You can find him over at Casey Research in the free section.

Galland is also an inflationist, which again, for the long-term is always in the cards for a fiat currency and what all central powers do, if they can get away with it – which they probably will for a while.

As I alluded to above, I became a raving fan of Galland is from reading the interview that he did with Neil Howe, author of “The Fourth Turning”.

You can check it out here:

http://www.safehaven.com/article-14670.htm

Galland may help you in keeping that needed focus on the broader horizon.

Market Oracle, much like Safehaven – a clean, well-organized, article farm with a well developed commodities section.

Up until the last minute, I was ready to wrap this up and conclude that Market Oracle devotes too little space to my beloved silver and that it primarily functions (from a the silver investor’s standpoint) in getting the word out generally about precious metals -but definitely weighs too heavily on the technical side to the markets.

Then there was this:

Peak Silver and Mining by a Falling EROI

And then this:

Silver set to Soar as it did in the 1970’s

So I had to change my mind a bit.

But first a word on where I was going…

Some find fundamentals to be boring. I guess it depends on your perspective, or your motivations for evaluating a market.

People I’m mainly concerned with  are those looking at silver, (or more specifically silver coins), as a long-term investment, and therefore care more about fundamentals.

In fact, the fundamentals and silver, because they have been ignored for so long, lost to the mainstream, are precisely why the people who can afford a small long-term investment will eventually flock to this area.

It’s more difficult to say the same thing about gold. In most of the content and commentary at Market Oracle was focused on gold, and not silver. (Until very recently!)

Frankly, I’m tired of technicals.

As a pure silver bug, I can do without another chart, or another wave analysis, with moving averages, pivot points, and the like.

The lure of the technicals makes sense, and good writers do it well. And make no mistake, there is no shortage of talented writers here. Contributers – link

Looking at charts and patterns provides a way to stay excited, a way to feel like you’re a part of the game.

We all need a little excitement.

For us, technical analysis  provides a way to rationalize an investment space that has traded Contrary to fundamentals for many many years.

In silver, The fundamentals are simply not in play. That’s probably the understatement of the year.

Believe me, you and everybody else will know it once silver begins trading based on fundamentals again.

To be fair Market oracle is not completely technical. And now we’re talking silver too!

An example of this can be found here, in Merv Burak’s “Gold Topping Action Continues”, from Oct 25, 2009.

Mr. Burak starts out with a fair treatise on fundamentals, and even a healthy argument as to why we need to keep them in mind before we start looking at charts and historical pivot points and price points.

Of course, the rest of this very well written, but unfortunately, technical posts, goes on to evaluate markets for not traded based on fundamentals for a very long time, including metals and agriculture.

That said, Market Oracle is a place where you can get a good cross section of who the major technical experts and gols (and silver?) market commentators are – the writing professionals in this space.

Take a look and see if you recognize any Market Oracle contributors here.

There is no shortage of content – the risk is never catching up.

So at first, I hesitated to recommend this to you, the faithful silver coin investor, in the waiting in the trenches, the the poor man, not necessarily interested in the trade or the gamble – or even the fast buck.

But then, all of a sudden, as if ordained by some magical market force, two articles appear with a focus on silver!

This one, you should go check out today.

Perhaps my fear (and maybe yours too) about fundamentals being forever obscured are about to change?

We wait and see. In the meantime, we’ll be on the lookout for more silver coin-centric content and add Market Oracle to our feed.

If you are wondering about where I’m coming from with this – or or to get the overall perspective on what it means to be a silver coin investor, check out my free guide and E-course here.

Investment Underground, published by Contrarian Profits, another offshoot (this one genetically) of the Agora ‘Goliath’ is another one, you can skip.

We silver coin investors are a funny bunch. You see, folks lucky enough to have figured out a way and a place to store what little wealth they have left over have come to this from many a direction.

Typically, we are contrarian to begin with, salt of the earth types, with not a lot of extra income lying around to gamble with.

But there is a world that opens up around you when you discover the simplicity in holding silver. (Whether that world is above or below is a matter of debate).

Many find the idea of buying physical silver for investment uncomfortable and about as appealing as a romp through the wilderness on foot that leads to a campsite in the middle of nowhere.

This is okay with us because, as a group, we like low-impact wilderness and the lessons learned in fending for oneself. This includes a level of a preparedness that comes only after considerable thought and research.

As much as we might otherwise find the plushness of the towering casinos and the allure of the fancier things in life, our resource-circumstance limits us to a different existence.

