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ERASE a Sey AEE - [ > pan = dohe 0 Ion FE CLAY, fie: o od we 2 ZAR STO RTE 8 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Wed., October 24, 1979 Demand is pushing price up and up Silver coins worth their weight in gold Just above everyone knows what has happened to the price of gold in recent months. The glamorous metal has been in the headlines almost daily as the price has climb- ed and climbed and climbed, and is now hovering in the $400 (U.S.) per ounce range. va While gold makes the headlines, the price of silver has been moving upwards as well, making Canadian and American coins with silver content a very attractive investment. One coin dealer in the Scugog W With interest rates likely to go up again, some anal- ysts feel that gold will hit $500 an ounce in the not too distant future. While gold has been grabb- ing the headlines, and carr- ies with it a certain aura of mystery and intrigue, shrewd investors are also Thinking of NEW CARPET? 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Here is an example of the price increase. Last March, a bag of silver ($1000 face value of Canadian silver coins) was fetching about ceiling is a long way from being reached. RT TI ATEN TY YR PD Tw ce Deer killed on road Newcastle OPP reports that two deer were killed at Highway 7A and thé Caesar- ea Road in separate acci- dents last week. On October 16, a deer was struck and killed when it ran in front of a car, and three days later a doe was also killed when hit by a car. Damage to the cars in both accidents was minor, and there were no injuries reported to the occupants of the vehicles. A spokesman for New- castle OPP says there have been several accidents invol- ving deer on the highways this fall, and about a month ago, one was killed on High- way 7A near Nestleton. $4750. Today, that same bag * of silver is worth in the neighbourhood of $8000, an increase close to 100 per cent. George Hicks, an electri- cian who lives in the Nestle- ton area, has been "dabb- ling" in silver coins for more than a decade. This past month, he has advertised locally for silver coins, and he is willing to pay a minimun.of seven times over face value for any Canadian silver coin minted prior to 1967. Mr. Hicks told the Star that the demand for silver coins today is so strong that big dealers can't fill the orders fast enough for $1000 face value bags of silver coins. And he predicts that the price will continue to go up, possibly to 15 times over face value by the end of this year. Like gold, the price of silver has fluctuated widely. Just three weeks ago, for example, some dealers were offering to buy silver dollars for $10, but that has slipped back to a little under $9 now. Why has the price of silver taken off recently? For the ~ same reasons that gold is selling for more than $400 an ounce. There is a lack of confidence in paper curren- cies which are losing their value to inflation. People are looking for an-invest- ment which will at least keep them ahead of the inflation rate. And then there is the mys- tique. Gold, silver, jewells, or other precious metals seem to give a better sense of security than stock or bond certificates, which really are just pieces of paper with numbers on them. Mr. Hicks says that as far as he is concerned, silver coins have an added attract- ion: no matter what happens to the price of silver, a coin will always be worth at least its face value. From 1920 to 1966, the Canadian dime, quarter, half dollar contained .80 silver, and prior to that had .92 WE ONLY 00 WHAT WE DO BEST \1V \seh silver content. In 1967, the silver content was reduced to 50 per cent, and since then no silver has been used in stan- dard issue coins. The Canad- ian mint continued to turn out silver dollars, but they were. available only at a premium price. After the pre-1967 coins went out of circulation and the price of silver began to climb, those coins quickly disappeared off the market. Today, it is rare to find a pre-1967 coin in change. A lot of those coins were gathered up by collectors who sold them out of the country. As the price of silver continued to rise, the coins were melted down for their silver content, and that in itself has helped to in- crease their value today. Aside from the silver cont- ent value of the coins, there are certain dates which have a numismatic value to coll- ectors. Because of a low turn out by the mint that year, they have always been in short supply. A 1948 silver dollar, for example, is very rare, and one in' reasonable condition will fetch $400. coins minted in 1945 and 1938 also have a collectors value because of their scarcity. The 1966 silver dollar with "small beads" around the edge of the coin is even more rare, and is worth about $1200 today. Mr. Hicks admits he has a personal preference for col- lecting silver dollars, but he is sold at the moment on all silver coins. In fact, he says that if he had his choice today between $1000 worth of gold or the same value in silver, he would take the latter. He cites a deal he made not too long ago when he sold 100 silver dollars for $5.25 each. "I'm kicking myself now over that one," he says with a smile. "At the time I thought it was a good price. But a couple of months later, the same coins were selling for almost double that." "With silver, you just don't know what might happen." ALL TYPES - ALL MAKES [PHILIPS MODULAR-4 SERVICING STEREOS & HI-FI'S 214 BLOORE. OSHAWA Need A Car Rent A Ford * LOW DAILY RATES ® RENT BY THE DAY, WEEK OR MONTH ® PICK-UP & DELIVERY AVAILABLE Ww