Remember this from History Class?
from a comment on “Something To Think About” by Joe
The Founding Father of the United States of America, George Washington, was a faithful man of prayer. It was well-known how he went to the thicket many times to pray during the winter his army was at Valley Forge. However, little publicity has been given to the vision and prophecy he received at that time. The account of this vision was revealed in 1859 by an old soldier, Anthony Sherman, a veteran of the Independence War. He gave it to a writer, Wesley Bradshaw, who published it in 1861.
In the vision God revealed to George Washington, there would be three great perils come upon the Republic. He was given to know that America was going through the first peril at that time, the War of Independence with the Great Britain. The old soldier who told the story of the vision said that the nation would soon see the account verified by the second peril descending upon the land, the Civil War of America. Then, there would be a third “Great Peril” happen to the United States of America in the future. The people on this land would struggle and suffered for a while, but eventually an angel would come and blast a long and loud trumpet, and the legion of heavenly angels would come to help Americans to defeat their enemies with great victory.
This great prophetic vision of George Washington has inspired Americans for generations since it was first published in 1861 before the Civil War of the United States. It had been republished in the United States multiple times in the next hundred years, including the reprint on the National Tribune in December 1880 and the reprint on the Stars and Stripes on December 21,1950.
Here is the report of this phenomenal and most important vision of George Washington given by the heavenly angel written down by the writer Wesley Bradshaw.
[ Joe: Dead link – no such page ]
blob: https://newamericandigest.org/5c603e0f-3e38-4e86-a4ff-e6bb9546db03
Wesley Bradshaw wrote: The last time I ever saw Anthony Sherman was on the fourth of July 1859, in Independence Square. He was then ninety-nine years old, and becoming very feeble. But though so old, his dimming eyes rekindled as he gazed upon Independence Hall, which he came to visit once more.
“Let us go into the hall,” he said. “I want to tell you of an incident of Washington’s life-one which no one alive knows of except myself; and if you live, you will before long see it verified. Mark the prediction, you will see it verified.”
From the opening of the Revolution we experienced all phases of fortune, now good and now ill, one time victorious and another conquered. The darkest period we had, I think, was when Washington, after several reverses, retreated to Valley Forge, where he resolved to pass the winter of 1777. Ah! I have often seen the tears coursing down our dear commander’s care-worn cheeks, as he would be conversing with a confidential officer about the condition of his poor soldiers. You have doubtless heard the story of Washington’s going to the thicket to pray. Well, it was not only true, but he used often to pray in secret for aid and comfort. And God brought us safely through the darkest days of tribulation.”
Maybe I should change my name to Frugal.
Or Frugal-ghost
Or Frugal-sniper….whatever.
Frugality has been my driving force for the past 10-20 years.
Actually, this journey probably started as I was readying up the research to build our new Florida home in 2001. Construction didn’t start until Jan 2002 but I had finished the design, created a materials list, and hired a contractor in the summer of 2001. Also, bought the property in the summer of 2001. Then, during the building permit process the gov’t decided it was going to put on it’s gloves with 10 thumbs, all of them left handed, and the process came to a standstill.
Anyway, that was where my lifelong journey of frugality in all things started, I think. First, let me clarify something. “Cheap” does not mean “inexpensive”. They are 2 diff words with diff meaning even tough most people, it seems, use them interchangeably.
Inexpensive deals with price and cheap deals with quality. While something inexpensive may be cheap, being cheap doesn’t mean it will be inexpensive.
There’s lots of expensive cheap stuff out there.
Moving on, about 5 years ago or so my interest in buying precious metals started working on me and I decided to delve into it a little deeper than I had in past cycles of interest. Keep in mind, as I age I make decisions slower and slower and the higher the cost, slower still. If I was in the market to buy a new truck it would probably take me 10 years to decide to do it. THAT kind of slow.
So, to take some of my hard earned legal tenders and put them into some other form of wealth took a huge amount of faith on my part. Faith and belief. And research.
All things considered I decided to buy some silver. A small quantity. Keep in mind that I used to know all the proper names and terminology but once I made my decision on what and how to buy I quickly lost most of that knowledge. I only focus on that which I am interested.
Mostly because of costs, price of silver, and shipping costs, I chose JM Bullion to purchase the silver from. Their prices are competitive with the other major dealers and if you buy a certain amount (I think $200) the shipping is free.
The next decision was on the type of silver. Bars (bullion), rounds, coins, etc. I’m not a lucky person, I have Murphy on speed dial, karma is my middle name, and the night I was born there was a bad moon rising. If worse came to worse I wanted the ability to USE my silver if I needed to. Immediately. Of the choices before me, coins are the only type that would give me that option. The other choices meant I would have to go through a dealer of some sort and I didn’t want to deal with that. With a silver dollar in hand I can walk into a Dollar store and buy a dollars worth of product if I have to. That would most likely never happen but that option is there. With bars I have to find a dealer, wherever that might be.
