SILVER v USD

**peat** · 03-08-2009, 06:51 PM

I'll just comment on that NZ silver coin link page arco just posted and say that it seems to me the half crown and the crown years are inaccurate.

For half crown the years of production with %50 silver are:
1/2 Crown (1933-1935)
1/2 Crown (1937-1946)

and for the whole Crown it was produced in 1935 1949 and 1953 and only the 1949 one has silver content (tho the 1935 one is very rare and valuable)

I had a bookmark on the RBNZ site which gave all the mintings of historical coins but it seems to have gone and a quick search couldnt find a replacement - I will ask them about that !

this is from my own spreadsheet

NZ
1949 Crown 0.4546
1 Florin (1937-1946) 0.1818
1/2 Crown (1933-1946) 0.2273
6 Pence (1933-1946) 0.0454
1 shilling (1933-1946) 0.0908
3 pence (1937-1946) 0.0227

**JBmurc** · 31-08-2009, 09:34 AM

IN the days when governments believed that their currencies needed to be anchored to something real as a means of ensuring the worth of the paper and coin in circulation, everyone chose gold. Except China -- it backed its currency with silver.

Silver lies deep in the China psyche. The white metal was the standard for currency from the time of the Ming dynasty until November 4, 1935. It was abandoned then only because, as investors sought safe havens during the Great Depression, the price of silver rose sharply. China could not control the silver price, and large amounts of the metal flowed out of the country, causing financial dislocation internally.

In the past few years, China has deregulated gold sales internally and there has been much focus on demand for the yellow metal.

In 2007, Chinese gold consumption grew 60 per cent over the preceding year.

But now we see a video posted on YouTube -- a news item on the English service of China Central Television. You can watch while the newsreader extols the advantages of silver over gold. For one thing, the report says, it is a lot cheaper to buy into and, for another, silver has been undervalued for several years compared with gold -- in 2007, gold was 50 times more expensive than silver. At Friday's close, gold was 64 times more expensive per ounce -- more than double the historical ratio.

David Thurtell, Citigroup's commodities expert in London, has long been watching the relative performance of the two precious metals. So we asked him his present view, and he emailed this: "Still prefer silver to gold. I don't see inflation as a problem (and hence gold's upside is not as strong as some suggest) and silver is leveraged to an industrial recovery. Gold will suffer from what I see as an ongoing recovery in global equity markets and the world economy generally."

So, we hear you ask, where is all this going?

Among the many barely noticed announcements during the week was one from Malachite Resources (MAR). This company has spent the past few weeks promoting its Conrad silver project in northern NSW to Chinese investors. Conrad closed in 1957 due to low metal prices, with most of its silver still in the ground.

There's 9.6 million ounces of silver available, along with economic quantities of zinc, lead, tin and indium. Malachite says that it has signed a confidentiality agreement with one of China's largest state-owned mining groups, and other potential Chinese investors will be out to look at the project during September.

Malachite's news should be seen against the background that Chinese companies, while picking over our iron ore, base metals and coal, have shown little interest in gold investment here. But it seems silver is a different story.

Pure Speculation has previously drawn attention to one other silver exposure to China in the form of Sinovus Mining (SNV), but a recent flurry of buying seems to have died off. This may be due to the fact that the company seems more focused on getting into coal production than advancing its Xiangguang silver project west of Beijing.

Another silver play that continues to fly under the radar -- although with no known Chinese connections -- is Cobar Consolidated Resources (CCU) and its Wonawinta project near the NSW mining town of that name. CCU recently increased its resource to 44.3 million ounces, at an average grade of 48 grams/tonne. Its joint venture partner CBH Resources (CBH) has its hands full at present with its lead-zinc ventures and has decided not to keep up its contributions, and will see its interest dilute.

**macduffy** · 31-08-2009, 10:42 AM

Yes, good article, JB.

It should be noted however that it comes from Rbin Bromby's column "Pure Speculation" in The Australian.

Speculative or not?

**JBmurc** · 31-08-2009, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by macduffy

Yes, good article, JB.

It should be noted however that it comes from Rbin Bromby's column "Pure Speculation" in The Australian.

Speculative or not?

Yes for sure what isn't though is the fact china now allows it's people to buy an hold silver bullion ,Now the fact is the Silver market is very small compared to the gold one if the Chinese even put a small amount of their savings into silver bullion it will lift the silver price massively IMHO as long as they buy real silver bullion an not paper silver ETF's which is well documented as being well short of real silver backing.

**arco** · 31-08-2009, 03:35 PM

The Ichimolu chart gave a weak bullish signal at the yellow blob.

Price action is currently trapped between an up-trend and a down-trend line, so Silver is in limbo land until we see which one will break.

**peat** · 02-09-2009, 08:32 AM

seems like gold and silver are a bit disconnected from everything else last night.....

**JBmurc** · 02-09-2009, 08:56 AM

Originally Posted by peat

seems like gold and silver are a bit disconnected from everything else last night.....

Yeah silver going though $15oz looks very bullish of late.

-Shasta I spotted on Momsilvershop some- panda 1oz silver bullion coins -alot cheaper than rip off rumy on trade-mes $106 think your get them for under $30nzd delivered

**TTrader** · 02-09-2009, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by JBmurc

Yeah silver going though $15oz looks very bullish of late.

-Shasta I spotted on Momsilvershop some- panda 1oz silver bullion coins -alot cheaper than rip off rumy on trade-mes $106 think your get them for under $30nzd delivered

Appears to be out of stock

... Have sent her an email though, hopefully get a bit of notice when she has some more.