Silver Stockings

By: John Cioffoletti
CIO: RS Bullion

There are about 60 million children in the United States under the age
of 15. Whether you celebrate Christmas as a Christian, or elevate
Hanukkah to its commercial equivalent, that means about 60 million
stocking-stuffers will be needed come December 25th.

What better stocking-stuffer than a one-ounce round of triple-nine
fine silver? It’s the gift that will keep on giving to your children,
your grandchildren, your nephews and nieces and their kids as well.

When you think about the world’s most vital purchasable commodity the
first thing that comes to most people’s mind is oil – and rightfully
so. The global power-generating society that we’ve developed is fueled
by black gold.

World dependence on oil is unquestioned. Wars and lies are started over it.

But I wonder how many people realize what the second-most used
commodity in the world is? It’s silver.

The world greatest conductor of heat and electricity, silver has
become vital in the technologically driven society we live in today.
The explosion in electronics now requires over 60 percent of the
silver that is mined to go the GE’s, Apples and Samsung’s of the world

Even though we are at the early stages of a global fiat currency collapse
the one area of growth that will be hard to suppress is technology.
Hyperinflation will not stop the iPhone 6 or 7, or the next great 4D
television by Samsung.

One can argue that we are as dependent on silver as oil. From the
first moment we wake up each morning – before we take one step out of
our beds – silver is helping us start our day. Silver is in the alarm
clock that wakes us; in the cell phone we check all bleary eyed; the
light switch we turn on and the computer or tablet we use to check our
email, Twitter and Facebook.

Those chores done, it’s time to start the car and get moving. Oh wait!
There’s silver in the ignition switch, and in that remote control you
zap the car doors with. Behind the scenes, silver is performing its
anti-bacterial and anti-fungal and anti-oxidation chores in your
laundry, your dishwasher, and on your computer keyboard. Silver has
more than 12,000 known and useful applications, and these applications
grow daily. It is truly the universal metal, and yet we use 200
million more ounces of it a year than we currently produce.

Without silver we’d be back in the Stone Age tomorrow. Without silver,
we certainly wouldn’t have any use for oil or its byproducts. Without
it, we couldn’t start our cars.

Silver’s historic use is as money. Its original use was as medicine.
Because it’s more difficult to produce than to use, silver reaches
back to the earliest civilizations as a means to settle accounts. You
cannot counterfeit silver. Silver keeps transactions honest. And in
recent as well as ancient times, silver appreciates in value as
governments pollute their currency with base metals (Rome) and paper.

Silver keeps us honest, and is our best friend in hard times. Like
gold it keeps its promises. Unlike a dishonest government’s currency,
silver’s value will never go to zero.

Which is why a one-ounce round of pure silver should be in every
child’s Christmas stocking this year. The weak among them will
surrender their silver for paper money. The smart ones will save it
for the days when our currencies collapse. Either way, it sure beats a
lump of coal.