Silver Fuchi & Kashira Set from the Bakumatsu Era

Silver Fuchi & Kashira Set from the Bakumatsu Era
Photo Credit: Matsu-Kaze Japan

Silver Fuchi & Kashira Set from the Bakumatsu Era

Buy It Now Price: $285 (price as of 2019; item no longer available)

Pros:

-This solid silver fuchi & kashira set from the 19th century Japanese Bakumatsu era features gilt trim, exquisite decoration and a prominent kamon motif.

-The fuchi in this set measures 42.6 mm (1.68 inches) long by 22.3 mm (0.88 inches) wide.

-The Bakumatsu period was a turbulent time in Japanese history, extending from the arrival of U.S. Commodore Perry’s “Black Ships” in Edo Bay in 1853 until the final collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868.

-Antique Japanese samurai sword fittings, like this silver fuchi & kashira set, are incredibly popular with collectors today.  The fuchi was a metal collar that fit underneath a sword’s tsuba, or hand guard.  The kashira was the butt-end of a sword handle, also known as a pommel in Western parlance.

-This silver fuchi & kashira set is being sold by Matsu-Kaze Japan, a respected antiques dealer located in Japan.  In addition, the set comes in a traditional Paulownia wood case for storage purposes.

-The kashira (pommel) in this set is engraved with a kamon, or family crest, consisting of two crossed feathers within a circle (not visible in the photo above).  Kamon were a visual way to advertize your family connections during the feudal Tokugawa shogunate, when status was often determined by lineage.

-It is rather unusual to find a set of antique Japanese samurai sword fittings constructed from solid silver.  It is more common to find them made from bronze, iron or specialty alloys like shakudo or shibuichi.

-I am of the opinion that antique samurai sword fittings are egregiously undervalued in today’s antique market.  This is particularly puzzling given that Japanese culture is taking over the world via anime and manga.

-Although the seller does not mention its exact weight, this fuchi & kashira set contains a considerable amount of silver and would have been equivalent to at least 4 Bu worth of Japanese silver coins in the 1860s.

-It is shocking to me that you can buy genuine 150 year old samurai sword fittings that have been meticulously hand-crafted from solid silver for less than $300.  This fuchi & kashira set would make a superb investment for the discerning Japanese antique lover or samurai fan!

 

Cons:

-Are you kidding me?  There are no cons here, only upside.  The worst you could possibly argue is that the set would be more valuable if the kamon (family crest) could be identified.  But that seems more like a (future) pro to me, than a con.

 

Read more fascinating Antique Sage Japanese antiques spotlight posts here.

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Do People Know the Value of Physical Assets?

Do People Know the Value of Physical Assets?

Do people understand the value of physical assets?  Or has the very idea of money become so twisted in the modern era that we have lost sight of fundamental value?

Everybody knows that gold, silver, gemstones and other precious materials are valuable – potentially very valuable.  But knowing this tidbit of information from an academic standpoint and truly understanding it in a practical sense are two very different things.

I recently stumbled across a fascinating social experiment video posted by YouTuber Mark Dice.  In the video Mark walks the streets of Encinitas, California (a northern suburb of San Diego), offering to give pedestrians either a free Snickers candy bar or a free 1/10 troy ounce American Gold Eagle coin.

I won’t leave you in suspense.  A depressingly large number of people choose the free candy bar, with a retail value of about $1, over the solid gold coin, with a bullion value of around $140 at the time.

Of course, there were a few canny individuals who scooped up their free gold coin.  Even though Mark skillfully edited out these encounters, you know they happened because he has more or less run out of gold coins by the end of the experiment.

But it is still amazing to note that Mark appears to have given away substantially more candy bars than gold coins!  And this is in spite of the fact that everyone from kindergartners to senior citizens “knows” that gold is valuable.

I recently had my own personal experience with an average person failing to recognize the monetary value of precious metals.

I went garage sale picking and was lucky enough to discover a set of Gorham sterling silver flatware that was attractively priced.  In fact, it was so attractively priced that it was selling for well below bullion value.

