So these countries that want to do less business and dollars are having a hard
time doing that. But what they can do is buy gold as fast as
they want to, and that's what they are doing because gold and a vault
can't be sanctioned. And over the last ten years, central banks have been
buying about five hundred tons of gold a year. In the last two years
they've double that to over a thousand tons, And this to me is really
material at the margin, and I do think that this is what's helping to
drive this gold market higher and what has caught the experts off guard. You
are listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network, where you get valuable information you
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and welcome. You aren't listening to and watching the Financial Survival Network. I'm
your host, Carrie Lutz. Well, our good friend Data Samuelson is with
us from American Gold Exchange. You find him at a mirror a M E
R Goold dot com and Hey, if you got a question, comment,
or you got something you'd like to share, just shoot me an email kl
at Carrie LUTs dot com. Dana, it's great to have you back on
the show. I wish I could say a lot happened between now and the
last time you were on, but not a whole heck of a lot.
It's we're back to the normal precious metal markets where pretty much you're watching paint
dry. Well, nothing's really normal these days, Carrie. But yeah,
we're in a consolidation phase where things are a little quiet after a really exciting
March and April into May for precious metals, right, So is this just
a little reprise, a little pit stop along the way to five thousand?
What's your take here? Oh? I think that gold the fundamentals that are
driving gold, there's a lot of them that are all in place at the
same time right now, which is unusual. And I do think we're going
to see gold go substantially higher over time, and a double from here is
entirely likely over the next couple of years. I'm argeting right now twenty seven
to fifty to three thousand over the next twelve to twenty four months myself.
Hey, well, you know, like when you see the headlines on the
mainstream financial news, they always say experts surprised about gold sudden increase. You
know, the experts are always taken by surprise. If there's such experts,
why are they surprised at anything? Correct, Well, markets make moves you
don't expect sometimes. But as I said earlier, we've got a lot of
drivers all in place at the same time. Fundamentally, you've got debt which
is just ever increasing, especially in the US, and that's the main big
picture driver over the last twenty years. Now, we've got two wars going
on, so gold climbs the wall of worry. And it happened to peak
coincidentally or not not coincidentally, with Iran and Israel exchanging direct shots for the
first time ever in April. Thank god, we walked back from that a
bit. You've got the potential for a US recession and falling treasure yields and
falling interest rates and perhaps some more economic stimulus, which I think could give
the gold market a real big tailwind if and when that occurs. And I
do think a recession is in the cards for the US consumer spending is seventy
percent of the economy, and the consumer is pretty stretched out right now with
record debt and record low savings and who else. Who knows what other wild
cards might be out there right now. And that's everything you mentioned there.
None of that really qualifies as a black swan here. Imagine if a black
swan gets mixed into the equation exactly. But it's unusual to see all of
these things coming together at the same time in the same place. And I
didn't even mention records central bank gold buying. You know, central banks have
doubled their gold buying over the last two years. They want to get out
of the dollar of the countries that are afraid of being sanctioned by the US,
like we sanctioned Russia after they invaded the Ukraine. So there's this big
d dollarisation movement, but practically it can't really happen because there's no viable alternative
to the dollar. The dollars entrenched in the financial system. So these countries
that want to do less business than dollars are having a hard time doing that.
But what they can do is buy gold as fast as they want to,
and that's what they are doing because gold and a vault can't be sanctioned.
And over the last ten years, central banks have been buying about five
hundred tons of gold a year. In the last two years they've double that
to over a thousand tons, And this to me is really material at the
margin, and I do think that this is what's helping to drive this gold
market higher and what has caught the experts off guard. Yeah, so golden
of all can't be sanctioned, and that's another kind of way of just saying
that there's no counterparty risk here. Exactly. That's gold's greatest attribute. It's
got no counterparty risk. So you think it's a bargain here at to twenty
three twenty and change, Well, I do think that we are in a
bull market that's going to continue. And it's a little hard to wrap your
head around buying something at an all time high, but when you think the
market's just going to keep going higher, I do believe it's a good deal,
especially at around twenty three hundred. If we get a little cheaper,
I think there'll be a lot of buying coming in at the first If the
numbers are twenty two something, I do think silver, Yeah, I do
like silver better as an investment at these levels because gold it's about fifteen percent
above its previous all time high in twenty eleven, while silver is about thirty
percent, still under its previous two all time highs and right around fifty dollars
announce in about twenty nine to fifty today, Silver to me seems to be
the better value because silver lags and then plays ketchup, and when it plays
ketchup, it tends to do so with a vengeance. So we see that
a couple times over the last four or five years, and it's but right
now it's it's in a bit of consolate of a consolidation phase, just like
gold is. How far do you think silver can go? Oh, I
think silver could easily get over forty dollars. In fact that this gold price,
I'm surprised silver isn't already over forty dollars. I think forty to forty
five is a range I'm targeting in my own mind. So you're thinking triple
digits here, I do think sixty to seventy five dollars silver is entirely possible.
Triple digits is a bit of a stretch for me. I don't like
to look too far over the horizon, because things can change. But I
do think, you know, one hundred dollars silver is entirely possible given enough
time. Really one hundred dollars yeah, well it could go even higher than
that, right, I mean when you start thinking about what's in the ground
and the fact that you know, we're in silver deficit now, right right,
Yeah, for the last two years, we've been in a fundamental supply
deficit where the world's consuming more silver than it's mining, and there's a lot
of silver use in EVS solar panels, so that demand factor is likely to
increase. And silver is not really an economical metal to mine. It usually
comes as a byproduct of other metals, as mars, I remember, if
I remember correctly, so, I do think silver is a better Yeah,
around thirty bucks an ounce. That's a great deal right now. Usually it's
a byproduct of copper and other base metals. Of course, certain countries like
Mexico, Peru, a few others. You know, there's a few pure
silver mines still kicking around. There's a few under development out there, but
like you say, generally not that economical unless you're talking at about Bonanza grades,
you know, like kilo pertn silver. Then it becomes very economical.
