Hitting the Estate Sale Circuit

Hitting the Estate Sale Circuit

A few months ago I received an email from my mother that contained sobering news.  My parents close neighbors of more than 41 years, the Miller family, was going to sell their house.  The Miller’s were closing in on 80 years of age and it was time to move to someplace with less maintenance.  They chose a townhouse in a retirement community, where someone else cuts the lawn, fixes the AC and repaints the fence.

This was really the end of an era for my parent’s neighborhood.  My parents were the first ones to move onto their street in November 1977.  But the Miller family was a close second, occupying their house in the spring of 1978.

However, my purpose here isn’t to take you on a trip down memory lane.  Instead I want to talk about what my mother revealed in one of her subsequent emails.  The Miller family was planning on having an estate sale to help clean out their house in preparation for their departure.

As is so often the case in these situations, the Miller’s children had no interest in taking on their parent’s lifetime of accumulation.  I can empathize with this reaction.  My own parent’s house is filled to the gills with junk.  When the time comes, my sister and I have (jokingly) discussed burning it all to the ground rather than sorting through it.

But I’m willing to sift through a substantial amount of trash if there’s some treasure to be found.

And that’s why the Miller’s estate sale was so intensely interesting to me.  An estate sale is simply a public auction or tag sale of more or less the entire contents of a house.  Although any number of motivations can prompt the decision, there are two big reasons to hold an estate sale.  The first is to assist in the liquidation of a deceased person’s household belongings.  The second is to clear out an elderly person’s debris from decades of living when the time comes to downsize.

The Miller’s case was obviously the latter situation.  This meant that their estate sale came with a couple of caveats.  One was that they wouldn’t be selling everything.  A lot of clothing, personal items and sentimentally meaningful things would make the trip with them to their new townhome.  In addition, Mr. and Mrs. Miller would be there in person to either accept or reject any offers made.

In any case, upon hearing the news of an estate sale, I sprung into action.  I immediately compiled and sent a list of items I was interested in to my mother so that she could relay them to Mrs. Miller.  These items will be familiar to any regular reader of my site: vintage jewelry, sterling silverware, mechanical wristwatches, fountain pens, old coins, etc.  Antique, compact and precious is the name of my game and estate sales are often an excellent place to find them.

I was particularly interested in the Miller’s estate sale because it had some auspicious factors that I often look for when antiquing.  Of course, these factors don’t guarantee that I’ll have a successful excursion.  But they sure do increase my odds.

First, I knew from firsthand experience that the Millers had been living in their home for over 40 years.  That means 40 years of stacking things up and rarely cleaning things out.  This is a plus for the antiques enthusiast who wants everything to be as old and as undisturbed as possible.

In effect, you want to be an archeologist peeling back the layers of history.  If you’re lucky, you’ll find a treasure that someone is willing to part with for a reasonable price.

Next, the Millers are a fairly well-to-do family.  This is important because the richer the family, the more likely that they own nice stuff.  And when we are picking, nice stuff is exactly what we are looking for.

This rule of thumb actually applies to other venues besides estate sales.  Garage sales, thrift shops and antique stores all carry a selection of items related to the current and historical wealth specific to that particular geographical area.  Simply put, you want to shop in rich neighborhoods because second-hand shops located in those areas are more likely to have nicer antiques.  Of course, the prices are often higher in the tonier neighborhoods, so it isn’t all upside.

I was also aware that the entire Miller family (kids included) had moved to Great Britain for two years during the late 1980s because of Mr. Miller’s work.  This meant that they had established a functioning household in Europe, complete with the possibility of art, antiques and other precious items.  And it is a near certainty that when the Millers returned to the U.S., they brought back any European bounty they had acquired overseas.

Even if Mr. and Mrs. Miller had no interest in antiques whatsoever, vintage British wristwatches, fountain pens or sterling tableware from the 1970s and 1980s could still be a veritable gold mine.  In fact, my mother did say to me that Mrs. Miller had mentioned old watches and antique English silver, including sterling napkin rings.  Now napkin rings might not be tremendously fashionable items at the moment, but I will not hesitate to buy them with cash money if the price is right.

And this leads us to my parting thoughts.  The erratic, bubble-prone economy of the last two decades has hollowed out the balance sheet of the average American family.  We are getting poorer and poorer as a nation, often regardless of how long or hard we work.

