May 14, 2009

Ted Butler, who is one of the world's most knowledgeable silver experts, has written a very interesting article about President Johnson's speech in 1965. It was the occasion when the US government decided that, because of the shortage of silver, they would stop minting silver coins and start minting "sandwich" coins using other metals.

Butler gives the web link for those who want to read Johnson's entire speech, but here is the pertinent quotation in Johnson's own words:

"Now, all of you know these changes are necessary for a very simple reason--silver is a scarce material. Our uses of silver are growing as our population and our economy grows. The hard fact is that silver consumption is now more than double new silver production each year. So, in the face of this worldwide shortage of silver, and our rapidly growing need for coins, the only really prudent course was to reduce our dependence upon silver for making our coins.

If we had not done so, we would have risked chronic coin shortages in the very near future."

http://www.investmentrarities.com/05-11-09.html

If you have investments in any form, or if you are interested in commodities, I suggest that you read Ted Butler's weekly articles that focus upon silver. With the new multi-trillion-dollar budgets that have now become normalized in the past six months, it seems quite likely that the value of money will decrease while the value of metals will increase. Butler argues that silver shows the most promising opportunity for long-term investment.

And, by the way, in about 2 months a friend of mine will be issuing 1-oz silver coins for sale on the open market. He consulted me on its design, because it is a "God's Kingdom" coin that features our logo with the two doves, flanked by an angel on each side (Michael and Peniel). The other side of the coin features a lion and lamb. The artist at the mint commented that it is one of the most beautiful designs he has ever seen.

I will give details later when these become available.