However, we are never fully disconnected from the bright lights, big cities, and indoor pluming – no more than silver can be eliminated from most of inner workings that make these modern wonders possible.

Therefore, our quest includes the need to know how our precious metal functions in the modern world, whether we are considering the markets, the industries that use silver, or the greater macro-economic or geopolitical trends that influence the value of our little stash of silver coins.

So in the quest for knowledge, there is much crossover, and we invariably come across letters and publications like “Investment Underground” – and so will you.

When you have a passion for this market, and an open curiosity, it’s easy to lose a sense of oneself and find yourself pouring over an investment offer carefully designed to lure you in.

Have fun with it. For there will perhaps come a day for this in the not-too-distant future – when you find yourself in a position to ‘leverage’ your silver coin investment. When that day comes, you’ll likely return to this email newlsetter. But for now, here’s the deal:

First off, when you sign up for investment underground,(watch the pop-up),you get a pretty steady flurry of content in your inbox.

And this part of a well-oiled machine. So, you can sit back and dabble a little from time to time – pick out a headline and then leave it be.

This is information marketing at its best. So, you’ll need to learn how to read with your silver coin identity firmly entrenched and allow yourself to dream a little, while checking any remorse for not being able to gamble – at the door.

Much of the content is specifically designed to hook you into reading and then, clicking. More often not, you get stuck reading what turns out to be an advertisement for one or another investing program.

Also, if you’ve read Addison Wiggin or will Bonner over at the Daily Reckoning or if you simply keep up with Chuck Butler’s Daily Pfennig, you can get the gist of what these e-mails cover in a broad macro-sense. You can pretty much stick with those guys. You’ll get the same message:

With the recent and ongoing financial crisis, and the amount of information sloshing around out there, crossing in and out and overlapping with similar content to Investment Underground, it makes it even more strenuous to put up with a message that shoots a little bit to the side or over the head of the typical silver investor.

And as much as I’d like to support the family affair (Will Bonner is Bill Bonner’s son), things must, at some point, come back down to earth for the silver coin investor.

Well, unfortunately for them, it doesn’t speak loud enough to the average investor.

In that most of us are just looking for a way to acquire a few more coins, and get a better understanding of how and why and what goes on in the macro world and how it affects our small world.

We need to make the connections between the broad market conditions and how they impact things that matter most to us like, silver supply tightness, industrial versus investor demand, and the ongoing and relentless price manipulation.

Of course, very few investing news sources currently give the time to those specific areas of interest, but we believe in time they will as more people will need to know.

Like many other newsletter publications, and yes, this one is free (so what could it hurt to try it out), they seem better directed toward where a lot of us are likely to be in a year. Further down along the way, maybe coming up out of the canyon, a little heavier with a few more coins on board.

But again, for the average silver investor, who has a sense of why silver is important, and where it will likely go in terms of price. You can probably skip this one.

I wouldn’t say that SafeHaven was too advanced for the average silver investor.

As a resource, it’s big, broad and raw. You can pick through it if you have the time and/or energy. There are definitively jewels nestled within. They admit that they keep it simple on purpose.

Streamlined traffic serves a good in this space. Some 75,000 visitors per month get a glimpse of the precious metal story, though never enough of the silver story.  The more the merrier – unless you are not invested…then you wouldn’t really understand.

However, I believe most people would rather pay to have this type of content  filtered and delivered, and with a ‘voice’.

On the way to the forum …which was down during the week I spent putting this together, I realized that they could probably do well by sprucing things up a bit- maybe even putting together an email package of ‘highlights’ with commentary.

Time and skill = money.

For me SafeHaven represents a HUB-full of rich content.

I read a lot in this sector. I’ve been at this for a while. I get the language. And I own silver bullion, which makes me particularly sensitive to quality. I don’t the money to ’simply buy gold’. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way.

It takes one to know one and I appreciate it and realize that no perspective should be completely ignored.

I like digging into content from the ‘professional’ perspective – which is what you’ll get here.

But you don’t need to be a professional to miss the big picture. Again, it just takes one to know one and discovering the ‘truth’ is not a straight path. Professionals and academics tend to come loaded with assumptions that are considered standard.

That’s where it gets tricky, in my opinion.

For me, everything boils down to physical silver. It’s all very simple over here in silver-coin-land. I want to help regular people see this too. I’m not sure that this is a great place to reinforce what most people need to get started with something as simple as silver coins.

