Metals

So it was exactly 2.5 years ago, mid-October 2008, when my spouse and his uncle were having a little chat about the price of gold.It was around $700 at the time, perhaps close to $800?? Anyway my spouse told his uncle that he wished he had money to buy gold because he figured it would hit $2000 in a five years or so. His uncle burst out laughing and said 'no way'. He actually argued, making my spouse feel like he was crazy. Okay, he is my 'boyfriend' but I'm almost 40 and I hate that word lol. So I'm using 'spouse' today ;) At any rate, the argument reached almost-heated status.....

Well here we are, mid-April 2011 and gold was $1493/ounce today. Seven bucks shy of $1500 only 2.5 years after the little chat with Uncle. Will it reach 2 grand in another year and a half? Who knows. We shall see.

But then I was looking at other metals and realized that our purchase of 3 American Eagle silver dollars about two years ago has more than doubled in value now. We only bought 3, because that's all the dealer had (the rest is probably buried in his cellar if he is smart lol)... but that $60 is now worth almost $130. Not bad, not bad. Wish we could have bought more tho because silver was about $18 when we bought them and today it was $43-ish. Oh well. Live and learn.

Then I was looking at copper. It was at just over $4/pound today. Pennies made between 1942 and 1996 in Canada were 98% copper, and before that was around 95% copper (from what I have found on various online searches). Well why the hell have I been giving our pennies away to school Penny Drives for the past 7 years straight? Yikes! I should have been paying more attention. I looked up penny weight and it appears that 4 rolls of pennies (so $2 worth) is about a pound. Today with copper being $4/pound, well gee whiz, that has doubled in price too. Should I put a bucket in my closet and start throwing in all my pre-1996 pennies just in case? I am going to do it because I don't want to sit around years down the line and kick myself like I have with silver (gold was too expensive for me to purchase even when it was a quarter the price it is now lol, but silver was very manageable). I think it would be worth it - especially since the rumor keeps going around that pennies are going to be exterminated in Canada.... the rumor is that pennies cost more to make and maintain in the market than they are worth in monetary value - but perhaps it's really because someone noticed that copper was rising and if they can get rid of pennies, trick people into tossing them away when they find one under the couch cushions, there will be less chance of people cashing in on the little devils one day.

I had read somewhere today that pennies have been made with zinc since 1982, but when I looked at some charts, it showed that zinc has been in them for many many decades, but only at 1% and it didnt change to using steel instead of copper until after 1996 (in Canada at any rate). I literally just gave every penny I could find in the house to my daughter 2 weeks ago for her school Penny Drive. Me cry. But I will start again. I will become a penny hoarder.

I don't feel as looney (pun intended) now because I decided to check out some coin geek websites and ebay, and people are selling copper pennies at twice face value all over the place. I might as well jump on the bandwagon and set myself up a penny bucket :) Yee haw. I missed out on gold by a long shot, have trouble kissing $40 goodbye for silver... so pennies it is!

I wonder if Dear Uncle will give us all his pennies eh? He certainly will not discuss the price of gold right now, but surely he would part with those annoying little pennies! After all, we just crazy folk.