But the interesting part of this story is that the woman selling the sterling flatware had clearly labeled it as sterling silver.  She definitely knew that it was solid silver.  And when I showed interest in the set, she declared that she had “looked it up online” to verify it was actually sterling.

In the final analysis, the garage sale woman simply didn’t understand the value of physical assets – in this case, silver.

But these situations got me thinking.  It has been 50 years since the U.S. dollar was linked to either gold or silver.  U.S. silver certificates were last exchangeable for silver in June 1968.  Then President Richard Nixon irrevocably severed the connection between the dollar and gold in August 1971.

Anybody who was born after the mid 1960s has no personal experience with precious metals as money.  This means that about 2/3 of Americans have never lived in a world where gold and silver were considered money.  It is a similar story in other developed nations as well.

So is it any wonder that people have no idea of the value of physical assets?

I don’t believe that the systematic demonetization of gold and silver was a historical accident driven purely by exigent financial circumstances.  Instead, it is apparent that our financial authorities have gone to great lengths to dissociate the entire concept of money from physical commodities like precious metals.

Floating the U.S. dollar has created a consequence-free, spendthrift wonderland for politicians, allowing the Federal Government to run almost continuous deficits since the 1960s.  In addition, this policy has freed the Federal Reserve to pursue progressively easier monetary policies over the decades, culminating in massive interest-free loans for the too big to fail banks during the last financial crisis.

But perhaps the most deleterious side effect of pure fiat money is the distorted perception of value introduced via our serial bubble economy.

At the turn of the millennium, “new economy” tech stocks were assigned absurdly high valuations by the market.  Examples include online retailer Pets.com (now bankrupt) and internet incubator CMGI (now renamed Steel Connect, Inc. and trading for under $2 a share).

During this bubble, gold and silver traded at multi-decade, generational lows.  You could hardly give precious metals away.

After the original tech-bubble burst, the Fed quickly inflated a rebound housing bubble via its infinitely expandable money supply.  Frenzied speculators bid hundreds of thousands of dollars for bare-bones Miami condos and hastily constructed McMansions in the Las Vegas desert.

The housing bubble was even more destabilizing than its predecessor.  When it finally burst, the global economy nearly ground to a halt.  Gold and silver finally caught a bid, although they were still massively undervalued during this time.

But the Fed wasn’t done punishing average people yet.  Unwilling to admit its loose monetary policies were gradually hollowing out the U.S. economy, the Fed embarked on yet another ill-advised bubble-chasing episode.  This time, they flooded the financial markets with unnecessary, counter-productive liquidity via “Quantitative Easing” – another name for money printing.

This created the bubble we are currently living in, which is sometimes called “The Everything Bubble”.  At this point, our concept of money has become so divorced from reality that paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for largely imaginary crypto-currencies seems like a good idea.  Compared to that, buying a share of Amazon for $1,600 or Netflix for $350 appears downright sane, even if it isn’t.

Of course, as in every financial bubble before, physical assets like precious metals and gemstones have been left wallowing in obscurity.  Right now you can buy an ounce of platinum for the same price it was back in 2004 – fully 15 years ago.  Despite the fact that the price of silver has risen by a factor of 3 over the past 20 years, it is still trading near multi-century valuation lows.  The perennially overlooked gemstone spinel – a close cousin to rubies and sapphires – is available for shockingly inexpensive prices.

But most people have been steeped in our modern-day witch’s brew of fiat currencies, bubble economics and manufactured desirability (think Apple’s iPhone) for so long that they no longer understand the monetary value of truly rare physical assets.

I firmly believe that this dynamic will fully reverse one day.  But in the meantime, savvy investors can scoop up tremendously beautiful and desirable physical assets for laughably low prices.

 

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Set of 1960s Enameled Soviet Silver Teaspoons

Set of 1960s Enameled Soviet Silver Teaspoons
Photo Credit: Arezona.store

Set of 1960s Enameled Soviet Silver Teaspoons

Buy It Now Price: $195 (price as of 2019; item no longer available)

Pros:

-Bright cloisonné enamel and lustrous gilding highlight this set of half a dozen vintage Soviet silver teaspoons from the 1960s.

