Preparing for the Impending CBDC Crisis

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Throughout the pandemic, the federal government’s ongoing dictation of seemingly bad policies was an intentional effort to upend the normal everyday lives of millions of people.

As has been pointed out, it is not a conspiracy theory to believe that the central bank intends to control the spending behavior of people using central bank programmable software tokens instead of currency.

The general manager of the banking cartel explicitly announced it to an audience of other central bank leaders during their annual meeting in 2020.

The Bank of International Settlements is an organization owned by its members, the Central Banks of 63 member countries, and acts as a self regulator.

The BIS is creator and establisher of the rules for banks to operate in the global ecosystem of international trade. They also have control over the SWIFT banking network, foreign currency exchange and other major parts of the global economy.

During the group’s annual meeting in 2020, the General Manager of the organization explained to the audience how CBDC will give the central bank absolute control over the rules, regulations and policies that will dictate how money is used down to the transaction level.

During the recorded videoconference he discusses how CDBC technology will be used to force changes in spending behavior amongst consumers and enforce consumer spending policies on behalf of the government.

Last year, Biden signed Executive Order 14067 in order to advance development of CBDCs to skirt push forward without Congressional approval. As usually, there has been a total lack of accountability or transparency.

So far, Federal Reserve and US Treasury have been working in relative secrecy, publishing only a small amount of vague and high-level papers and studies with several quietly announced project trials in conjunction with notable large global banks. Most of the press releases have come during times when other stories were the major focus of the mainstream media, such as the collapse of FTX.

At least one bill has been drafted by Congress in an attempt to prevent the Federal Reserve from weaponizing CBDC against US citizens. However, the rollout of central bank digital currencies is likely to happen soon if and when the Biden administration can attach it to a banking crisis like the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

More recent announcements show that the Fed and Biden Admin intend to roll out a CBDC even without the authority of Congress.

In a speech to the Atlantic Council, Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance told the attendees that a CBDC Working Group consisting of policy makers from a variety of agencies is developing an initial set of findings and recommendations to support the Biden administrations agenda.

Make no mistake, the central banks have made it crystal clear that they are coming for your money and will tell you how you can spend it. The move into CBDC in lieu of traditional currency is a political power grab with the goal of having further control of your life.

Nigeria’s Failed Experiment

Initially, the Nigerian government tried several soft approaches to encourage the adoption of CBDC. These included financial incentives such as offering discounts to taxi drivers and passengers to encourage use and adoption. All of which failed.

The government quickly turned to coercive measures once it became clear that the people weren’t interested.

The largest measures include the introduction of a new currency and devaluing the old currency along with adding restriction on cash withdrawals throughout the country. The plan included the issuance of new currency notes, but only enough to cover 85% of the current naira while promoting cashless transactions by limiting the use of cash for businesses.

Beyond banknote swap, the banking regulators placed policy restrictions limiting cash withdrawals from banks and ATMs to reduce the amount of cash in circulation. With limits of $225 on individuals and $1,110 on businesses to force CBDC adoption.

Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele said, “The destination, as far as I am concerned, is to achieve a 100% cashless economy in Nigeria.”

The central bank began devaluing in the months before the switch while removing old notes from circulation leaving millions of Nigerians with no money or food.

Nigerians have violently rejected the new digital currency and cash restrictions as protests and riots have broken out outside of banks and spread throughout the country.

The war on cash and some form of crisis will bring on the introduction of CBDCs.

Precious Metals Stacking for CBDC Insurance

Gold and silver are the oldest and most trusted form of money. With all of the uncertainty in the economy, gold is safe haven from fiat and digital currency tokens.

Investing some of your cash in buying physical gold and silver bullion can help keep you in control of your financial future.

Where is the best place to Buy Silver online?

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A lot of first time investors that are getting their feet wet in precious metals are often curious about where is the best place to buy silver online?

There isn’t a simple answer on where to Buy Silver online because there are many trusted and reputable bullion dealers.