Tangible physical assets like bullion, vintage jewelry, sterling silverware and other antiques are one of the few remaining effective ways to pass wealth from generation to generation.  It is a pity that many older households are flushing their family heirlooms out the door because their adult children don’t want to bother with them.  But, if an estate sale is going to happen anyway, isn’t it better that you and I stand ready with fistfuls of dollars to pick up whatever treasures we can on the cheap?

 

Read more thought-provoking Antique Sage thrifting & antiquing articles here.

-or-

Read in-depth Antique Sage investment guides here.

16th Century Mexican 4 Reales Silver Cob Coin

16th Century Mexican 4 Reales Silver Cob Coin
Photo Credit: EMPEROR’S TREASURE TROVE

16th Century Mexican 4 Reales Silver Cob Coin

Asking Price: $499.99 (price as of 2019; item no longer available)

Pros:

-This late 16th century silver 4 reales cob coin was struck during the reign of Felipe II of Spain between 1556 and 1598 in Mexico City.

-This coin has a weight of 13.69 grams (0.4401 troy ounces) and is minted from 93.05% fine silver.

-Even though this Mexican 4 reales silver coin was struck in the late 16th century, it almost certainly would have circulated during the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean between about 1640 and 1725.  This is because Spanish colonial coinage often remained in circulation for 100 to 200 years after striking during this period.

-This Spanish colonial cob coin is graded XF-40 by NGC (Numismatic Guaranty Corporation).  NGC is a well-respected third-party certification service that guarantees both the grade and the authenticity of the piece.

-The Spanish struck 5 different silver denominations throughout their realms: the 1/2 real, 1 real, 2 reales, 4 reales and 8 reales coins.  The largest of these, the 8 reales, was also known as the infamous “piece-of-eight”.  It was the predecessor coin to the American silver dollar and was widely coveted throughout the New World by both pirates and honest shopkeepers alike.

-Pirates were surprisingly progressive and egalitarian for their time.  The crew elected its own captain (and could un-elect him as well).  Any captured booty was divided fairly among the crew, with the captain generally receiving only 2 to 6 times the share of the average crewman.  They even enjoyed a primitive form of disability insurance, where any pirate crew member injured in action would receive a special payout to compensate him for the loss of a hand, foot or an eye.

-This Mexican 4 reales is a cob coin, which was made by cutting a blank off the end of a roughly-formed silver bar.  The Spanish word for end is “cabo”, hence the English adoption of the term “cob” in reference to this coinage.  The ill-formed lump was then hand-struck between two dies, resulting in a fairly crude coin where major design elements were frequently off the flan.

-As mentioned previously, cob coins are usually very poorly struck.  In addition, it is quite common for them to suffer damage from saltwater immersion (shipwreck coins), cleaning or modification into jewelry.  However, this Mexican 4 reales example is effectively pristine, with a well-formed planchet, excellent centering and good striking.

-Considering the enduring romance of the pirate age (as evidenced by the popularity of movies like Pirates of the Caribbean), cob pieces from the 16th and 17th century are in perennially high demand.  Therefore, I find the $500 asking price for this Mexican silver 4 reales cob coin to be quite fair, especially in light of its excellent state of preservation.  You can verify this by checking recent auction results for similar pieces here.

 

Cons:

-For those purists out there, this silver 4 reales isn’t one of those legendary “piece-of-eight” coins.  Instead, it is a “four-bit” coin – exactly half of a piece-of-eight.  But I hardly consider this a con.

 

Read more fascinating Antique Sage numismatic spotlight posts here.

-or-

Read in-depth Antique Sage rare coin investment guides here.

Pondering Gold Confiscation in the 2020s

Pondering Gold Confiscation in the 2020s
Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The possibility of gold confiscation is every precious metal investor’s worst nightmare.  And this fear is solidly based in historic fact.  During the depths of the Great Depression, President FDR issued Executive Order #6102 on April 5, 1933.  This questionable law required all U.S. citizens to surrender their gold coins, gold bullion and gold certificates to the Federal Government.

This blatant gold confiscation was tantamount to outright theft.  People were given less than a month to comply with the order.  If their gold was not promptly delivered to a Federal Reserve Bank, branch or agency thereof, they could face stiff penalties.  Failure to obey this draconian law carried the threat of a $10,000 fine (a massive amount of money back in the 1930s) along with 10 years imprisonment.  The only realistic exemptions were for gold coins with numismatic value or non-numismatic coins in amounts not exceeding $100 face value (about 4.8 troy ounces).