You know, some of the largest silver mines in the US have been shut
down over the years for that very reason. So it's going to be interesting
to see if silver rises again. Certainly at one hundred dollars an ounce,
it becomes very economical to produce. Right, We'll see some greater a lot
greater exploration if number gets that high. All right, So when we're looking
at you know, how you buy it, what's your favorite means of buying
it? I mean, I know that depends upon your your particular circumstances,
but somebody just getting into it Joe sixpack, for instance. I'm a physical
precious metals dealer. National Physical Precious Metals Mail order Company is my business.
So we deal in the sovereign minted one ounce coins, which are really just
round bars made by the US Mint, Canadian Mint, Austria, and Mint.
Those are the big three, both in one ounce gold and one ounce
silver. I call them vanilla, chocolate and strawberry simply because of their most
widely traded, competitively priced, and easiest to sell when you want to sell
what you've already purchased. I favor the US mint products over the Canadian and
the Austrian But we've had situations over the last few years when demand has been
really strong in the US, mint cannot eep ace with demands, so we've
seen premiums higher for US ounces of gold and silver US eagles than we have
for maple leafs and philharmonics. And when that's the case, I say buy
the cheaper of the three alternatives. That's what I truly like the most.
So you know, there's a lot of fake stuff out there, fake gold,
counterfeit bars, counterfeit rounds, and the same with silver. I've even
heard recently some of them popping up. It's the best way to avoid fakes.
Deal with a long standing dealer who's been in business for decades. You
know, I'm an old timer. Deal with someone who's got a lot of
experience. Do not buy on auction online platforms or through private chat groups.
That's really where most of the trouble is. I'm a member of the Professional
Numismatists Guild, which is the leading organization of rare coin dealers in the country.
In fact, I was pressed of the Professional Numismatist Guild when this Chinese
counterfeiting problem came to light, and I helped to conceive of and establish the
Industry Anti Counterfeiting Task Force that today works with Homeland Security and Secret Service to
interdict shipments of fake precious metals items coming in from China. A real dealer
that really knows what he's doing can spot fakes a mile away. They're so
far different than the sovereign minted products. It's easy for us to see the
difference. But if you're not used to looking at these metals, you could
be fooled. And this is why I don't really recommend refinery made bars one
ounce gold bars or silver one ounce bars in particular, primarily gold bars actually,
because the Chinese can replicate those more readily. The designs are less intricate,
and they're easier for the Chinese to pass off a bad hungsten core bar
plated by gold. Uh. The sovern Mints have added tiny, little minute
design elements into their striking features of the coins to make it harder for the
Chinese to knock them off to replicate them. So the soverer mints are trying
to defend their own product. Uh. So what if somebody comes to you
with some rounds, say some silver rounds is you know, I've heard even
that they're replicating the weight now almost precisely in these fakes. Right, we
have ways of testing them to make sure they're real silver. We have density
measuring devices. Uh, there's a couple other little tricks that we have.
You know. One thing is sound. You know what, I go through
inventory that I have not sold that I'm buying back by buying from someone.
These coins that are pure silver have a very specific ring to them. Pay
man. I can hear it to literally hear it when they hit each other.
The ping test. Yeah, yeah, well it's just ding ding ding
versus funk funk funk. Yeah. So what about those guns, those X
ray guns? Those are good. Yeah, XRF guns are good, but
their cost prohibitive. They cost about twenty grand and they're a bit of an
overkill unless you're doing a lot of buying of metal that you really don't know
what it is, I mean, purity wise, like jewelry other things.
But they're good for testing for fakes as well. And scanners too, any
scanners you like out there. Well, there's one device that we use as
an industry called the Sigma SYGM and a Yeah, we use the Sigma device
mostly and a lot of it's just looking at coins and knowing what's you know,
I've seen hundreds and thousands and millions of ounces of gold and silver,
so I just know what the various mints products look like, sound like,
feel like, yeah, feel like too. And it's kind of like a
bank teller when they get those counterfeit bills, they feel so many you know,
like you say, millions of dollars of currency going through their hands and
then it just hits their hits their figure tips and they just instantly know.
So that expertise is a good reason to buy from a accredited, acknowledged source
like yourself, right right. And there's a lot of good dealers around the
country in the US that RP and G members professional and Mismatistic Guild members.
We tend to be the leaders in the industry with the most experience. Yeah,
I bought from you many many years ago. I haven't bought metals much
in the recent years, no need to, but you know I bought from
you probably back around two thousand and eight or nine ten in that area,
so very happy with the service. They just tell us, Dania, Dana,
where we find you, how we connect with you on the web.
Find out more about about your company. So again, we're American Gold Exchange.
Where willis We're in based Boston, Texas. We're in our twenty sixth
year this year. Website is a M E R g O l D dot
com. People can email us at info I n f O at A M
E R G O l D dot com. Phone numbers eight hundred six one
three nine three two three if you'd like to give us a call. All
right, excellent. Hey, really appreciate you coming on data again and uh
talking about this. I think a lot of valuable info there. If you've
got a question for Data myself, shoot me an email KL at Carrie Lets
dot com. The link to data sites and the show that's this interview on
Financial Survival Network dot com. And while you're there, please sign up for
our free newsletter at Data. Always a pleasure. Thanks for the info.
Thank you, Kerry. Great to see you again. Thanks for listening to
Carrie Lets's financial service Bible network your solution to today's trying times. For the
latest, go to Financial Survivalnetwork dot com. Financial Survival Network now more than ever