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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Personal Finance / Macroeconomic Trends & Risks
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Author: OrmontUS   😊 😞
Number: of 4460 
Subject: In case you haven't noticed
Date: 12/23/25 9:06 PM
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I don't consider gold as an investment in the traditional sense, but it does form a tranche of my overall net worth.

Various miners do form a reasonable chunk of my equity portfolio.

Today:

Gold at $4,534 per troy oz

Silver at $72.48 per troy oz

While US pennies nickels and dimes ain't worth squat, those old silver quarters are approaching a $20 bill in just their metallic content.

Back when I was a kid, some US banknotes were "Federal Reserve Notes" and some were "Silver Certificates" which could be exchanged for .77+ oz of silver per dollar. As the practice was coming to an end, in 1968, I took 22 one dollar bills to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (a subway ride from my high school) and ended up with a plastic bag full of about 17 ounces of silver. It's in some drawer, somewhere, but is now worth $1,228 or an increase of 55X.

That said, I picked up a US $20 gold piece (about .97 troy oz of gold) in Amsterdam in 1973 for about $75 (it was still technically illegal to own one in the US). That has appreciated about 59X

Not quite apples to apples, but both seem to have performed pretty well compared to inflation.

Jeff
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