Nickel Roll Hunting (Canadian Version)

Greetings Everyone,

I am writing this post from Nova Scotia Canada.  We arrived Monday evening after driving for most of the day.  We left Monday morning at 12:30am to arrive at a ferry in New Brunswick, CA by 12pm.  So with no sleep and thankfully no traffic we drove up the east coast through the morning, arrived at the ferry with time to spare, and made it to the house some time around 7pm or so.

3 $100 boxes of Nickels, 2 $25 boxes of Pennies

We were meeting other family up here in NS, and it was nice to find a couple nickel and penny boxes at the house.  I have just made it through all the nickels.  The percent of 99% nickel coins was around 10% of $200 worth.  I was surprised to find that the 3rd box was a solid 2008 box.  All plastic wrapped and looking brand new.  Probably the bank ordered it a while back and never left the bank since.  I haven't heard many people reporting these types of boxes.  I wouldn't think it rare to get a solid year box, but perhaps now that it's four years old maybe it is.

Solid box of BU 2008 CA Nickels

Aside from the minor set back of getting skunked on a box of nickels, the others weren't so bad.  I wasn't expecting to get solid rolls of 99% nickel or anything.  Just trying to get a little stash of 99% nickel coins before the Royal Canadian Mint's (RCM) recycling program goes and removes all that remains from circulation.  It was nice to get what I did.  It would take forever to find this many 99% nickels in the boxes of US nickels I search back in the states.  At best I just usually find the ones from 1982-present (non-99% nickel years).

The weather up here on Tuesday was pretty dreary.  It rained on and off most of the day, which kept us inside.  Perfect weather to do a puzzle or if you have rolls of coins to Coin Roll Hunt (CRH).  So yesterday I was able to go through all the nickels and not have to pass up on a beach day or hiking trip into the woods.

I still have to go through the $50 in Pennies.  Ever since I sold my Ryedale I've been almost avoiding any and all pennies that I would need to sort by hand.  Hopefully I can get around to sorting them, since these are Canadian coins, and the death of the penny isn't far away.

Happy Coin Roll Hunting, from Nova Scotia!

I think we're going to make today a beach day even if the temps don't go above 21 degrees...

~JobIII

Silver Is On The Move, Was This Summer A Bottom?

90% Silver US Half Dollars

For anyone invested in silver, this year is proving to be quite a ride.  Silver started the year at just under $28/oz and in a matter of months climbed up to $37.50 (actual date 2/29/2012) up 33% for the year.  

This high was very short lived, and silver prices began to fall almost immediately after reaching that high.  Silver consistently lost around $2/oz per month from March to June, and leveled out around $28/oz.  Since June the price has been hovering around this value.  It has been stuck at this value and it has been boring to watch.

If you look at silver's performance dating back to 2009.  The last time silver had more than a 3 month period of flat or little change was between the spring and summer of 2010.  Which as we now know was followed by silver's nearly steady 8 month climb from the $18 to $48.70 (actual date 4/29/2011).  

Silver began this week (8/20/2012) at $28.09 and has steadily climbed nearly 5% over the last 3 days to $29.47 (8/22/2012).  ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) AGQ [currently $43.27] which is down 65% from one year ago, has gained 12% in the last 5 days, and nearly 16% over the past month.

Perhaps we have just past another bottom in the silver market.  There are plenty of factors that could push silver up; the European debt crisis, Greece leaving the euro zone, changes in China's economic growth, US economy is still recovering and the upcoming US presidential election to name a few.

I'm not trying to suggest that we're about to see a repeat of silver's steady climb from 2 years ago.  But it's nice to see silver beginning to move again.