The Federal authorities even moved to confiscate silver in addition to gold.  On August 9, 1934 FDR promulgated Executive Order #6814, which mandated that all silver bullion be delivered into the coffers of the U.S. Federal Government.  Happily, circulating U.S. silver coins (dimes, quarters, half dollars and silver dollars) were specifically exempted from this executive order to minimize its the disruptive effect on the public.

In practice, very little silver bullion was seized under Executive Order #6814.  Instead, the government passed the Silver Purchase Act of 1934, which included a 50% windfall profit tax on the sale of silver bullion payable via revenue stamps.  This silver bullion tax, which wasn’t repealed until 1963, effectively blunted any speculative impulses towards the noble metal for several decades.

So asking whether gold confiscation (or even silver confiscation) can happen again is something that understandably preoccupies many of today’s precious metal investors.  And the United State’s steadily deteriorating fiscal condition certainly suggests it could be a possibility sometime before the end of the 2020s.

 

Vintage U.S. Silver Tax Revenue Stamps for Sale on eBay

(This is an affiliate link for which I may be compensated)

 

Right now U.S. Federal debt is a mind-blowing $23 trillion, well on its way to $40-something trillion by 2030.  State and local debt, although smaller in absolute terms, is still precariously inflated.  We could see those municipal debts double from today’s $3 trillion to perhaps $6 by 2030.

Federal entitlement spending (primarily Social Security and Medicare) is perhaps the worst debt bomb of all, with an estimated unfunded liability somewhere between $47 and $210 trillion, depending on who you want to believe.  And the political will to reform entitlement programs simply does not exist in Washington at the current time.  This means that meaningful change will only realistically come via a financial crisis of some description.

And don’t even get me started on the stock market, which is currently experiencing the largest bubble in all of human history.  Being priced to perfection, the equities markets are incredibly vulnerable to a synchronized crash that would devastate Federal tax revenue.

So as the 2020s progress, it is obvious that some sort of financial calamity, or series of financial calamities, will almost certainly occur.  Under these circumstances, it is not so far-fetched to believe that the U.S. government could once again seek to solve its financial problems via gold confiscation.  After all, relatively few households own significant quantities of gold, silver or platinum at the moment (although that might change as average people realize just how bleak our national fiscal situation is).  So seizing precious metals would have the political advantage of filling government coffers while only directly impacting a minority of the populace.

Having said that, I think there will be a specific order to any gold confiscation, if it were to occur.  Our current crop of sleazy politicians may be corrupt narcissists, but they aren’t chumps.  They understand that some forms of precious metal seizure will play better in the public arena than other types.  Keeping this in mind, I’ve constructed a list of gold confiscation targets in the probable order they would occur:

 

1) Precious Metal ETFs

Precious metals held by ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) are the logical first step in any gold confiscation scenario.  ETFs are stock-like vehicles held in brokerage accounts by speculators, traders and investors.  But almost everyone buying gold ETFs is interested in paper profits, not actual physical ownership of gold.

This is just as well, because it is an open question as to just how much physical gold these ETFs actually hold.  A large portion of their purported precious metal holdings may simply be paper futures contracts or other incorporeal gold derivatives.

Regardless, when the time comes it will be easy for politicians to mandate the seizure of any ETF-linked physical precious metal holdings.  As long as any seized gold is immediately replaced with piles of freshly printed fiat money, everything will remain copacetic.  Most people who own these ETFs won’t complain, provided they realize a paper profit.

 

2) Commodity Exchange Warehouses

The U.S. commodity exchanges, like the COMEX, CBOT and NYMEX, all have warehoused silver, gold and platinum that they use to back futures contracts traded on their platforms.  The ostensible purpose of these commodities marketplaces is to allow miners, recyclers and industrial consumers to hedge their precious metal exposure in a convenient paper contract.

But in reality, the futures market is a cesspool of speculators, gamblers and manipulators, with very few legitimate users.  In addition, only a tiny fraction of futures contracts are physically settled; up to 98% of contracts settle with cash instead.  This is fortuitous in a perverse way because the physical precious metal holdings stored in the commodity exchange warehouses represent a miniscule percentage of the outstanding paper contracts at any given point in time.  In other words, there are far more gold future contracts than there are gold bars to delivery into them – yet another prime example of modern day institutionalized financial fraud.