-Each silver-gilt teaspoon measures 4.5 inches (11.5 cm) long and weighs 14.6 grams (0.47 troy ounces).  The total weight of the set is 87.7 grams (2.82 troy ounces).

-These Soviet silver teaspoons feature cloisonné enamel, where individual enamel cells are built up using a wire frame.  Cloisonné is one of the classic types of enamel-work and was very popular in Russia from the time of the Czars straight down to the modern day.

-According to the seller, these teaspoons were made in the major port city of Leningrad (modern-day St. Petersburg) in 1966.  Unfortunately, the photos of the hallmarks are not clear enough to verify this attribution.  However, we can definitively state that these genuine Soviet era teaspoons were fashioned from solid 87.5% silver sometime in the 1960s.

-Use your newfound Marxist credentials to impress your left-wing friends by showing off these mementos from the height of the communist Soviet Empire!

-Although the communist government in Russia banned the production of gold and silver items immediately after the 1917 Revolution, Joseph Stalin soon resurrected silversmithing in 1927.  Rather than simply being reminders of indulgent bourgeois privilege, Stalin decided that silver luxury goods could best be used to reward loyal Party followers.  He established 15 silver workshops spread out over the USSR, creating a thriving Soviet silversmithing industry.

-Vintage Soviet luxury goods are currently substantially undervalued.  This is most likely because our first impression of the former Soviet Union is ugly concrete apartment blocks and long queues in barren stores.  However, not every part of their material culture was subpar – a fact that antique collectors and investors are beginning to wake up to.

-This set of Soviet silver teaspoons would almost certainly have resided in the house of a Communist Party official or someone else who was similarly advantaged.  I doubt the average Soviet citizen would have had access to something so luxurious.

-These Soviet silver teaspoons are still housed in their original fabric-lined box, complete with CCCP emblem!  In addition, the entire set is in perfect condition.  This is rather unusual for enamel work, which has a pronounced tendency to chip.

-Less than $200 for a magnificent set of enameled silver teaspoons from the 1960s glory days of the Soviet Empire?  And housed in its original box, no less?  This is simply a no-brainer in my opinion, especially given the fact that the seller is willing to entertain lower offers.

 

Cons:

-As noted above, the photos of the hallmarks are a bit on the blurry side.  I have absolutely no reason to believe this set of Soviet silver teaspoons is anything other than what it claims to be, but being able to verify it via the hallmarks would have been ideal.

 

Read more fascinating Antique Sage antique silver spotlight posts here.

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The Best Tangible Assets to Stockpile for a Depression

The Best Tangible Assets to Stockpile for a Depression

Looking for the best tangible assets to stockpile or hoard in a case of a depression or financial crisis?  Then read on for the Antique Sage’s unique opinion!

 

Pre-1965 U.S. 90% Junk Silver Coins

Pre-1965 U.S. junk silver coinage is a staple of the prepping industry, and with good reason.  If you’re worried that a massive depression will crash the economy, then this is one of the best physical assets to own.

Until 1964, all circulating U.S. dimes, quarters and half dollars were minted from 90% silver and 10% copper.  Starting in 1965, the U.S. Mint switched over to a copper-nickel sandwich composition, which has little intrinsic value.  This is the same base-metal alloy that is still in use today for these coins.

Each $1 face value of circulated U.S. junk silver coins contain approximately 0.715 troy ounces of pure silver, which is worth around $11.50 with silver trading at just over $16 a troy ounce.  Because of their silver content, pre-1965 silver coins offer a hedge against not only inflation, but also economic hard times.

90% junk silver would be incredibly useful in a depression because it is widely recognized and accepted by the public.  It would be perfect for medium-sized transactions – anywhere from just a few dollars to several hundred dollars – in any situation where physical cash is either unavailable or unacceptable.  And because these old coins are solid silver, no person in their right mind would refuse them.

As an added bonus, it is easy to buy and stockpile 90% junk silver in any quantity you desire, from just a few coins, to $5 or $10 face value rolls, to massive $500 or $1,000 face value bags.