When looking to Buy Silver online it’s always best to buy as close to spot price as possible. The amount you pay above spot price is commonly referred to as the dealer’s premium. This is the profit the dealer makes from selling silver.

The lower the dealer premium that you pay when you Buy Silver online will maximize the return on your precious metals investment down the road.

Some online bullion dealers are known for keeping their premiums low. Just because you might be able to buy silver from one dealer cheaper than another doesn’t mean that there will be problems or issues down the road. Especially if you stick with trusted and reputable online bullion dealers.

FindBullionPrices.com tracks the prices of over 300 distinct silver and gold bullion products across over 25 trusted and reputable online bullion dealers. When shopping for precious metals online we help you find the cheapest place to buy silver and gold bullion.

Why buy silver?

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Silver is an asset. Silver has been used as a form of currency for thousands of years. Silver represents wealth. Why you should buy silver as part of your savings plan.

Buy Silver as an Investment

There are many better options to invest in besides silver. As an investment silver does not provide the rate of return that traditional investments in stocks, bonds and other securities can provide. When looking at the overall rate of return silver makes for a horrible investment.

Silver and other precious metals have always been a way to hedge against inflation. Historically, the value of silver and it’s purchasing power has remained roughly the same for decades.

Silver’s Purchasing Power

Silver has maintained it’s purchasing power over time in pace with inflation. The amount of goods or services that you can buy with one troy ounce of silver has stayed relatively the same throughout time. This has even held true over the last 100 years or so.

As an example, in 1964 one troy ounce of silver was worth around $1.29. The price of 1 gallon of regular gas was around 30 cents per gallon. That one troy ounce of silver could purchase roughly 4.3 gallons of gas.

In 2018, the price of silver has been hovering around $16.50 per troy ounce. The price of a 1 gallon of regular gas has been around $3.00 per gallon. Using the same methodology, one troy ounce of silver today can purchase roughly 5.5 gallons of gas.

Buy Silver, a good way to save for rainy day

Most financial experts agree that everyone should have an emergency fund that contains about six months worth of expenses. It’s no surprise that most people can’t do this for one reason or another.

Some people just don’t have the income to set aside in a savings account in this way. For others, it’s that they don’t have the self-discipline needed to not dip into their savings when things come up that would be normal expenses.

Buying silver is one way to set money aside in a rainy day fund like a savings account. However, it’s not a savings account you store in the bank. Nor is it a savings account that you can just pull cash from easily. It’s a savings account that you can hold onto. While it is liquid and easily convertible into cash, it does take some effort. This makes it harder to spend unless you really need to.

Silver is money but it’s not as easy to spend as fiat currency. When you buy American Silver Eagles by the tube each coin has a face value of $1 USD. However, the real value is in the intrinsic nature of the silver. A tube of Silver Eagles contains 20 troy ounces of silver. Since Silver Eagles are the most popular and widely recognized government bullion coins in North America, and one of the most recognized worldwide, it is very easy to trade Silver Eagles for fiat currency.

It’s important to think about and understand what your plan and strategy for dipping into your silver savings account will be. It helps you understand how liquid it will be for you. How you can get the most value when it comes time to sell or trade for fiat currency. Do you have a local coin shop that will buy at a good price when you need it? Will you be able to sell to an online dealer? What are your options to sell in a pinch?

When the dealers buy Silver Eagles from the mint they are charged a premium of $2.00 per coin. The US Mint charges this premium to cover the cost of manufacturing and distribution of the coins.

Most local coin shops will pay $1.00 or so over spot price for American Silver Eagle coins. They do this because they know they can easily sell them very quickly. When they buy silver eagles from individuals they are able to purchase them for a lower price than they can get them from the US Mint.

With generic silver bullion, most local coin shops will pay 50 cents to a dollar per ounce below spot price. Reselling generic bullion has lower margins than Silver Eagles. Oftentimes local coin shop buy generic bullion with the intent to ship it to a refinery to be melted back into something else. This is a common practice.