Consequently, it would be fairly simple to decree a gold confiscation edict focused on the commodity exchanges.  There would be very little blowback from a public relations perspective and only a relatively small number of real industrial participants would be impacted.  But it is an open question just how much physical gold the government could derive from this move.

 

1/2 Troy Ounce Gold Bullion Coins for Sale on eBay

(This is an affiliate link for which I may be compensated)

 

3) Mining Companies

I would like to preface this by saying that I believe the seizure of gold mining companies to be rather unlikely.

However, mining companies would be the next rational target for a resource-starved government contemplating gold confiscation.  Unlike with ETFs and commodity exchanges, we know for a fact that gold miners actually possess sizable quantities of physical gold, albeit locked in the ground.  A gold confiscation applied to gold mining companies could take a number of varied forms, not all of which would be obvious theft.

For example, politicians could mandate that all domestically domiciled miners sell their production exclusively to the government for a predetermined (almost certainly below-market) price.  Or the government could demand that miners issue them a “golden share”, which would entitle the holder to a significant ownership interest in the underlying company (perhaps 10% to 25%) along with a veto on any undesirable corporate activity (like fleeing offshore).  The government could even outright nationalize gold miners, buying out former shareholders with rapidly depreciating fiat currency.

There are a lot of different directions a bankrupt government could take here that would only raise a moderate amount of dissent, making this a reasonably attractive proposition.

 

4) Private Bullion Dealer Inventories

Now we are beginning to really scrape the bottom of the barrel in terms of gold confiscation.  Once the government has raided precious metal ETFs, commodity exchange warehouses and mining companies, it becomes much harder to get more gold without looking like an insatiable, thieving monster.

Nevertheless, a further possibility is the inventories of private bullion dealers.  These would be the holdings of retail-facing companies like KITCO (yes, I know they’re Canadian, but some of their gold is stored in the U.S.), APMEX, Provident Metals and JM bullion.  These companies undoubtedly hold substantial quantities of physical precious metals, so a destitute government might be tempted to seize their inventory.

But the public opinion blowback would be substantial, in my opinion.  These are not massive, unethical corporations or unsympathetic, day-trading speculators.  These are small-to-mid-sized, privately-held companies that operate on paper-thin margins to provide everyday people reasonably-priced access to gold and silver bullion.  Subjecting them to a gold confiscation edict would be like sending up a signal flare letting the public know that the government is (eventually) coming for their personal precious metals stash.

 

5) Gold IRAs

Now things get downright ugly.  If the government has churned through all its other options, it might resort to seizing physical precious metals held in self-directed gold IRAs.  On the upside (from the government’s perspective), there is actually real gold and silver held in these accounts, not paper contracts.  On the downside, there is probably not very much gold or silver in these accounts in aggregate, at least not when compared to some of the juicier gold confiscation options higher up on this list.

But most importantly, the optics of a precious metal nationalization involving gold IRAs would be abysmal.  The government would be outright robbing small investors who are trying to save for their retirement.  It would be utterly impossible to spin this public relations disaster in any kind of a positive way, so I think it would definitely be a last resort.

 

Pre-1933 Semi-Numismatic U.S. Gold Coins for Sale on eBay

(This is an affiliate link for which I may be compensated)

 

6) Foreign Central Bank Reserves Held in Custody

Another potential target for gold confiscation would be foreign central bank reserves held in the New York Federal Reserve’s high security underground vault in downtown Manhattan.  Although the Fed does not disclose exactly how much gold it holds in custody or who owns it, as of 2016 there was an estimated 6,000 metric tons of gold in the New York Fed’s vaults.

The largest holders are believed to be the IMF (International Monetary Fund) at around 2,000 tonnes, followed by Germany at 1,347 tonnes, Italy at 1,000 tonnes and the Netherlands at 190 tonnes.  Other minor holders are thought to be Sweden, Finland, Greece, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Ghana, the BIS (Bank for International Settlements) and the European Central Bank.

A gold confiscation that seized these holdings would have major international repercussions, which is why I’ve placed it so low on my list.  Having said that, if the U.S. government was desperate enough, they might consider seizing gold held in custody for one or more smaller countries.  The aggrieved nations would have no recourse other than to lodge a token diplomatic protest.