Initially, because I’m a frugal ass, I didn’t want to spend much and my research showed that the least expensive coins are what is called “junk coins”. Specifically, American currency minted coins before 1964. And the highest “quality” ones are what is called 90% silver. (10% something else). If I walked into the Dollar store with a silver coin minted in another country, or say, part of a Disney collectible series, and tried to buy something they would chase me out with pitchforks.
So, American minted currency coins of 90% silver is what it will be.
Now what?
Again, frugal. Start small. That means dimes.
In April 2021 I bought (100) Mercury dimes at a cost of $291.60 and there was no charge for shipping. In about 5 days the dimes arrived in the regular mail in a plain manila envelope, with 10 dimes in each of 10 little plastic zip lock bags. I dumped all of them out on my desk and looked them over. I hadn’t seen dimes like this for many years. Decades. They were minted from 1916 to 1945. As a kid, I remember my dad giving me a dime for some chore he asked me to do. Also when a tooth came out – DING! – there it was under my pillow!
What to do with them? I went on amazon and ordered up some plastic white tubes with caps. Don’t remember exactly but I believe 40 dimes will fit in 1 tube. The Mercury’s were obviously used and some had quite a bit of wear to them. I weighed them with a digital scale and they were all right about 3 grams, or .11 ounce.
Over the next 4-5 years I made many more silver junk coin purchases from JM Bullion. 3 diff types of dimes, 3 diff quarters, 4 diff half dollars, and 3 diff dollars. 30 some orders so far and continuing.
Now, for the numbers.
In total, so far, I have purchased 1540 different coins.
(yes, I have kept precise and detailed records with hard copies)
The face value of these coins is $380.00 and I paid $11,468.08 for them.
All together they weigh 364 ounces, or, 22 pounds 12 ounces.
Kinda heavy all at the same time.
Do the math, $380 for $11,468.
THAT is what this criminal gov’t has done to us.
And they are still doing it to us, and more and more so with each passing day.
Prior to 1913 those $380 worth of silver coins cost, you guessed it, $380.
From that year, 1913, the year the Federal Reserve was established, it has been downhill at an exponentially increasing rate. Play around with your calculator and see what that silver will cost 10 years from now, or even just one year. I dare ya!
If you have $380 in regular paper dollars in your pocket right now, tomorrow they will be worth a little bit less and you will recognize this by paying MORE for stuff you buy. They sort of disguise it like that, so that the average idiot thinks things just cost more (because of greedy assed corporations) rather than their money being worth less.
The concept of higher prices is understood by everyone because everyone has seen them all of their lives. But the idea of money being worth less each day doesn’t make sense to the average goldfish brain. “Waddaya mean less, it says “one dollar” right there on it!”
Right now JM Bullion is saying my $380 face value of dimes is valued at a lot more than what I paid for them. THAT’S what REAL money does.
There’s a second part to this whole thing and I’ll post it in a day or 2.
Most places I’ve checked are “out of stock”. Those that aren’t (monex for example) sell only large quantities ($500/face value) for very high prices (about $30,000 – about $84/oz. Spot price as I write this about $81/oz so not a bad deal all in all). This is probably not the time to buy though.
I’m not looking to buy any (nor sell); my stash is for emergency use and this isn’t it. I suspect the boat has sailed on buying silver right now. On the other hand, when the dealers won’t buy, it usually means they suspect a drop in prices and they don’t want to get caught holding expensive metal. One way to catch silver without physical is the ETF (SLV) which is $72 per unit; usually bought in 100s ($7200). Personally, I have a short on silver options right now – I expect a pullback in prices – perhaps down to $55-60/oz. I’ll go long again at that price.
Right. My last purchase was in Nov. Right now my source is showing about $80/oz. When it goes back down to about $30 I’ll buy again.
Oh dear. I just packed a huge bag of coins to my bank and echanged for $54 in paper money! Now, I feel really stupid! DH and I went through the batch lightly and found many old quarters and dimes, not too many pennies. When I come home from the storey what should I start saving for long term keeping?
Cans, bulk staples, spices.
To start.
If those coins were newer than 1964, no big deal. The end of the world isn’t coming but societal disruptions will be. Think “Great Depression” advice. Anyone should have at least 1 month of supplies on hand, the Mormons try for 1 year. More likely is a scenario similar to power being off for a week or so. This book gives practical advice: “Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family” by Arthur Bradley (Amazon). I’m sure there are others similar.
As a follow up to “Remember this from History Class ?”.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dVndVbFC36I
Good song!
Agree with you jd. Maybe xtra good