The masses need access to some way of protecting wealth. They may not have much, but silver is cheap enough to provide protection for very little exchange- at least for now. It won’t last long. So there is urgency to add to the emotion.

For the regular person just becoming aware of this, SafeHaven will likely feel obscure.

What I decided to do was break down there own About Us section for you.

What follows is a paragraph by paragraph break-down with my comments (as they apply to the silver coin investor (link: http://www.silver-coin-investor.com) in between.

Here’s how I see it:

SafeHaven Says:

“At some point in your life you will want to, or be forced to consider an investment program. The main criteria in choosing one that is right for you is summed up in three words “Preservation of Capital”. Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it?”

Yes it does. Which is why I like silver. It is simple, fundamental, of the earth, etc. And precious metals have always been a key for wealth preservation. Of course, gold priced in dollars is expensive for folks like me. Silver is not. Silver (and gold) can be purchased at your local coin shop. And silver coins are liquid and easy to store for the regular guy.

SafeHaven Says:
“Remember, “Investing is not Saving”!”

This is where I need to part company a bit. Or maybe I’m missing something. Every one needs to save these days. Especially the average American. But a traditional savings account provides little interest, and it is denominated in dollars. Unless you believe in the official numbers and the presumption in the mainstream that their will be low inflation – if any at all – there is no way that the dollar will retain the purchasing power that it has today. So saving ‘in silver money’ makes sense. But given the market fundamentals and the relative scarcity of physical metal, silver is also a potentially ‘lucrative’ investment.

SafeHaven Says:
“The mainstream media would lead us to believe otherwise (in terms of saving, me) and seldom comment on the risks inherent in equity ownership or debt investments. They are quick to point out the positive aspects of every news event with prepared soundbites of information. They provide simple, continual commentary on the respective markets to show they are up to date with the latest developments.”

The mainstream media is the ultimate form of propaganda designed to keep the masses quiet. It has the appearance of being ‘civil’ because it currently does not use force. (Outside of creating a revolving-door ‘prison-subculture’ for moral crimes, like drug abuse).

SafeHaven Says:
“They don’t comment on developing trends until the trend is obvious to everyone; acting as cheerleaders for the greatest bull market of the twentieth century. A cautious and more reasoned approach is needed.”

Yes. Unfortunately, the reasoned approach will never be accepted. Its like trying to get and even when the media catches on to the inevitable shift, it will not likely happen without a context – like war or some other societal scapegoat.

Even today, you can read passionate discourse about the ‘morality’ of the inflation-hawks. Thus, creating a new belief paradigm about sound money – with Orwellian fact-changing all along the way.

SafeHaven Says:
“We are not permabears, nor are we bullish for the foreseeable future. The Stock Market Bubble is not our greatest concern. The Credit Bubble, however, when it inevitably implodes, will wreak havoc on all sectors of the World Economy, including the Stock Market.”

Indeed, the problem we face in the West is one of debt. We cannot afford deflation because everything we ‘own’ is financed. When the value of these assets falls, so does the servicing ability. We need ever more debt to pay off the existing debt. This is totally ignored by the media, though it is, ironically, well understood by the average American in the wake of the Madoff scandal.

SafeHaven Says:
“The articles from GoldenBar and PrudentBear are all a must read. As a starter, we suggest you read On the Manipulation of Money and Credit by Doug Noland of Prudent Bear and Inflation versus Deflation by Ed Bugos of GoldenBar. These articles help towards an understanding of the Bubble and monetary inflation.”

I would partially agree, but I also recommend that for the Average citizen looking for wealth protection or an alternative asset like silver coins, in the beginning, the ‘need’ for technical analysis will risk clouding the underlying factors – making this simple investment seem inaccessible.

SafeHaven Says:
“GoldenBar articles are published bi-weekly, and PrudentBear is published Wednesday and Friday evenings. Please visit their web sites.”

Nothing wrong with getting paid for value.

SafeHaven Says:
“If you have an interest in long-term cycles, then start with Generations and Business Cycles by Michael A. Alexander and Measuring Financial Time: The Magic of Pi by Barclay T. Leib.”

I found these recommendations somewhat tedious for my interest. I think one of the very best and broad works on Generations and Historical (inducing business) is ‘The Fourth Turning”, by Strauss and Howe

SafeHaven Says:
“Also strongly recommended is David Jensen’s In Denial of Crisis and Antal Fekete’s two series, Revisionist View of the Great Depression and The Goldbug Variations I.”

