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For those of you who are ultra-conservative with money like I am, you should consider purchasing gold and silver as part of your investment/savings strategy. Precious metals will hold their value when paper currencies like the US dollar lose value. For example, 80 years ago you could buy a real nice suit for one ounce of gold. The same holds true today for the most part. You can't say the same thing about a hundred dollar bill. 80 years ago you could buy lots of stuff with $100 dollars that you can't buy today.
You can purchase gold and silver coins at most coin shops. Just lookup in the phone book or online in your city for a coin dealer and you'll be good to go. You should also take cash with you as most coin shops will charge you a fee to use a credit or debit card. One last thing, if you plan on purchasing more than $10,000 worth of precious metals, you should be aware that transactions over $10,000 are reported the IRS. Better to make multiple transactions under that amount over a period of time in my opinion to avoid the report.
There are other hedging strategies that don't involve purchasing precious metals. You can read about them here: www.helpmefinancial.com/article/1863125416/hedging-against-inflation
Dec 7: Due to shortage of physical gold, the US Mint has now suspended ALL sales of 1 ounce gold coins.
What does this mean exactly? Well, I'm sure their are several interpretations. The simple one is that there are more and more people purchasing physical gold and keeping it. I suspect that the reasons people are doing this vary, but probably fall into one of two categories:
1. They don't think the US dollar will hold value, meaning that they would rather have physical gold than paper money. They do this to preserve value.
2. They think gold is going to be a good investment. They will hold the gold until it rises and they can make a profit on it.
Additional details can be found here http://mineweb.co.za/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page34?oid=94091&sn=Detail
Nov 25: Due to high demand, the US Mint's inventory of 1-ounce gold eagle coins has been depleted. Sales are expected to resume again in early December.
Additional details can be found here http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page34?oid=93608&sn=Detail
I love Peter Schiff. He's very down-to-earth, reasonable and believable. Here is a short interview he did for Fox Business News on 23Nov09.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/search-results/m/27535945/good-as-gold.htm#q=peter+schiff+gold