I saw some one ounce JM and Englehard wafers and a couple of 5ers today. They were $25 ea for the ones and $120 (I think) for the 5ver. Just an small time dealer in an antique mall. He also had 1/10 ounce maple at $1100 per ounce ($110 ea) and a 1/4 ounce maple at $250 ($1000/ounce). The small part ounces are very rare now, of course.
Managed to buy a 2.5 ounce sterling hair brush (approx weight, but no epoxy fill and good gauge, so probably that or a bit more) for $14 (tax in even). The woman on the desk was horrified about Fannie and Freddie nationalization once I explained it to her. This situation IS understandable by the public,,,,except they aren't seeing or noting the news. For every somewhat informative story presented there are 30 that are spin. Most will go down with the Titanic.
I estimated that silver might bottom at $11.50 paper- in a survey - and think I am high at that. I was the lowest, however. We may see single digit again but at the consequence that the US will have lost any remaining credibility in the world. Why would any foreign country (except Canada and Mexico) ship any tangible resources to these markets? I think we will start to see a boycott. WATCH RUSSIA'S RESPONSE!!! After all the US ALSO tried to see them off against the EU during the Georgia invasion. PLUS we (and certainly other countries) have to be accepting the nationalization insult as the real beginning of the default on the dollar. Certainly Brazil and Argentina see this and it is a measure of their ire that they announced this intention. Others will know and slowly withdraw support for the US and its dollar. Why exchange real goods for a currency that is being debased (defaulted upon)? So watch the relatively move to ignore Tbill market too.
So today finds me both outraged and in a sense relieved that the FED has finally told the world what it is going to do. So we should expect that the world will begin to support gold and silver rather more strongly than ever and we will now see a physical market that is going to be competing directly with paper. We are going to be seeing retail supplies withheld, and perhaps some tentative runs on COMEX and LBMA stocks. It will be interesting to see how much support the E.U. provides in the cause of dollar support.....Please understand how livid the Europeans are at the US right now! They have been betrayed and abused at every step of the way and the only reason they cooperate at all with the US FED is that they have some currency credibility problems to support on their own,,,,and this necessitates the same procedure (selling gold) that protects the USD as it does the Euro.
And the US knows this all too well!
But I don't share Coxe's enthusiasm or accolades of brilliance for what the PPT and the FED did to the commodities. I think we will see this in the years ahead as damaging and only short term for a solution.
I think the world is starting to look at the end game fight of the US for it's dollar. And this fight has just begun!
The sub-text for us all is to dump paper assets and get into tangibles. We have always known this. Now we can see why in a much clearer way.