Another possibility is the confiscation of IMF and BIS gold holdings if the international trade/monetary system were to utterly implode during a future financial crisis.  Under this scenario there would presumably be less of an international outcry as these institutions would have outlived their political usefulness.  It’s also possible that this form of gold confiscation could actually happen before gold IRAs were seized, depending on geopolitical circumstances.

 

7) Private Gold Holdings

The surrender of private gold holdings by ordinary citizens is the Big Kahuna – the gold confiscation that precious metal investors everywhere dread the most.  This is the type of confiscation that occurred during the 1930s.  However, I don’t think it is very realistic today.

For one thing, I don’t think it would be remotely enforceable.  Even back in the 1930s, there were many, many people who simply did not turn in their gold coins.  And there was only ever a single Federal prosecution under Executive Order #6102, which resulted in an acquittal (although the gentleman did lose his gold).

Today’s average citizen trusts the government far less than the everyman of the 1930s.  A mere trickle of gold would make its way into government coffers if a modern-day, blanket gold confiscation law was promulgated.  All the gold currently in private hands would simply disappear into basements, closets and safe deposit boxes.

And things would turn ugly in a hurry if the government pressed the issue.  A systematic search of safe deposit boxes for gold would turn the public virulently against the entire banking system, undermining the government’s already precarious financial situation even further.  If an even more heavy-handed gesture were implemented – like Federal agents being sent door-to-door to seize gold – open revolt would undoubtedly spread throughout large swathes of the country.

The outcome of a renewed nationalization of private gold holdings would be so bad that I don’t think any government would be stupid enough to try it.  Of course, if the U.S. government were flat broke and desperate, no one knows just how dumb they might get.  That’s one reason why some precious metal investors still buy pre-1933 semi-numismatic U.S. gold coins.  These older coins would presumably have a numismatic exemption from any theoretical future gold confiscation.

 

Read more thought-provoking Antique Sage editorial articles here.

-or-

Read in-depth Antique Sage investment guides here.


Vintage 1938 Mordan Everpoint Fountain Pen

Vintage 1938 Mordan Everpoint Fountain Pen
Photo Credit: Fountain Pen Emporium

Vintage 1938 Mordan Everpoint Fountain Pen

Asking Price: $223.48 (price as of 2019; item no longer available)

Pros:

-A sterling silver barleycorn pattern barrel and solid 14 karat gold nib are key features of this 1938 Mordan Everpoint fountain pen from pre-World War II Britain.

-This vintage Mordan fountain pen measures a compact 3.7 inches (9.3 cm) long when capped.

-Sampson Mordan founded the eponymous firm of S. Mordan & Co. in 1824 in London.  The company manufactured a range of small gold and silver items, but specialized in mechanical pencils under the “Everpoint” patent/copyright.  The firm was succeeded by Mr. Mordan’s sons after his death at the age of 53 in 1843.

-This 1930s Mordan Everpoint fountain pen carries the appropriate hallmarks for its time, including the lion passant (indicating the sterling standard), the uncrowned leopard’s head (London) and the letter “C” (1938).

-S. Mordan & Co. flourished from the mid 19th century through the early 20th century.  Unfortunately, the company ceased trading in 1941 after its primary factory was flattened by the German Luftwaffe during the London Blitz.  After this debacle, its patents were sold off and the firm was formally liquidated in 1952.

-This fine old fountain pen comes in its original box, which is labeled on the inside with “Mordan Everpoint” and “London Made”.

-This Mordan Everpoint fountain pen has a solid 14 karat (or “14 carat” in British parlance) gold nib.  Solid gold nibs are highly prized by vintage pen collectors because of their superior writing characteristics compared to cheaper steel nibs.

-This is the sort of pen that sometimes gets overlooked because it isn’t from a big brand name like Montblanc, Parker or Waterman.  But the true pen aficionado will understand that the $223 asking price of this vintage English fountain pen is easily justified by its high build quality and bold 1930s styling.  Mordan Everpoints were very good, very expensive pens in their time.

 

Cons:

-I wish the seller had taken better photos of the hallmarks and the nib.  That would have helped confirm some of the pen’s details.  But in spite of this drawback, there isn’t any evidence that a single piece of this fountain pen has been altered or repaired.

 

Read more fascinating Antique Sage vintage pen spotlight posts here.

-or-

Read in-depth Antique Sage vintage pen & pencil investment guides here.