 

Bottles of Hard Liquor

Liquor is one of the more overlooked physical assets that would prove quite useful in hard times.  If you really believe that a severe economic depression is coming, then stockpiling a case or two of your favorite hard liquor might be a good choice.

An unopened bottle of hard liquor will keep for several decades if stored in a cool, dark place.  This applies to pretty much any distilled liquor with a high alcohol content, including whiskey, vodka, rum, bourbon, gin, tequila, and brandy, to name just a few.  Of course, all bets are off if you open a bottle, so no sampling the goods unless you intend to finish the entire thing!

Stashing liquid physical assets of this nature would confer three major benefits.

First, if the economy ever implodes, good quality hard liquor would be in high demand, making it easy to trade for other necessities.  If you need a neighbor, friend or acquaintance to do a favor for you, nothing would grease the gears of commerce quite like a bottle of fine scotch.

Second, any suitably high-proof liquor could be used as a convenient disinfectant in a pinch, which may be important if medical supplies are ever hard to find.  I know this seems insanely improbable right now, but just ask any Venezuelan about the unpleasant things that can happen during a severe economic dislocation.

And finally, regardless of whether the apocalypse arrives on schedule or not, you can always sit down with a bottle from your secret stash and enjoy a stiff glass or two!

 

Pre-1982 U.S. Copper Pennies

Pre-1982 copper pennies might seem like an odd physical asset to squirrel away, but in the context of a severe depression, they make a lot of sense.  Due to their copper content, they have a definitive, easily calculated intrinsic value.  Furthermore, they are not only instantly recognizable, but also readily available (at least for people in the United States).

Most people don’t realize that pennies in the United States are no longer made from copper.  In fact, they haven’t been made from copper since 1982.  That was the year that the composition of the lowly cent was switched over from a traditional 95% copper/5% zinc alloy to a debased, copper-plated zinc core.

It takes about 154 circulated pre-1982 pennies to equal one pound, but copper currently trades for around $2.80 a pound on the commodities market.  This means that each roll of copper pennies (with a face value of $0.50) has a bullion value of close to $1!

Old copper pennies would be perfect for micro-transactions in a financially chaotic world.  It would be superbly easy to slip someone a roll or two of copper pennies in payment for a much-needed good or service.

But best of all, pre-1982 copper pennies can still be found in circulation.  So if you are enterprising and have the time, you can sort through your spare change and pick them out.  Keep this up for 6 months or a year and you will have yourself a considerable penny hoard – one that will be worth more than its face value!  Of course, if you don’t have the time to sort through loose change, you can always buy pre-sorted pennies from an e-commerce platform like eBay.

If you want to learn more about pre-1982 copper pennies, I suggest you read my recent article titled “5 Odd Investments for the Stock Market Skeptic under $100“.

 

Physical Cash

In a depression, cash is king.  Out of all the physical assets you could possibly stockpile in preparation for a systematic financial emergency, cash is probably the best.

Just think.  A well-placed $20, $50 or $100 bill can emphasize the seriousness of your intention far better than any credit or debit card.

Cash, of course, is accepted everywhere in practically all situations.  Furthermore, physical currency can provide you with rare opportunities that no other form of payment can.

For example, I recently went to a garage sale where I purchased a set of sterling silver flatware worth $300 for just $110 in cash.  But if I hadn’t shown up with a stack of $20 bills in my wallet, I never could have closed the deal.

In addition, in a truly widespread economic collapse, normal payment methods might not even be operational.  Credit and debit cards are reliant on monolithic payment networks run by Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.  If these ever go dark for whatever reason (even temporarily), your credit card is an insignificant, useless wafer of plastic.  Oh, and in this scenario, you can forget trying to buy anything online because there would be no way to pay for it!

Euphemistically-named “bank holidays” are another pitfall to consider in the context of a financial crisis.  During a bank holiday, the banking system closes while the government tries to sort through the financial wreckage.  But during this time, depositors do not have access to ACH and wire transfers, and only have very limited access to ATMs.

Basically, if you don’t already have a sizable stash of physical cash on hand before a bank holiday happens, you are out of luck.  So start stacking those C-notes today, while you still can!

 

Read more thought-provoking Antique Sage investing articles here.

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