What’s A Fair Price For Gold?

Release: JULY 25, 2025

     The year 1980 truly wasn’t that long ago.  Legions of people alive today remember it.  Investors especially recall one event that made international headlines that year – the price of gold exceeded $800 per ounce.  Historically, it had never been that high.  

    A mere decade earlier, in 1970, the price had been barely $35 per ounce.  Then, in 1973, President Ford declared Americans could again personally own gold as an investment.  Citizens increased demand by buying gold coins and bars.  That year, gold climbed to almost $100.  Vintage numismatic coins also gained traction and collectors.

    Gold continued to climb through the ‘70s and ‘80s thanks to an oil crisis and political tensions.  Then, interest waned.  Prices languished.  In 1999, gold fell to as low as $255.  It didn’t receive much attention until the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks in 2001 and later during the subprime mortgage crisis.  Those bolstered demand for tangibles and helped gold climb back to over $800....

A Few Missing Two-Million-Dollar Pennies

Release: JULY 18, 2025

    A recent online version of one of the nation’s most storied magazines recently showcased an article with the headline, “If You Have One of These Rare Dimes, You’re Sitting on More Than $2 Million.”  Along with that was a photograph showing a common 2003 Roosevelt dime.  Who could resist such an opportunity?

    Having written about collectibles – most often coins, currency and stamps – for longer than I care to admit, I had to learn what fortune awaited in my pocket change.  I knew of no modern dime with anywhere near that value.  According to price guides, the most valuable Roosevelt dimes from any year came from a special mint strike.   Those are now worth a few thousand dollars.  So, where is the two-million-dollar coin?

    Turns out, it’s not a Roosevelt dime such as those we carry in our pockets.  Instead, it is an ultra-rare “Barber” dime (named after the man who designed it) struck in 1894 in San Francisco.  When I  say “ultra” rare, consider only 24 of the coins were ever created....

Billions In Bitcoins And Silver From The Grave

Release: JULY 11, 2025

    Regular readers may recall a summer memory I wrote about involving a yellow, plastic pirate’s treasure chest.  It was a beach toy I had as a small child.

    Each summer, our family headed to an idyllic beach in Michigan.  Prior to the trip, I had saved up almost two-dollars.  At that time, for a young kid, that was a lot.   Seriously.  I had it in a dollar bill and various silver coins.  Toward the end of our vacation, I imagined how cool it would be to bury real treasure and then dig it up.  I couldn’t resist....

It’s A Bird. It’s A Plane. It’s A Coin.

Release: JULY 4, 2025

 

    Those lucky enough to have attended sleepover summer camps often experienced a curious phenomenon.  I’ll call it sporadic absence anxiety.  That happens when you arrive, get settled into your cabin and begin assessing what you have and don’t have.  What you may have forgotten or just didn’t have was usually available at the camp store.  That’s where campers could get into notable trouble racking up debt by simply signing for things....

B. Free Franklin Sends A Patriotic Message

Release: JUNE 27, 2025

 

    In 1847, postal patrons were introduced to the first US postage stamp.  It featured a portrait of colonial luminary, Benjamin Franklin.  Prior to that, from as early as the 1700s, payment of postage was shown by a local postmaster writing the amount with a pen on the outside of the folded letter.

    For as long as humans have existed, in all aspects of life, communication over distance has been key.  Initially, the concept of a telephone or telegraph, much less e-mail or global messaging wasn’t even dreamed.  Paper mail and newspapers were it....

What’s Old Isn’t Always New Again

Release: JUNE 20, 2025

 

    As I sit here writing, an ice cream truck just drove by.  Honestly.  It did.  The tunes played to announce its arrival evoked memories of summers long ago.  We kids would grab our nickels and dimes to buy a Bomb Pop.  Today, those cost kids a few dollars.

    As it passed, I wondered how long it would be before such trucks have literally passed, forever.  They may soon fade as does their music when they drive to another neighborhood.

    That summer ice-cream truck also made me consider other “essential” yet vanished everyday items.  Long before my time, wall mounted wooden telephones were, without question, a revolutionary creation.  Talking to someone miles away through a wooden box?  Absurd!  That evolved into the now-antiquated desk telephone with a rotary dial.  By the 1970s, dial phones transformed to futuristic push button models.  Those too are fading to become flat “smart phone” devices we carry in our pockets.  Into those we merely announce who we wish to call....

Gold Treasure In Time For Summer Dreams

 

Release: JUNE 13, 2025 

    Summer has officially begun.  That should be good news for millions of school children who have been aching for the end of school.  The emotional downside for them is sure to be a traditional pattern in the retail sector.  Those are stores that, even before the Fourth of July, begin putting “BACK TO SCHOOL” sale banners in their aisles.  What a psychological taunt!

    There are always countless wishes incorporated into summer fun.  One of those is the eternal summertime craving to acquire wonderful and preferably valuable things.  Childhood dreams of finding some sort of treasure are timeless.

    In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom and Huck endeavored to uncover riches in Injun Joe’s cave.  The story tells us it was to be found “under the cross.”  Sure enough, the two boys searched the cave, found a cross on the wall and dug beneath it.  There, they uncovered a treasure box filled with “several thousand dollars in gold coins.”

    Back when Tom and Huck were searching, gold was barely $20 an ounce.  Today, it’s over $3,300 per ounce.  That means, if the boys found $2,000 in gold back then, it would have a value of over $330,000 today.  Not bad for two youngsters on a summertime quest....