Two of the "top five" of favorites in my collection...

Greetings Collectors,

And fellow "silver lovers". I went to the bank today to drop off some Kennedy halves and decided to pick up a couple of my silver bars to bring home and "play with". (does anyone else have a problem like this?) Everything stays locked up and out of reach so it's only seldom that I get to spend any time doing such as this. I had just picked up the "ultra scarce" 20.41 ounce bar at auction from Alexander Westerfall Smelters & Refiners, a well known refiner out of Mojave Ca. (A&W bars above 12-15 ounces are very scarce/rare) and wanted to grab its 3 little brothers to see what they looked like sitting together. This particular refiner went out of business back in the 1970's. Also picked up from the box, 4 little "old pour" "ultra ultra scarce" "Consolidated Mines & Metals" bars that are also in my "top 5" of favorite refiners of all the "old pour" bars I own. Both of these old silver refiners have bars that seldom come up for auction or sale. When they do, they are "highly" sought after by collectors and carry a fairly large premium above the current "spot price" of silver. Of these two, the CM&M are the rarer by a large margin. One of the 5+ 0z. bars brought over $250 at auction, and this was a couple years ago when the value of silver was in "single digits". There is very "spirited" bidding and interest whenever these Consolidated M&M rear their beautiful head.

I have studied this type of silver collecting a great deal in what is now, coming up on one year that I've been involved in acquiring these types of silver pieces. It is yet, one more collection that has turned out to be, not only very interesting, but exciting as well. They have also been a quite lucrative investment too. I love all types of silver and have bought down through the years, scrap cups, candelabras, platters, flatware etc. and with the sterling, which is usually 925 or 950, it's silver in a more pure form than silver coins that are 900. All types and shapes and kinds of this metal absolutely fascinates me. And for years it has been "dirt cheap".

Those of you that follow the metals, the correction is possibly here a couple weeks sooner than I predicted. The interest rate change in China has caused the dollar to artificially rise thus the fall in gold & silver. I don't believe the bottom is here yet but for those of you that have kept your "powder dry", your opportunity may be at hand.

I hope everyone has had a great week thus far and that your plans for the up-coming weekend are safe & exciting. Continue to have fun with your sets and your collections. Try to "NOT" do what I do, as in constantly questioning one's self as trying to determine whether or not you have a "problem". I know the answer already, and it is "Yes!, we do have a problem, we just can't satisfy the lust and the lure of obtaining that which is tangible".

Happy Collecting!

WKF

P.S. The silver to gold ratio is at 57.299 which is "up" on the week.