You can go there if you like, though again, for the big-picture investor, you could skip these.

SafeHaven Says:
“We won’t update every hour of every day- it is not necessary. Bull and bear markets evolve over many months and years, and a single news event has never changed the long-term direction of markets. If you have written an article, if you wish to provide a link to a newsworthy item, or if you have comments, suggestions, or recommendations, please Contact Us.”

Maybe we will submit this one.

“The site has been kept simple to allow quick download times and to keep problems with old browsers to a minimum. If you are having a problem, please email us and we will try to adjust for your browser or printer.”

Yes, it’s simple to navigate and very dense with information that you (as a silver coin investor) may put off today and possibly enjoy tomorrow.

SafeHaven Says:
“Enjoy your visit and visit often!”

Thanks, we did, but we probably won’t.

We reviewed three months of blog posts from Gold And Silver Blog.

We like them and its a relief for us silver bugs to have some place to go and ‘talk’ about the safety of coins. I put ‘talk’ in parenthesis, because even thought is not a whole out of commenting, it still ‘feels’ like talk.

Okay.

I think you’ll like them because this is a fresh, clean-looking, well-written (user-friendly) place that covers a broad range of issues that bullion investors need to know.

In fact, you should go over and check out the US Mint Silver Bullion Coin Sales History Chart page right now and get quick look for yourself. There go your brothers and sisters in arms out there buying coins along side of you (or putting them in an IRA). You are not alone.

Here’s what the nice folks over at Gold and Silver Blog provide:

• Timely news and commentary on gold, silver, and other precious metals.

We agree that this is a good place to get a quick fix – a catch-up and review on some of the bigger stories (with links) that you were meaning to get back to.

• Follow world mints that produce and sell bullion products.

US Mint Gold and Silver Bullion Sales July 2009 (http://goldandsilverblog.com/us-mint-gold-and-silver-bullion-sales-july-2009/) does just this.

I am a fan of the local coin man. He is my friend, but he’s a little fish in a big sea of dealers.
Heck, most times I feel like I know the issues better than he does.

The Gold and Silver Blog guys cover the macro-coin dealers – the ‘Whale’-Mints of the world – and while you can’t always trust the information coming out, you do get a worthy ‘retrospective’ on the big movements, especially for silver. Worthy in light of three little things:

1. The growing shortage of physical silver – held under by a mountain of ‘paper’ (short futures) pressure.
2. The small size of the silver market given the inflationary signals and the emerging (mainstream) perception and need for more hedging options.
3. The continued likelihood of more buying opportunities (price dips) as the world currency cycle turns on its head.

• Provide tips and observations on purchasing precious metals.

Okay, we didn’t see a lot of this and but they certainly point out the limitations of paper silver ownership, which is a bigger deal. Personally, I tend to focus not so much on the money I’ll make, but the purchasing power I’m gaining.

See Silver ETF Anomalies, National Gold Exchange, Regan Gold and Silver Coins. (http://goldandsilverblog.com/silver-etf-anomalies-national-gold-exchange-regan-gold-and-silver-coins/)

Again, I like to keep things simple. I’m that little guy buying silver rounds, silver bars, and junk silver from the guy down the street. I like the lower premiums, the ease of storage, and the absence of anyone else’s liability. And besides, something as volatile as silver, you want to keep close.

• Critique precious metals coverage from the mainstream press.

You got to like this one.

This is where you get your ammo for the ‘friend’ who thinks you’re nuts for buying silver coins and likes to point out any gold and silver bearish, propoganda non-sense that makes you fume to the point where you can’t articulate how wrong and ridiculously biased the messages are.

Okay, not everything from the mainstream is tainted. Eventually, they’ll come around in the price spike.

Again, these guys help you come back down to earth by calmly pointing out the flaws in the mainstream’s thinking.

• Round up some of the best gold and silver commentary from around the internet.

A good example of how they follow through is this post, Gold Confiscation, Missing Royal Canadian Mint Gold, Bernard von Nothaus Indictment.

And last but not least…

• Provide historical information and analysis on the price of gold and silver, and the pace of bullion sales.

So maybe this is the driest part for me. I find that a lot of really bright people are drawn to gold and silver for the ‘rationality’ of it all. And being rational can also mean preferring the technical side of life or at least finding comfort and/or escape there. I’m with you on this.