Buy Silver Eagles for your savings

It’s no secret that Silver Eagles hold their premium better than generic bullion. There are ways that you can buy silver eagles at a lower premium for your rainy day fund. Buying silver eagles allows you to recapture much of that premium when it comes times to dip into your rainy day fund and convert some back into fiat currency. You will find the best values when you buy silver eagles that are not from the current years mintage.

There are a number of different ways that online silver dealers will market Silver Eagle coins from previous mintages. They could be offered for sales simply as “Random Year” American Silver Eagles. Random Year Silver Eagles are sold and marketed as non-specified years because it may depend on what the dealer has in stock at the time you place your order. View Random Year Silver Eagles Pricing

Random Year Silver Eagles will be in Uncirculated condition (BU). If you are buying tubes of 20 Eagles at a time they will most likely be shipped in the original mint tube as well. These eagles will most likely be new old stock and could be 1, 2 or 3 years old. There’s nothing wrong with them except that they have likely been sitting in the dealer’s vault for a while. These will often be sold for as low as $1.50 or so over silver spot price. Sometimes deals can be found for even less.

An even better value when buying Silver Eagle coins is to look for those in cull condition. Cull condition American Silver Eagles will most likely have been handled at some point. The coins may contain some scratches, show signs of tarnish and wear and tear. Some may even have been painted. You can buy cull condition American Silver Eagle coins for less than buying Random Year Silver Eagles. View Cull Silver Eagles Pricing

Ultimately, the intrinsic value of the silver is what is most important. Being American Silver Eagles, even in cull condition, still bring a premium over spot price when it comes time to sell them.

Buying silver online, How to choose bullion dealers

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Some frequent questions new precious metals investors ask are :

  • Which online bullion dealer is the best?
  • Which online bullion dealer has the best prices?
  • Which online bullion dealers are reputable?
  • Does anyone have experience ordering from XYZ dealer?

Choosing which online bullion dealers to order from can be confusing for those just getting started in precious metals.  It’s important to trust the online bullion dealers that you buy from because there have been a lot of well publicized scams and there are lots of counterfeit products floating around out there.

How do you choose which bullion dealer to buy from?

There are a variety of factors to consider when choosing which online bullion dealers to buy from. All of the major, reputable online bullion dealers carry many of the same products. Oftentimes, the pricing on what is the exact same product vary greatly from dealer to dealer.

Reputation and Trustworthiness

The best way is to conduct thorough online research to identify well-known bullion dealers. Look for established dealers with a solid reputation in the industry. You can research customer reviews, ratings, and testimonials on trusted review websites like TrustPilot, the Better Business Bureau and FindBullionPrices.com. There are also many existing threads on online forums and social media platforms like /r/SilverBugs and others on Reddit.

Pay attention to feedback regarding reliability, order processing times, shipping times, customer service, and overall customer satisfaction. Verify that the dealer accepts your chosen payment method. Many will have minimum order amounts for wire transfers and some other payment methods. Crytpo payments are an option for some dealers as well, making it easy to exchange digital tokens for physical metals.

Consider dealers with a history of transparent and ethical business practices.

Customer Service

How dealers handle issues that arise is one of the biggest differentiators in how to choose which bullion dealers are best for you. Some questions to ask yourself when evaluating

  • Does the dealer have a track record of handling complaints and responding quickly to even minor inquiries?
  • Does the dealer have open inquiries with the Better Business Bureau?
  • What’s the dealer’s TrustPilot rating?

Product Selection

Online bullion dealers will carry a wider product selection than your local coin store. The product selection offered by online dealers will always include a wider selection of sovereign government bullion coins from numerous countries in addition to a large volume of generic silver bars and rounds in many sizes and weights.

Once you’ve identified a reputable dealer, browse their online inventory to explore the silver products available. Look for different types of silver, such as coins, bars, or rounds, and consider factors like weight, purity, and design to find the products that best suit your preferences and investment goals.

