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Metal Market Report May 2019 - Week 2 Edition

May 2019 - Week 2 Edition

The Best Ability is Availability

“70% of success in life is showing up.” – Woody Allen

“80% of success is showing up.” – Woody Allen

“90% of success is just showing up.” – Woody Allen

  

 

Woody Allen may be a bit confused about the specific number, but his main point is correct. In today’s full employment economy, the simple habit of “showing up” on time and ready to work is in shorter supply.  Or as the saying goes, “the best ability is availability.” 

Of course, “showing up” implies more than just bodily presence. The other 10% to 30% (after showing up) requires an extra level of being totally “there” in any situation. It means 100% participation, focus and concentration. As one coach told me, practice alone doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. 

I’ve learned that in the teams I’ve coached, the classes I’ve taught and the companies I have helped to build and lead. I learned that lesson early in life from my parents, grandparents, church teaching, coaches and life mentors. Showing up applies to all facets of life, not just work. Specifically, I’m proud of our team for “being there” in any local or regional crisis – from hurricane relief to recently cooking for needy children at Boys Haven. It makes our community more cohesive, while bringing vital help to our neighbors in need.

George Washington was “There” – in War and in Peace

One of the many reasons that the American troops in the Revolutionary War revered their General, George Washington, is that he was always there – with them on the cold, muddy battlefields, even when the army often had to be in retreat before the superior power of the British Army.  Washington, a rich planter who could have stayed home or could have stayed in fine quarters, worked and slept near his soldiers for years.

I remember seeing a video about Washington and his troops at the new Philadelphia Museum of the American Revolution. After the film about Washington, the war and his special “oval” tent, the screen rose to reveal his actual tent. It was oval in shape and served as the inspiration for the White House’s Oval Office.

After the war ended, Washington was so popular that the nation wanted him to become King.  To his credit, he resisted that invitation to dictatorial power and resigned after serving two terms, setting the pattern for all future Presidents (except Franklin Roosevelt, that is). In the same way that he stayed by his troops for seven years, he served as President seven years in northern cities (New York and Philadelphia), far from his comfortable home.  In fact, he made reference to that in his first Inaugural, 230 years ago. 

On April 30, 1789, George Washington took the oath of office as our first president on the second-floor balcony of what had been New York’s City Hall. Washington’s first words were a protest – saying that he preferred “a retreat, which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me, by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time,” but he pledged to uphold “the Great Constitutional Charter under which you are assembled and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given.”  

Those final few words should be engraved in stone in the U.S. Congress “Stick to your defined powers.” 

One way to honor Washington is to own one of the first gold coins that were minted during his years as President. The Mint was chartered in his first term, and the first gold coin minted came in his second term, the 1795 $5 gold half eagle.  Any time you can grab a gold coin from those Washington years, be sure to do it.

 

Watch for “Project 20/20” – Finding “Sleeper” Coins Before They Wake Up

We’re starting a Project 20/20, which will be a program for enlightened coin accumulation – targeting the investment bullseye by using even more of a “rifle shot” approach rather than a “shotgun” blast into all types and varieties of coins in a random manner like many sellers do. 

We will begin by bringing you highlights of recommendations in the major types of coins we like most – for their sheer beauty, profit potential and historical importance. We’ll highlight the most “undervalued” or “sleeper” coins, starting with $2.50, $3, $5 and $10 Indians and the $20 Type II and Type III Liberty Double Eagles. 

I still encourage set building as a long-term goal, as sets provide diversification and may result in a set premium of 5-20% in bull markets.  But during coin bull markets – which happens about once per decade – specific “sleeper” coins can rise in value at several multiples over common-date coins or bullion coins. In those once and occasionally twice-a-decade bull markets, which I’ve seen over the last 50 years, rare coins can rise by 100% to 1,100% in just a very few years. 

One consideration will be a coin’s “capitalization,” defined by its value per unit times the population report of known coins in that grade. We will seek out “under-capitalized” values for our customers. 

We will be writing on these coins over time, but you can get ahead of the crowd by calling your account representative and asking about the “rifle” approach over the “shotgun” strategy.

 

Gold Rose Rapidly on Monday

Gold rapidly rose $15 Monday morning, from 8:00 am to about 9:30, then climbed a little higher in the afternoon to close around $1,300. Silver rose from a low below $14.60 to $14.80, the same percentage gain as gold, but silver had been weaker, so the Gold-Silver Ratio expanded to almost 88-1, the highest since 1992. Such a rapid rise in metals usually results from a run on gold as a safe haven in a global crisis or as a hedge against the stock market, which fell 720 points by mid-Monday. The likely cause was China raising tariffs on U.S. goods in retaliation for President Trump raising tariffs on Chinese goods on Friday. China’s severe retaliation caused fears of a trade war, boosting gold.

 

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