Nevertheless, I find the dollar to be a nagging reality and I prefer not to get too far caught up in the price realm, so I gloss over charts and data about the short-term price movements, ratios, etc.

These two posts, Gold Investment Report – 2009 Second Quarter and Gold and Silver Eagle Bullion Sales June 2009 will illustrate the point.

One of these days I’m going to do a negative Hard Money Newsletter Review. I promise.

This another good one. Gold and Silver Blog are bullish enough about coin silver, but well-rounded and fair enough to include platinum and palladium – which I found quite interesting.

Hey, us silver bullion investors can learn important lessons from these metals. Especially considering price, scarcity, and industrial consumption.

So there you go. For the intermediate physical silver investor, Gold and Silver Blog is well-worthy of a book mark or subscription.

Bill’s Blog is run by Bill Haynes, of CMI Gold And Silver.

Based out of Phoenix,  this is well organized ‘big-bullion-business-blog’,  that advocates physical possession.

We need them, we like them, we recommend them.

Okay. So,  we haven’t ordered from them yet. But we probably will.

Their main business, CMI Gold & Silver, deals in coins and bullion. They can deal in size.

As you know,  we are of local coin shop people.  We happily buy and hold silver – taking it off the hands of those who simply don’t yet see the value of this precious commodity and monetary asset.

I must say that, as much as we scorn the likes of Thomas Friedman, CMI Gold & Silver’ success is probably attributable to the ‘flattening’ of things  due to technology.

If you try them from a distance and they ‘feel’ local enough for you, let me know and we will update this post.

Haynes, who has been around the block (40 years in this), has the market down and serves our mission of letting the masses know about ‘these precious’ opportunities.

He shares the our vision of ‘monetary inevitability’ (lots of inflation), which should be all anyone needs to understand the urgency for taking action and thereby protecting your purchasing power.

Even if Bill’s Blog is not quite as outspoken on price manipulation as GATA, the main website features a must-read overview of how PM purchases are recorded and accounted for by the IRS. This was very cool.

A very interesting review for those of us who have been hell-bent on taking whatever we can out of the system for the long-haul.

But let us not digress.

The blog features, in addition to biweekly posts, a Free Newsletter (which we are collecting) and one-click-ready-access-to-the-bullion-goods when you need to make a purchase pronto.

The main website offers gold and silver bullion in practically every form – outside of the numismatic.

They also cover platinum and palladium too for those interested.

I used 3 recent posts and an ‘old one’ from the archives to build this review.

The first post, US News Interviews Ron Paul About The Fed- went up June 25th, 2009

This was a short, news item alert and one that slipped past the ’sensors’ that reinforces and points to an important Ron Paul interview.

As intended, this the interview makes the post worthwhile and we thank Bill for this.

And it pretty much sealed our support for what Paul is up to.

The next post we reviewed was Congress To Approve IMF Gold Sales.

Coming to you from 35,000 ft, the politics of gold make for an even happier silver bug, given than politicos will not have a enough time to act once silver does it’s thing.

Personally, I wonder why the IMF wouldn’t be stocking gold, rather than gearing up to sell, but the article linked in this post helps put things in perspective and actually makes the case for the  release IMF gold, which might spark central bank competition between two lurching giants.

Another good catch, Bill.

The last recent post we reviewed was this one, from early June, Northwestern Mutual Buys Gold.

This one is super short and seems to acknowledge that while gold and silver bugs need little reassurance about the future, these kind of announcements don’t hurt the prospects.

And finally, we looked at a post from January, 2009 – The Collapse of ‘09

We are glad we did – and thrilled that Haynes demonstrates equal-opportunity treatment for silver.

The post points to a serious  Lee Rockwell podcast. It is a do-able length for us, but we highly recommend  keeping all sharp objects hidden and out of reach.

Okay, so bottom line: We recommend this blog.

It is clean, organized, simple to navigate, and well-written. We’ve bookmarked it. You should too.

Bill targets the natural (larger) audience, but makes no bones about silver.

This is not for miners or those of the numismatic persuasion.

There were very few (if any) comments on the posts themselves.

The tone is (we think rightly) bullish overall, but Bill’s Blog shows a willingness to assert his personality and fairly question his resources.

You won’t see much in-depth conspiracy monologue here, but we learned something about the PM story from the political realm, which we all need a dose from now and then – no matter how bad it tastes.

We’ll be following, and recommend it for those serious about diversifying a large cash position. If that’s you, and/or you are new to this, Bill’s Blog is a good place to be.