Pricing and Dealer Premium

Pricing and dealer premium are important factors to considered when choosing which online bullion dealers to buy from. When you buy silver and gold bullion, you are likely buying it as an investment or as a way of storing wealth or saving money for the future.

No matter what reasons you have that lead you to buy silver bullion, price will almost always be a top factor. The amount you pay above the current spot price when you buy silver is called the “dealer premium”. This is the markup that the dealer charges that will cover the dealer’s overhead costs, the dealer profit and in cases of free shipping, the shipping charges. The dealers that offer free shipping with a low minimum order typically have higher per piece premiums which can be of particular to note when making bulk purchases.

You always want to pay the lowest possible premium over spot price when you buy silver. In most cases, the spot price will have to rise higher than the price that you paid, including the dealer premium in order to profit from your investment.

Prices on precious metals are relatively stable and rise and fall slowly over time. It can take months or years before the spot price rises to an amount above what you paid in order to turn a profit on your investment, if that is one of your goals. The lower the dealer premium on the items that you buy the faster your investment becomes profitable.

Some items, such as American Silver Eagle coins will always cost more than silver spot price. One reason for this is because the US Mint charges wholesalers and dealers a premium over spot price in order to cover the cost of production and distribution. That premium gets baked into the cost is always past along to investors.

The US Mint has been experiencing ongoing production problems that began during the pandemic with supply chain shutdowns. In recent months, it’s been reported that the procurement of raw planchets continues to be an issue for the mint. The mint has been unable to keep up with the demand from investors, which has resulted in higher wholesale premiums and market prices.

Part of this premium can be recovered when selling Silver Eagles as dealers tend to pay above spot price. But you can’t always count on that.

Buying Silver Online

One of those deals is from Money Metals Exchange. They have a silver starter kit that comes with both a random year American Silver Eagle and a random year Canadian Silver Maple Leaf. The kits also comes with a one Troy ounce generic silver round, plus a half ounce fractional round and five 1/10th ounce fractional rounds. Together this starter kit comes with 4 Troy ounces of silver, including the two premium government bullion coins. Money Metals Exchange ships the starter kit for free.

The Money Metals Exchange silver starter kit price does fluctuate with the silver spot price.

This silver starter kit includes high premium government minted silver bullion, and 6 fractional silver rounds. With free shipping included it’s hard to pass up this offer at such a great price.

There are only a handful of wholesale bullion dealers in the country, most of the online bullion dealers are buying from the same sources. For the most part, they are also paying the same prices. Some of the larger dealers may get volume discounts, those may be offered as discounts to their customers.

Placing an Order with an Online Bullion Dealer

Once you’ve selected the dealer and the silver products you wish to purchase, add them to your cart. Most dealers will lock in the spot price that is used to calculate the order total for a few minutes while you continue browsing.

When you’re ready to check out, review your order in the cart to ensure accuracy and check the total cost. Verify the spot price, the lock-in time remaining, any applicable state sales taxes and shipping fees. Proceed to the checkout page and provide the required information, such as your shipping address and payment details.

Follow the instructions provided to complete the purchase. Verify all the details before finalizing the transaction. Some dealers may require additional steps, such as identity verification for larger purchases, as part of their compliance with anti-money laundering regulations.

After completing the purchase, you’ll receive an order confirmation screen followed by an email that will contain the order details. The dealer will then process your order and prepare it for shipment. Depending on the dealer and your location, shipping times may vary. Most dealers will provide you with notification of when your order ships and a tracking number may be provided.

Once your silver order arrives, carefully inspect the package for any signs of damage or tampering. Ensure that the contents match your order. If you have any concerns, contact the dealer immediately.

Sales Tax Varies by State

The reasons for states charging sales tax on bullion can vary. Some states have chosen to exempt bullion purchases from sales tax as a way to promote precious metals investing and attract bullion buyers. The specific sales tax policies on bullion vary from state to state, so it is advisable to consult the tax laws of your specific jurisdiction or seek professional advice regarding tax implications for bullion purchases.