Yesterday, amidst the flurry (I'd imagine) of other sellers, I cashed out of my final batch of gold bullion coins. With the spot price of gold having smashed through the $1,400 mark this week, I felt there was no time like the present.
All month long, in 3 successive batches, I've been divesting my hoard. The prices were too good to pass over. Could gold go even higher? Sure. But could it also drop precipitously? Sure. That's the way it is with precious metals. They're precious to an extent, and then you cash them out for the real deal. All this BS about non-fiat "money" and a hedge against inflation and, the best of all, an enduring barter medium, essential in a shitstorm situation like economic meltdown, government collapse, war, heck, maybe even the apocalypse. Nope. It is what I used it for, a storage vehicle for US dollars. Bought with dollars, in anticipation of turning it back into dollars.
But I did hold back on one coin...
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| "Kruggy" |
The first gold coin I ever bought.
I'd dreamed of owning gold since the yuppie 80s when the South African Krugerrand was the hot bullion to have; a true symbol of wealth. I still remember when I watched a TV news report tracking the massive spike in gold prices when it shot up, seemingly overnight, to an astonishing $850 an ounce!
So I bought a little cedar box for it and it sits on my nightstand. I pop open the lid and gaze at my coin's warm glow...and it makes me feel better. I'm far from rich, this is no status symbol. To me, it's a piece of art. Over the course of the past year I've had beautiful coins...the majestic Brittanicas, the proud gold Eagles, and the simple, yet stunningly elegant Maple Leaves. The major bullion houses offer other, even more stunning art pieces, bullion from Mexico or Austria are especially nice, as well as some of the artistically crafted rounds, including the buffalos like the silver I had also owned. But my ultimate goal wasn't to be a hobby numismatist or art collector...I needed to eventually cash out. So I focused on the easily converted bullion that regularly got good pricing. The Krugerrand is one of those, but I don't care. I'm gonna keep it.
I think I made out okay:
Maybe in a few years when I run out of money and I'm forced to sell, I may. Or maybe, as an act of defiance against the whole money system and its god-like power over every aspect of our entire lives, I'll clutch on to my Precious, only to be forcibly pried from my cold, dead hands as my corpse lie rotting in a cardboard box under the highway.